Laws

Quadripartitus (Quadr)

This early twelfth-century Latin translation of much of the then extant Old English legal codes was produced c. 1100. It is prefaced by the translator’s claim that to producing a book of earlier English law, ‘for which the hearts of Englishmen always sigh and long in every way’ (trans. R. Sharpe), conventionally known as Quadripartitus, and a second book on Henry I’s changes to the law, which most historians identify as the Leges Henrici Primi (Hn). The translations in the first book appear to have undergone successive revisions by the original translator, who in general attempted to produce a Latin text that was the lexical equivalent of his sources. Quadripartitus includes Latin translations of pre-conquest law-codes whose original Old English texts have not survived (see App AGu, III As, IV Atr, VII Atr, and III Em).

Contents

Manuscripts