CONFERENCE: Legal Manuscripts in the Frankish World and the Transformation of Early Medieval Legal Cultures (8th-11th Centuries) (Köln: University of Cologne, 16–17 SEPT 2024)

(Image source: University of Cologne)

The codicological turn has been a game-changer in studying early medieval legal cultures over the past 40 years. The pioneering work of Hubert Mordek, Rosamond McKitterick, and others has shown that legal manuscripts were unique collections of texts, sometimes fragmentary and marred by scribal errors, but always connected to specific interests and local production conditions. This shift has led historians to turn from studying texts presented in critical editions to studying texts transmitted in manuscripts. The enormous increase in digitized manuscripts has further reinforced this “whole-book approach” in recent years. Today, it is no longer possible to conduct research into the legal history of the early Middle Ages while ignoring where and when individual manuscripts were created and transmitted. The whole-book approach is a method that underpins our international research collaboration that lasted for four years and materialized in biannual Zoom meetings. In taking an interdisciplinary approach, historians, legal historians, and art historians from Germany, Austria, France, Italy, the U.S.A., and Japan have analysed individual early medieval law manuscripts of the Carolingian empire, where Roman, Frankish, and other legal traditions coexisted and became deeply influenced by ecclesiastical law. This conference is the second of two concluding events — the first having occurred at the University of Tokyo in March 2024 – and will try to enhance our understanding by working on a typology of early medieval legal manuscripts.

PROGRAMME

Monday, 16th September

• 9:00-9:10 Stefan Esders: Introduction. Towards a typology of early medieval law manuscripts

Session 1: The usefulness of ancient texts

• 9:10-10:00 François Bougard: Isidore of Seville: The toolbox of early medieval legal manuscripts
• 10:30-11:20 Luca Loschiavo: The medieval life of the Collatio legum Mosaicarum et Romanarum. Around the Possible (and Targeted) Sending of Roman Law Texts from Rome towards the Frankish Kingdom

Session 2: Legal Pluralism

• 11:20-12:10 Shigeto Kikuchi: King, law and ordeal: Paris, BnF, Lat. 4628 as a lawbook
• 13:30-14:20 Helmut Reimitz: Patterns of legal pluralism: Histories of law in Paris, BnF, Lat. 10758

[Transfer to Düsseldorf] 17:30 Book presentation at the Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts in Düsseldorf (for invited guest only)

Tuesday, 17th September

Session 3: Canon law manuscripts

• 9:30-10:20 Rosamond McKitterick: Einsiedeln, Stiftsbibliothek MS 191 and its implications
• 10:20-11:10 Till Stüber: From Carthage to Bavaria. Observations on the canonical mss. of Freising (Munich clm 6243) and Würzburg (M.p.th.f.146)

Session 4: Exceptional compilations

• 11:40-12:30 Osamu Kano: Tours or the royal court? On the origin of the manuscript Paris, BnF, Lat. 2718
• 13:30-14:20 Britta Mischke: Lupus’ Liber legum in the Mainz legal compendium Gotha Memb. I. 84

Session 5: A case study from different angles: St Gall 731

• 14:20-15:10 Beatrice Kitzinger/Jennifer Davis: Integrating Text and Image: A Case Study of the Wandalgarius Codex
• 15:40-16:30 Grigorii Borisov: Revisiting the law book of Uuandalgarius: A paleographer’s point of view
• 16:30-17:00 Karl Ubl: Conclusion and final discussion

More information can be found here.