The ''Assizes of Romania'' (french: Assises de Romanie), formally the ''Book of the Usages and Statutes of the

Empire of Romania The Latin Empire, also referred to as the Latin Empire of Constantinople, was a feudal Crusader state founded by the leaders of the Fourth Crusade on lands captured from the Byzantine Empire. The Latin Empire was intended to replace the Byzan ...

'' ( vec, Libro de le Uxanze e Statuti de lo Imperio de Romania),Setton (1975), pp. 154–155 is a collection of laws compiled in the

Principality of Achaea The Principality of Achaea () or Principality of Morea was one of the three vassal states of the Latin Empire, which replaced the Byzantine Empire after the capture of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade. It became a vassal of the Kingdo ...

that became the common law code of the states of

Frankish Greece The ''Frankokratia'' ( el, Φραγκοκρατία, la, Francocratia, sometimes anglicized as Francocracy, "rule of the Franks"), also known as ''Latinokratia'' ( el, Λατινοκρατία, la, Latinocratia, "rule of the Latins") and ...

in the 13th–15th centuries, and continued in occasional use in the

Venetian Ionian Islands The Ionian Islands were an overseas possession of the Republic of Venice from the mid-14th century until the late 18th century. The conquest of the islands took place gradually. The first to be acquired was Cythera and the neighboring islet ...

until the 18th century.

History

The compilation comprises a prologue and 219 clauses. The traditional story of the law code's origin, recounted in the prologue, is that the first

Latin Emperor The Latin Emperor was the ruler of the Latin Empire, the historiographical convention for the Crusader realm, established in Constantinople after the Fourth Crusade (1204) and lasting until the city was recovered by the Byzantine Greeks in 126 ...

, Baldwin I, based it on the ''

Assizes of Jerusalem The Assizes of Jerusalem are a collection of numerous medieval legal treatises written in Old French containing the law of the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem and Kingdom of Cyprus. They were compiled in the thirteenth century, and are the largest ...

'', but this is disputed. The present collection was actually compiled in the Frankish

Morea The Morea ( el, Μορέας or ) was the name of the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece during the Middle Ages and the early modern period. The name was used for the Byzantine province known as the Despotate of the Morea, by the Ottom ...

(the

) between 1333 and 1346 and is based on a variety of legal traditions. The ''Assizes of Jerusalem'' were used in so far as, in the words of medievalist David Jacoby, "

here Here is an adverb that means "in, on, or at this place". It may also refer to: Software * Here Technologies, a mapping company * Here WeGo (formerly Here Maps), a mobile app and map website by Here Television * Here TV (formerly "here!"), a ...

the Latins faced political and military circumstances similar to those of the Morea, and existed in a virtual state of perpetual war", but the Moreote collection incorporates also feudal customs imported by the Crusaders directly from Western Europe, legislation from

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

and

Angevin Angevin or House of Anjou may refer to: *County of Anjou or Duchy of Anjou, a historical county, and later Duchy, in France **Angevin (language), the traditional langue d'oïl spoken in Anjou **Counts and Dukes of Anjou *House of Ingelger, a Franki ...

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

Byzantine law Byzantine law was essentially a continuation of Roman law with increased Orthodox Christian and Hellenistic influence. Most sources define ''Byzantine law'' as the Roman legal traditions starting after the reign of Justinian I in the 6th century ...

in matters of inheritance and agricultural law (especially as regards the

serfs Serfdom was the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism, and similar systems. It was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery, which developed ...

or ''

paroikoi ''Paroikoi'' (plural of Greek πάροικος, ''paroikos'', the etymological origin of parish and parochial) is the term that replaced "metic" in the Hellenistic and Roman period to designate foreign residents. In the Byzantine Empire, ''paroikoi ...

''), as well as laws and court decisions from the Latin Empire and the Principality of Achaea.For the provisions of the ''Assizes'' as regards the Morea, cf. Setton (1975), pp. 31–33 Due to the political pre-eminence of Achaea, the ''Assizes'' were adopted across most of Frankish Greece, and survived longest in the

Venetian Venetian often means from or related to: * Venice, a city in Italy * Veneto, a region of Italy * Republic of Venice (697–1797), a historical nation in that area Venetian and the like may also refer to: * Venetian language, a Romance language s ...

colonies In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the '' metropolitan state' ...

in the Ionian Islands, where they were occasionally consulted until the dissolution of the Venetian Republic by Napoleon in 1797. Indeed, the ''Assizes'' only survive in Venetian translations dating from 1423 to the mid-18th century.

Editions

The various manuscripts of the ''Assizes'' were first published by Paolo Canciani in 1785:Bon (1969), p. 18 * There also exist three critical editions with French, English, and Italian translations respectively: * * *

References

Sources

* * * *

External links

* 14th-century documents 14th century in law Medieval legal codes Principality of Achaea {{italic title

History

Editions

See also

References

Sources

External links