Law | Book | Culture in the Middle Ages takes a detailed view on the role of manuscripts and the written word in legal cultures, spanning the medieval period across western and central Europe.

In 500, the legal order in Europe was structured around ancient customs, social practices and feudal values. By 1500, the effects of demographic change, new methods of farming and economic expansion had transformed the social and political landscape and had wrought radical change upon legal practices and systems throughout Western Europe. A Cultural History of Law in the Middle Ages explores this change and the rich and varied encounters between Christianity and Roman legal thought which shaped the period. Evolving from a combination of religious norms, local customs, secular legislations, and Roman jurisprudence, medieval law came to define an order that promoted new forms of individual and social representation, fostered the political renewal that heralded the transition from feudalism to the Early Modern state and contributed to the diffusion of a common legal language. Drawing upon a wealth of textual and visual sources, A Cultural History of Law in the Middle Ages presents essays that examine key cultural case studies of the period on the themes of justice, constitution, codes, agreements, arguments, property and possession, wrongs, and the legal profession.

Essays exploring medieval castration, as reflected in archaeology, law, historical record, and literary motifs. Castration and castrati have always been facets of western culture, from myth and legend to law and theology, from eunuchs guarding harems to the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century castrati singers. Metaphoric castration pervadesa number of medieval literary genres, particularly the Old French fabliaux - exchanges of power predicated upon the exchange or absence of sexual desire signified by genitalia - but the plain, literal act of castration and its implications are often overlooked. This collection explores this often taboo subject and its implications for cultural mores and custom in Western Europe, seeking to demystify and demythologize castration. Its subjects includearchaeological studies of eunuchs; historical accounts of castration in trials of combat; the mutilation of political rivals in medieval Wales; Anglo-Saxon and Frisian legal and literary examples of castration as punishment; castration as comedy in the Old French fabliaux; the prohibition against genital mutilation in hagiography; and early-modern anxieties about punitive castration enacted on the Elizabethan stage. The introduction reflects on these topics in the context of arguably the most well-known victim of castration in the middle ages, Abelard. LARISSA TRACY is Associate Professor of Medieval Literature at Longwood University. Contributors: Larissa Tracy, Kathryn Reusch, Shaun Tougher, Jack Collins, Rolf H. Bremmer Jr, Jay Paul Gates, Charlene M. Eska, Mary A. Valante, Anthony Adams, Mary E. Leech, Jed Chandler, Ellen Lorraine Friedrich, Robert L.A. Clark, Karin Sellberg, LenaWånggren

SigurðssonDisputes and How to Avoid Them - Custom and Charters in England During the Long 12th-Century - af Paul HyamsDispute, Procedure and Sanction - Some Remarks on Dispute Settlement in Swedish Medieval Laws - af Pia Letto-VanamoThe Use of Mediation and Arbitration in the Legal Revolution of 13th-Century Denmark - af Per AndersenThe Appellate Jurisdiction, the Emperor and the City - Republics in Early 13th-Century Northern Italy - af Gianluca RaccagniThe Practice of Legal Consulting and the Policy of Law in Late Medieval Dalmatia - af Nella LonzaInterdict, Conflict Resolution and the Competition for Power in the Episcopal Seigneuries of Laon and Reims (C. 1100) - af Frederik KeygnaertCompeting Institutions and Dispute Settlement in Medieval England - af Joshua C. TateChurch, State and Family in John Calvin?s Geneva - Domestic Disputes and Sex Crimes in Geneva?s Consistory and Council - af John Witte, Jr. Litigating Abroad - Merchant?s Expectations Regarding Procedure Before Foreign Courts According to the Hanseatic Privileges (12TH-16TH C.) - af Albrecht CordesContributors.

An analysis of the cultural and social functions of law, legal processes and legal rituals in late medieval northern France. It interprets the various influences upon the shaping of law as a cultural manifestation and its application as an actual system of justice.

Law and Language in the Middle Ages investigates the relationship between law and legal practice from the linguistic perspective, exploring not only how legal language expresses and advances power relations but also how the language of law legitimates power.

In the popular imagination, the Middle Ages are often associated with lawlessness. However, historians have long recognized that medieval culture was characterized by an enormous respect for law and legal procedure. This book makes the case that one cannot understand the era's cultural trends without considering the profound development of law.