Transformations of Medieval Law
Innovation and Application in Early Modern Norwegian Law Books.
Main content
罢丑别听尝补苍诲蝉濒辞惫听was the first national law-code of Norway, in force for 400 years. It is a vital source for the legal and social history of Norway, but remains somewhat out of reach both for the public and for many scholars. Very little information is available about the translation of the law from Old Norwegian to Danish in the 16th and 17th centuries, the amendments by the roster of monarchs who later edited the law, and its revision to form the law-code听闯贸苍蝉产贸办in Iceland, some parts of which are still in force today.
The project will research the later manuscripts and versions of the听尝补苍诲蝉濒辞惫听in order to gain an insight into the development of the law from the end of听听the Middle Ages onwards. My project makes these manuscripts and their contents accessible to a wide audience, and highlights Norwegian Early Modern cultural heritage, thus making a substantial contribution to the study of Norway's legal, linguistic and book history.
The overarching research questions the project deals with are:
- How and to what extent do innovations and changes in the structure, contents and use of law books of Early Modern Norway reflect changes to Norwegian society during the Reformation and Renaissance?
听 - How did legal circles in Norway and Iceland order and apply their knowledge in medieval and Early Modern times?
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Four areas of research
1) Manuscript Compilation
What does the transmission of the听尝补苍诲蝉濒辞惫听tell us about medieval and Early Modern approaches to ordering knowledge?
A premise of this project is that the听尝补苍诲蝉濒辞惫听and its translations circulated in manuscript form bound into manuscript books with other texts, here called 鈥榗ompilations鈥�, and that the choice of texts in many manuscripts can tell us something about the cultural context of the law, and how the law was understood, applied and interpreted.
The other texts besides the law code in the compilation form a context to the law, and are often texts associated with legal and theological matters. The compilations can consist of texts both old and new; for example, a medieval law written in the 13th century, bound together with later texts from the 16th century. The 13th century law can then be thought to have been read with these later texts in mind. By assessing who owned, wrote, used and added to these legal compilations, we can also understand the role of the individual in the tradition and shaping of the law and innovations in its听codicological听transmission.
2) Translation
How were concepts, terms and narrative structures translated from Old Norwegian to Danish?
By the 16th century, legal officials could no longer read Old Norse comfortably, and thus had Danish translations of law manuscripts made for practical purposes from around 1530. In the 16th century, these translations were manuscripts, but in 1604 an official translation of the听尝补苍诲蝉濒辞惫听was made into Danish and the law printed for the first time. Legal vocabulary from Old Norwegian and its translation into Danish will be collected and an analysis of translation strategies conducted.听
The corpus of existing translations will be examined in the light of scribal and translators鈥� comments, and whether there is any difference in the volume and approach to translation from the beginning to the end of the 16th century. The several lists of legal vocabulary that exist will be taken into consideration. Whether and how the printed Danish translation of 1604 has influenced the manuscript tradition will be considered. This will allow the development of Norwegian legal vocabulary between the 13th and the 17th centuries to be traced and facilitate the study of what the historical basis is for modern legal terminology in Norway.
3) Amendment
How and why was the听尝补苍诲蝉濒辞惫听transformed from a medieval law to reflect the needs of an Early Modern society, and how is this reflected in the manuscripts?听
罢丑别听尝补苍诲蝉濒辞惫听was in force for over 400 years and rulers of Norway during the lifetime of the law amended and adapted the law as necessary. An 鈥榓mendment鈥� is a minor change or addition designed to improve legislation. Amendments can thus indicate areas of social, cultural, and political change as the society transformed from medieval to Early Modern, including the Reformation era.听
Amendments were inserted into the law and manuscripts in various ways, and understanding how they were introduced in the physical manuscripts reflects how knowledge was organised on the Early Modern page. In manuscripts, amendments are listed along with laws, inserted into the text, inserted in the margins, or listed separately from laws. 罢丑别听mise-en-page听of amendments will allow us to reconstruct how law manuscripts were physically used; were several books used together? Could users easily find what they were looking for? Are some amendments emphasised more than others in the books?听
4) Adaptation
What processes of adaptation formed the Icelandic听闯贸苍蝉产贸办听as the result of the combination of Norwegian and earlier Icelandic law?听
By 鈥榓daptation鈥� is meant the remoulding of the Norwegian law for use in Iceland, which became a Norwegian colony in 1262-64. Although Iceland already had a rich legal tradition dating back to the creation of its parliament in 930, Magnus the Law-Mender modified Norwegian laws to make them suitable for Iceland. In 1271, he sent the unpopular law听Jarns铆冒a听to Iceland, but, after introducing the听尝补苍诲蝉濒辞惫听in Norway in 1274, revised the听尝补苍诲蝉濒辞惫听into the Icelandic version, known as听闯贸苍蝉产贸办. The final result was a combination of Norwegian and earlier Icelandic law. It was adopted in Iceland in 1281, and parts of听闯贸苍蝉产贸办听are still current.听闯贸苍蝉产贸办听is thus relevant to an exploration of the transformation of the medieval Norwegian law.
Events in the projects
I vesterled听conference, University of Bergen, Norway (October 2018)
The project contributed both a paper and a poster at this international conference organised by the Medieval Cluster of the University of Bergen.听
- Paper: Helen F. Leslie-Jacobsen,听鈥淭aking the Law West in the 9th听to 13th听Centuries鈥�
- Poster: Helen F. Leslie-Jacobsen,听鈥淭ransformations of Medieval Law鈥�
The 17th International Saga Conference, University of Iceland, Iceland (August 2018)
At the major international three yearly conference for Old Norse studies, the project both co-organised and sponsered a reception for Early Career Researchers in Old Norse, and contributed a paper.
- Reception: Network for Early Career Researchers in Old Norse (sponsored by the project Transformations of Medieval Law)
- Paper: Helen F. Leslie-Jacobsen,听鈥淭he 1604 Danish Translation of 13thCentury Norwegian Law鈥�
Kings and Queens 7, University of Winchester, UK (July 2018)
The project contributed a paper to this major subject conference on royal studies.
- Paper, Helen F. Leslie-Jacobsen, 鈥淭he Self-Representation of King Magnus the Law-Mender in the Landslov of 1274鈥�
The International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds, UK (July 2018)
The project contributed a paper to the largest medieval studies conference in Europe.
- Paper, Helen F. Leslie-Jacobsen, 鈥淪t Bridget in a Norwegian Legal Manuscript:听Codex Hardenbergensis鈥�
European Society for Comparative Legal History: Laws Across Codes and Laws Decoded, Paris, France (June 2018)
The project contributed a paper to this biennial conference on legal history.
- Paper, Helen F. Leslie-Jacobsen, 鈥淗ow Innovative is Innovative? Adaptations of Norwegian Law in New Law Codes in Iceland and Norway from the Tenth to Thirteenth Centuries鈥�
The 12th听International Postgraduate Symposium in Old Norse 大象传媒: Norms, Laws and Literatures (April 2018)
The project organized and sponsored this annual four day international conference for PhD and MA students from Bergen and major UK universities, including Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, Nottingham and Aberdeen.
the project
Principal investigator:听Helen F. Leslie-Jacobsen, researcher in Medieval Philology.
Project title:听Transformations of Medieval Law: Innovation and Application in Early Modern Norwegian Law Books听
Research Funding:听The project is funded by
Duration:听2018-2021
