Reading the Collatio Legum Mosaicarum et Romanarum (or Lex Dei) in the Middle Ages

Abstract

A fragment of a previously unknown manuscript of the anonymous late antique text known as the Collatio Legum Mosaicarum et Romanarum (Collation of the Laws of Moses and of the Romans) or as the Lex Dei (Law of God) was recently discovered in the Zadar State Archives in Croatia. This bifolium seems to come from a lost ninth-century manuscript of the work. It had been reused as the cover of a registry book by the notary Articutius in 1403. While recent examination of this new fragment in the context of the manuscript tradition of the work has suggested more information about the lost manuscript and the legal culture of medieval Dalmatian cities, examination of the manuscript tradition and handling of the Collatio by other medieval authors can provide some insight into the broader use of the Collatio in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages and even into the reception of Roman law in the early medieval West.