The incompletely preserved Edictum Rothari is the oldest extant
copy of the early medieval law of the Lombards as decreed by King
Rothari (636-652) in 643. This earliest known copy, dating from
670/680 and originating in Bobbio (?) has been preserved only as
fragments divided between the Abbey Library of St. Gall, the
Badische Landesbibliothek Karlsruhe, the Zentralbibliothek in
Zurich and the Zurich cantonal archives. The largest portion of the
fragments, which were bound together in the present volume by Abbey
Librarian Ildefons von Arx in 1822, is found at the Abbey Library
of St. Gall. In 1972, the fragmental parchment leaves of the
Edictum Rothari owned by the Abbey Library of St. Gall were rebound
into a new volume, in a fashion that does not exactly follow
conservational guidelines, together with black and white photos of
the fragments that are in Karlsruhe and Zurich. The photos were
then removed from this by restorer Martin Strebel in 2008. At the
same time, this manuscript, which is significant to the history of
law, was rebound using the latest book restoration techniques,
thanks to the Friends of the Abbey Library of St. Gall, which
covered the costs of the work.
Place
Preferred form
Bobbio Abbey (Italy) (?)
Original form
Bobbio (?)
Rights
e-codices - Virtual Manuscript Library of Switzerland
