Rochester Cathedral | Textus Roffensis
Posted on 04/12/2021 2:01:38 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
The law-code of King Æthelberht of Kent (560–616) represents the creation of the Old English alphabet, which combines Latin characters and letters based on ancient runes. Issued around the year 600, Æthelberht’s Code is the first of three Kentish laws unique to the Textus Roffensis – the others being Hlothere and Eadric’s Code (c679–85), and Wihtraed’s Code (695).
It is the opening text of a ‘legal encyclopaedia’ of more than three dozen English laws (ranging from 600–1100) that constitute the bulk of the first part of the Textus Roffensis.
Æthelberht’s Code offers us insight into the system of compensation that probably prevailed in Kent at the start of the 7th century. Its opening words, ‘Godes feoh & ciricean XII gylde’ set out the level of restitution to be made by one who stole from ‘God’s property and the Church’s’, namely ‘a twelve-fold compensation’.
The law also includes an extensive list of payments to be made for acts of violence, including 50 shillings for gouging out an eye and six shillings for stabbing a man through his genitals.
(Excerpt) Read more at historyextra.com ...
Michael Wood on Textus Roffensis | Nov 21, 2017
A book 100 years older than the Magna Carta goes digital
November 5 2014
https://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/a-book-100-years-older-than-the-magna-carta-goes-digital/
Ouch. Penalties seem a bit “out of proportion” here with regard to the genitals.
I kind of like the small fee for stabbing through a man’s genitals, versus that of an eye.
Don’t mess with Textus!
LOL!!!
six shillings for stabbing a man through his genitals.
BWAHAHA! Iron cup.
Was going to reply they needed more soprano opera singers but it wasn’t until the early 1600s that opera’s came into popularity.
The fact they felt the need to prescribe a fine for this specific violation tells me it was not an uncommon occurrence.
Suddenly I understand the codpiece.
Sterne also supplied ‘pi**ing’ for mingendo, though that is arguably a somewhat amplified rendering of the Latin.
A clue here for those puzzling over the word "retromingent" that's been making the rounds lately.
At the time this was transcribed French was the language of the English Royal Court, so it’s interesting they were preserving legal texts written in Old English.
Susie Dent explained retromingent with a reference to, hmm, I think it was rabbits.
There was (and still is) a hunkering down against the brutal Norman usurpation and occupation.
LOL!
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