The volume offers the first integrated overview of the Visigothic and Langobard Laws from a perspective of historical sociolinguistics that combines considerations on linguistic structure and cultural phenomena that are reflected in the language. This interdisciplinary approach has long been needed in the study of the juridical texts of the German populations established in Spain and Italy.

The volume deals with: 1. The texts of the laws as a source for the study of Visigoths' and Langobards' history; 2. The problems of lexical analysis raised by the technical terms of Roman and Germanic laws; 3. The morpho-syntactic structures of the Visigoths' and Langobards' laws as evidence of the transformations of Late Latin.

The Visigothic and Langobard Laws are a collection of texts of great importance to understand the linguistic and cultural shaping of medieval and modern Europe. The investigation of their language gives pithy clues to the study of the development of Late Latin and the Romance vernaculars in a time for which non-literary documentation is scanty. It is also highly relevant to the study of Germanic Law and the transformation of Roman Law and the study of social and political transformations of Spain and Italy in the Early Middle Ages.

Autorentext

Rosanna Sornicola and Elisa D'Argenio , University of Naples "Federico II", Naples, Italy.