The Legislative Works of
Alfonso X, el Sabio. Siete Partidas 1251-1265. Generally considered the
most important law code of the Middle Ages (and largest legislative
compilation since Roman times). In 1251 Alfonso commissioned a group of
jurists to effect the legislative reform envisioned by his father,
Fernando III. The work was intended to ultimately replace the bastardized
Visigothic Forum Judicum (the Fuero Juzgo, in Asturias & León) as
well as the diverse, conflicting, and confusing legislative maze of local
Fueros and unwritten customs (in Castile). Based on consuetudinal
law, Roman and Justinian law, Alfonso's Fuero Real, and ideas of Aristotle,
Seneca and Isidore, this unifying and universalizing legislative synthesis
(enriched with doctrinal commentary and exposition of philosophical
principles) is intended to guide jurists and future monarchs and promote
social harmony by providing subjects with norms and legal dispositions to
regulate human activity in all forms of social intercourse.
The 7 books of law:
Notable characteristics include:
Other legislative works: Setenario Begun by Alfonso during his father's reign. Although charged with its completion and apparently personally involved in its elaboration, Alfonso turned his attention to the larger project of comprehensive legislative reform before the work was completed; much of it corresponds to the first of the Siete Partidas. Includes considerations on understanding, nature, the ages of man, knowledge and the liberal arts, metals and their production, different forms of religiosity and paganism, true faith, articles of the Creed and the Sacraments, all distributed over a strictly adhered-to septenary model. Despite its many deficiencies, as a stylistically unified, organic exposition of the microcosm-macrocosm doctrine of cosmic unity, the work has been called the "most lucid and attractive explication of the world view presiding over the entire Alfonsi corpus". Fuero Real 1255. Granted to Castile in 1255 to supplement existing law, but valid only when it didn't contradict local law. Used by judges at king's court of appeals. Concise, clear, methodical and factual. Parts of it incorporated into the Siete Partidas. El Espéculo 1255. Divided into 5 books (6th and 7th referred to, but never compiled). Book I: law, doctrine of Trinity, articles of Catholic faith; Books II -III: political and military organization of the kingdom; Books IV-V: Justice. Intended for wide distribution (one copy to each town). Very different style from Siete Partidas (concise, factual, devoid of displays of erudition), yet much of its contents reappear in the more ambitious work. Compiled, says Alfonso, "with the advice and general consent of the archbishops and bishops and noblemen and most honorable experts of law that we could find, and others who were in our court and our kingdom". Title derived from A's prolog: "...this book, that is a mirror of the law by which all our domains are to be judged". The prolog also explains the historical reasons for the current chaotic state of legislation in the Peninsula and the need, first voiced by his father, to effect a legislative reform that would return the kingdom to "a state such as that which was maintained in ancient times by the emperors and kings from which he [his father] descended" and "that it be known as an empire, not a kingdom, and he, not king, but emperor". Texto Extraido de: http://faculty.washington.edu/petersen/alfonso/lawtrans.htm
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