TRUBNER & CO’S MONTHLY LIST. 17 
NOW READY. 
Quarto, cloth, pp. 252, price Two Guineas. 
wae MEP TIC. EDITION OF 
Pie SATE CA 
COMPRISING 
The Ten Texts with the Glosses and the Lex Emendata. 
Bes HO HESSELS. 
With Notes on the Frankish Words in the Lex Salica, 
By H. KERN, 
Professor of Sanskrit in the University of Leiden. 
O those who wish to study Medizval Latin and Medizval History in all its bearings a 
knowledge of the Zex Sadica is indispensable. The philologist has often to consult this docu- 
ment for words which occur in it and in it only ; the historian and jurist must study its enact- 
ments, however quaint some of them may appear to us. None of the manuscripts which have 
transmitted to us the Latin texts in their present condition are of an earlier date than the 
eighth century. Yet the Zex Salica is prior to all the other Barbarian Laws with which we 
are acquainted, since it is not too much to assert that the oldest Za¢¢z compilation of this Law 
dates from the time of Chlovis. Moreover the Za¢ix texts, which alone have been preserved 
to us, bear unmistakable evidence of being a translation from some Frankish original, which, 
if it ever was written down, is now lost to us. In the Latin texts a great many Frankish 
words occur Latinized for the purpose of compiling the Law. But the chief feature of the 
Lex Salica is the so-called Malberg Glosses, which are probably quotations from the original 
Frankish Law-book, and were inserted in the Latin versions as a guarantee for the substantial 
correctness of the translation, and to supply its formal deficiencies. 
Though several editions of the Zex Salica have been published since the first edition by 
Du Tillet, about the middle of the sixteenth century, the study of this law may be said to 
have commenced in 1843, when Pardessus’ highly meritorious ‘‘Loi Salique” appeared. 
The eight different versions contained in his work were condensed by Merkel into one text, 
in 1850. In 1874 Behrend and Boretius published an edition in which all the texts. are 
amalgamated into one. 
These latest editions of Pardessus, Merkel, and Behrend are very valuable in their own 
way, and have placed the study of the Lex on a firmer basis. But there is still a great desi- 
deratum—namely, a SyNorTic EpITION— which should enable students to see at a glance the 
mutual connection—and to study with more accuracy the variations in the wording, phrases, 
and spelling—of the different texts. Such a study is impossible with Merkel’s edition, as this 
contains no various readings, and it can only be imperfectly made with Pardessus’ and Beh- 
rend’s editions, as these are not synoptic, and do not always give all the various readings. 
The present edition was undertaken to supply this want. It gives the texts preserved in 
codd. 1 (Paris)—2 (Wolfenbiittel—3 (Munich)—4 (Paris)—5 and 6 (Paris)—7, 8, 9, B, F, 
G, H (Montpellier, Paris, St. Gallen, Warsaw)—and the edition of Harold, in seven parallel 
columns, with an eighth column for the Lex Emendata. The texts have all been re-collated 
from the original MSS. by Mr. Hessels. 
It is confidently trusted that this edition has been prepared with the requisite accuracy } 
that it will clear up a good many doubtful points ; that it will supply a want which the editor 
himself felt most seriously while engaged on a new edition of Du Cange’s Glossary of 
Medizval Latin; and that it will facilitate and encourage the study of the Lex Salica in 
particular and of Medizval Latin and History in general, 
London: JOHN MURRAY, Albemarle Street. TRUBNER & CO., Ludgate Hill. 
