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Sachsenspiegel (Saxon Mirror)

Type Object Region Saxony Time c. 1220–1900

The Sachsenspiegel, compiled by knight and judge Eike von Repgow around 1220–1235, was Germany's most important customary law book, divided into land…

Timeline

  1. c. 1220–1235East Saxony · SaxonyEike wrote Saxon land law and fief custom into transmissible articles; the rhyming prologue acknowledges Count Hoyer of Falkenstein's commission, producing one of the earliest systematic legal prose works in the Middle High German world.
  2. c. 1235–1400Magdeburg · MagdeburgManuscripts spread to northern and central German towns; their content was absorbed into the city law of Magdeburg and elsewhere, and spread to Poland, Bohemia, and other regions with German migration and commercial law.
  3. 1500–1900German states · GermanyAs an authoritative customary record of private law and feudal relations, it was still cited in early modern courts until the territorial codes and the 1900 German Civil Code system finally superseded its direct legal force.

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