The Etablissements De Saint Louis
Subtitle: Thirteenth-Century Law Texts from Tours, Orleans, and Paris (Middle Ages Series)
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Published: October 1996
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 177
ISBN-13: 9780812233506
Subjects: Laws of Other Jurisdictions & General Law; Other prose: classical, early & medieval; Medieval; History - General History; Legal History; History: World; France; Etablissements de Saint Louis; Customary; Europe - France; Customary law; History; Law; Law, Medieval
First sentence: HERE BEGIN THE Laws of the King of France which the Provost of Paris and [the provosts] of the kingdom observe in their suits and use everywhere.
Description: As the earliest major monument of the customary law in the region to the south and southwest of the Ile de France, the book known as the Etablissements de Saint Louis greatly amplifies our knowledge of feudal and private law in the French kingdom. Frequently cited by legal historians, it has nonetheless remained inaccessible to readers unable to master its difficult Old French. Now, F. R. P.

Akehurst presents the text's first English translation, making this vital component of the vernacular law of thirteenth century France available to a wide range of scholars.

A hybrid text, the Etablissements was probably compiled by a lawyer around the year 1273. The whole book takes its name from its first part, a set of nine ordinances of Louis IX giving the rules of procedure for the court of the Chatelet in Paris. The second part, made up of one hundred and sixty-six short chapters, is a collection of the customary laws of the Touraine-Anjou region; the thirty-eight chapters of the third section record the laws of the Orleans region.

Whereas the Touraine-Anjou material presents a broad treatment of many aspects of the law, the Orleans customary reveals a preoccupation with problems of jurisdiction in a region where the king and local authorities were in sharp competition for power.