Library › Latin: Law › Formulae
Marculf was a monk who compiled this collection of model documents for a bishop named Landeric, to whom he dedicates it. In the preface he says that he is about seventy years old or more, that his hand trembles and his eyes are dim, and that he has done the work not elegantly but in order as best he could, including both royal documents and charters for private persons, in simple and rustic style, so that it might serve as an exercise for beginners.
The first book contains models of royal charters, such as appointments, immunities, confirmations and judgements, and the second book models for private acts, such as donations, sales, wills, marriage settlements and manumissions, each preceded by a list of chapters. The formulary is a fundamental source for law, administration and society in the Merovingian kingdom, and was used as a model for documents well into the Carolingian period.
About this edition. The Latin text comes from Corpus Corporum, the Latin text repository of the University of Zurich (edition: Jacques-Paul Migne, Patrologia Latina, vol. 87, Parisiis 1851), reused with attribution for non-commercial purposes (CC BY-NC-SA). Every word has been analyzed with LatinCy, a neural language model for Latin — click or tap any word for its dictionary form, part of speech, and complete morphology, together with the full entry from Lewis & Short’s A Latin Dictionary.