 Roger II's Throne in the Capella Palatina |
1. We should no longer call Roger's assizes "of Ariano" 2. The large number and variety of subjects in the assizes must mean that they were promulgated over a long period of time. Roman law provided the foundation of many of them. Roger must have brought jurist(s) to Palermo to help him draft his legislation 3. Sometime between 1140 and 1154 King Roger ordered his assizes compiled by an unknown jurist who knew Roman law very well. The jurist arranged his collection by following the organization of Justinian's Digest and the Code. A copy of this collection is probably preserved in Vat. lat. 8782. A collection of laws is not a code in the twelfth century. 4. The Vatican manuscript's text is closest to the one that Frederick II's jurists used when they compiled the Liber Augustalis. The Montecassino manuscript probably bears witness to another private collection during the reign of William I or William II. |