| Summary
Written sometime between 1197 and 1205, the Livre au Roi is the oldest example of vernacular legal writing from the Latin East. The text contains fifty-two chapters relating to the legal relationship between the king and his vassals. The text may have been intended for Aimery of Lusignan who struggled to reassert his authority over the native aristocracy in the years following the disastrous losses at Hattin and Jerusalem.
| Representative MSS |
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Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Fr. 19026, ff. 265-276
Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, cod. gall. 51
Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, cod. gall 771
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Secondary Literature
Greilsammer, Myriam,“Structure and Aims of the Livre au Roi.” In Outremer: Studies in the History of the Crusading Kingdom of Jerusalem Presented to Joshua Prawer, edited by Joshua Prawer, Benjamin Z. Kedar, and Hans Eberhard Mayer, 218-226. Jerusalem: Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi Institute, 1982.
Grandclaude, M. "Classement sommaire des manuscrits des principaux livres des Assises de Jérusalem," Revue historique de droit français e étranger 4:5 (1926), 418-507.
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