1. For an introduction to early medieval legislation, see Wormald, Patrick, “The Background and Origin of Early English Legislation,” in The Making of English Law: King Alfred to the Twelfth Century (Oxford: Blackwell, 1999), 29–92Google Scholar.

2. Wormald, Making of English Law, 97–101, notes some structural similarity between the laws of Aethelbert and the south German laws, and discusses the possibility of some relationship.

3. McKitterick, Rosamond, Charlemagne: The Formation of a European Identity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 275–78CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and her older The Carolingians and the Written Word (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), 23–75CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Note that McKitterick and Wormald stand on opposite sides of a debate over the practical use of legal manuscripts in actual courts, especially in northern parts of the Frankish Empire; both are agreed, however, on the symbolic importance of lawmaking for early medieval rulers including Charlemagne. How universally the principle of “personality of law” was really applied is controversial. The strongest evidence for it comes only from ninth-century Italy, and it is invoked north of the Alps mainly in Burgundy, together with one well-known case involving St. Denis and Fleury. Nevertheless, it does appear that Charlemagne intended that each of the peoples he ruled should have their own lex scripta, and moved to supply it where it did not already exist. Wormald, Making of English Law, 30–53.

4. This is sometimes better seen in the gaps of modern scholarship. For example, Hammer's, Carlrecent From Ducatus to Regnum: Ruling Bavaria under the Merovingians and Early Carolingians (Tournhout: Brepols, 2007)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, although attentive to title III on the Agilolfings and other Bavarian genealogiae, makes little use of the Lb's title II on the ducal court and its officers.

5. For surveys of the history of Agilolfing Bavaria, see Jahn, Joachim, Ducatus Baiuvariorum: Das bairische Herzogtum der Agilolfinger, (Stuttgart: Hiersemann, 1991)Google Scholar, or in English, Pearson, Kathy Lynne Roper, Conflicting Loyalties in Early Medieval Bavaria: A View of Socio-Political Interaction, 680–900, (Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 1999)Google Scholar, and most recently Hammer, From Ducatus to Regnum.

6. Reindel, Kurt, “Grundlegung: Das Zeitalter der Agilolfinger (bis 788),” in Handbuch der bayerischen Geschichte, 1. Band: Das Alte Bayern/Das Stammesherzogtum bis zum Ausgang des 12. Jahrhunderts, 2nd ed., ed. Spindler, Max (Munich, C.H. Beck, 1981), 101–248Google Scholar.

7. The Bavarians' ethnogenesis remains a murky subject because of the paucity of sources. Scholars associated with the Institut für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung in Vienna have published several sets of papers pertaining to the question; see Die Bayern und ihre Nachbarn, 2 vols., vol. 1 ed. Wolfram, Herwig and Schwarz, Andreas, vol. 2 ed. Wolfram, Herwig and Daim, Falko (Vienna: Publisher not given, 1985)Google Scholar; Anerkennung und Integration: Zu den wirtschaftlichen Grundlagen der Voelkerwanderungzeit, 400–600, ed. Wolfram, Herwig and Schwarz, Andreas (Vienna, Verlag der österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1988)Google Scholar; Typen der Ethnogenese, ed. Wolfram, Herwig und Pohl, Walter (Vienna, Verlag der österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1990)Google Scholar; and the articles collected in Pohl, Walter and Reimitz, Helmut, eds., Strategies of Distinction: the Construction of Ethnic Communities, 300–800 (Leiden: Brill, 1998)Google Scholar. For a critical assessment of the discussion, see Bowlus, Charles, “Ethnogenesis: The Tyranny of a Concept,” in On Barbarian Identity, ed. Gillett, Andrew (Turnhout: Brepols, 2002), 250Google Scholar.

8. On Theodo generally, see Jahn, Ducatus, 25–76. The papal visit is attested in Le Liber Pontificalis: Texte, Introduction et Commentaire, vol. I, 2nd ed., ed. Duchesne, l'Abbé L., (Paris: de Boccard, 1955: repr. Paris, de Boccard, 1981), 398Google Scholar.

9. Jahn, Ducatus, 98–116.

10. Jörg Jarnut, “Studien über Herzog Odilo,” Mitteilungen des Instituts für Österreichische Geschichte (MIÖG) 85 (1977): 273–85.

11. Airlie, Stuart, “Narratives of Triumph and Rituals of Submission: Charlemagne's Mastering of Bavaria,” in Transactions of the Royal Historical Society IX (1999): 93–119CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Becher, Matthias, Eid und Herrschaft: Untersuchungen zum Herrscherethos Karls des Grossen (Sigmaringen: Thorbecke, 1993)Google Scholar. On Tassilo, see the important volume of studies edited by Kolmer, Lothar and Rohr, Christian: Tassilo III von Bayern: Grossmacht und Ohnmacht im 8. Jahrhundert (Regensburg: Pustet, 2005)Google Scholar. The individual studies in this volume, however, do not pertain to the argument of this article. Charles was still “king” (not “emperor') at the time of Tassilo's deposition, but it is certainly correct to describe his realm as an “empire” by that time, as his Italian, German, and Spanish conquests had expanded far beyond the original Frankish “kingdom” (much as Rome had an empire when its own government was still a republic).

12. The standard edition is Lex Baiwariorum, ed. Schwind, Ernst von, MGH Leges nationum germanicarum 5.2, (Hannover: Hahn, 1926)Google Scholar. An older edition is also available, Lex Baiuwariorum, ed. Merkel, Johann, MGH Leges (LL) in Folio III (Hannover: Hahn, 1863), 183–496Google Scholar. A translation has been made by Rivers, Theodore John: Laws of the Alamans and Bavarians (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1977)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Rivers' version is useful but not always reliable.

13. “Composition” refers to payment made as a peace-price to avert vengeance for offenses (Latin “componere”), as opposed to simple compensation to restore economic losses (Latin “compensare”). Earlier scholars, such as Floyd Seyward Lear, referred to “compounding” for offenses in these cases.

14. Lb (von Schwind) XII–XVI.

15. Lb XVII–XVIII.

16. Lb XX–XXII. See Krusch, Bruno, Die Lex Bajuvariorum; Textgeschichte, Handschriftenkritik und Entstehung. Mit zwei Anhängen: Lex Alamannorum und Lex Ribuaria, (Berlin: Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, 1924) 301–305Google Scholar. It is unclear where title XIX belongs, which is generally on the treatment of cadavers and tombs. Two of its ten chapters are at least loosely based on the Lex Alamannorum, whereas the rest appear to be independent.

17. Landau, Peter, Die Lex Baiuvariorum: Entstehungszeit, Entstehungsort und Charakter von Bayerns ältester Rechts- und Geschichtsquelle. Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften: Philosophische–Historische Klasse: Sitzungsberichte, Jahrgang 2004, Heft 3. (Munich: Beck, 2004), xx–36Google Scholar.

18. Brunner, Heinrich, Deutsche Rechtsgeschichte, vol. 1 (Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, 1887), 313–20Google Scholar.

19. For exponents of the early dating, see Brunner, Heinrich, Über ein verschollenes merowingisches Königsgesetz des 7. Jahrhunderts. Sitzungsberichte der königlich preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin XXXIX. Sitzung der philosophisch–historischen Classe vom 17. October. (Berlin: Königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1901)Google Scholar, and more recently Störmer, Wilhelm, “Zum Prozess sozialer Differenzierung bei den Bayern von der Lex Baiuvariorum bis zur Synode von Dingolfing,” in Typen der Ethnogenese unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Bayern: Teil 1. Berichte des Symposions der Kommission fhr Frühmittelalterforschung, 27. bis 30. Oktober 1986, Stift Zwettl, Niederösterreich, ed. Herwig Wolfram und Helmut Pohl (Vienna: Verlag der österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1990), 155–171Google Scholar.

20. Brunner, verschollenes merowingisches Königsgesetz.

21. Landau, Lex Baiuvariorum, 34–35. Brunner's proposal, that the unique formulation was used because the legislators could not well introduce Bavarian law as a product of the “Kingdom of the Franks,” has not been generally accepted.

22. For the Alemannic law, see Lex Alamannorum, ed. Lehmann, Karl, MGH LL nationum germanicarum 5.1 (Hannover: Hahn, 1888), 35–157Google Scholar; and Schott, Clausdieter, Lex Alamannorum: Das Gesetz der Alamannen. Text-Übersetzung-Kommentar zum Faksimile aus der Wandalgarius-Handschrift, Codex Sangallensis 731 (Augsburg: Schwäbische Forschungsgemeinschaft, 1993)Google Scholar. For the many versions of the Salic law, see Lex Salica, ed. Karl August Eckhardt, MGH LL nationum germanicarum 4.2 (Hannover: Hahn,1969).

23. Lb prologue, 202: “Ipso [Theuderius] autem dictante, iussit conscribere legem Francorum et Alamannorum et Baioariorum unicuique genti quae in eius potestate erat, secundum consuetudinem suam....”

24. McKitterick, Rosamond, The Carolingians and the Written Word (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), 48–55CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

25. Nehlsen, Hermann, “Italien, Bayern und die Langobarden,” in Bayern mitten in Europa: von Frühmittelalter bis ins 20. Jahrhundert, ed. Schmid, Alois and Weigand, Katharina (Munich: Beck, 2005), 26–44Google Scholar.

26. Störmer, Wilhelm, “Zum Prozess sozialer Differenzierung bei den Bayern von der Lex Baiuvariorum bis zur Synode von Dingolfing,” in Typen der Ethnogenese unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Bayern: Teil 1. Berichte des Symposions der Kommission für Frühmittelalterforschung, 27. bis 30. Oktober 1986, Stift Zwettl, Niederösterreich, ed. Wolfram, Herwig und Pohl, Helmut (Vienna: Verlag der österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1990), 155–71Google Scholar.

27. Radding, Charles, The Origins of Medieval Jurisprudence: Pavia and Bologna 850–1150 (New Haven, 1988), 44–47Google Scholar, shows that the Lombard palace had a staff of legally conversant notaries but not “legists” in the sense that emerged in the later Carolingian period. I have not yet been able to consult Ugo Gualazzini, “La scuola pavese, con particolare riguardo, all'insegnamento del diritto” in Atti IV Congresso Studi Alto Medioevo (Spoleto, Centro italiano di studi sull'alto Medioevo , 1969), 35–73, which Radding cites to the effect that Rothari used up to eight other Germanic codes in creating his edict, and remain doubtful on this point. Everett, Nicholas, Literacy in Lombard Italy, c. 568–774 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 167Google Scholar, depicts Rothari's court as “fertile ground for the reception of a number of legal influences” but approves Radding's caution.

28. Zeumer, Karl, ed., Lex Eurici, MGH LL 1 (Hannover, Hahn, 1902), xvi–xviiiGoogle Scholar. The Corbie manuscript is BN Paris Lat. 12161.

29. Brunner, when he held to a later dating for the Lb, suggested that the Lex Eurici was known in the parts of southern Gaul—Septimania and Aquitaine—which Clovis conquered from the Visigoths in 507. Therefore, Goths under Frankish rule might have used the older code and never known the later Liber Iudiciorum. Brunner, Rechtsgeschichte, 318.

30. Zeumer, Lex Eurici, xix–xxv.

31. One may compare the pace of distribution of the Etymologiae of Isidore of Seville, undoubtedly an early medieval “bestseller.” The earliest signs that Isidore's work was known in a non-Visigothic context come late in the seventh century, and the great spread of his popularity occurred over the course of the eighth. It does not seem probable that legal texts would have been transmitted any more rapidly, especially outside the kingdoms of those who issued them. Bischoff, Bernhard, “Die europäische Verbreitung der Werke Isidors von Sevilla,” Isidoriana, (Leon: Centro de Estudios “San Isidro,” 1961), 317–44Google Scholar.

32. Störmer, Wilhelm, Adelsgruppen im Früh- und Hochmittelalterlichen Bayern, Studien zur bayerischen Verfassungs- und Sozialgeschichte, Band IV (Munich: Kommission für Bayerische Landesgeschichte, 1972)Google Scholar, as well as numerous individual studies.

33. Chris Wickham argues that some sort of nobility was already in place in northern Francia at the time of Clovis' consolidation of it in the late fifth century. He cautiously nominates the Agilolfings as representatives of this entrenched aristocracy. I am skeptical of such maximal readings of the evidence on the Agilolfings; see below. Wickham, Chris, Framing the Middle Ages (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 183–84CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

34. Jahn, Ducatus, 1–24 and 221–76.

35. Patrick Wormald, placing early Anglo-Saxon law in its European context, seems to have been the first to observe similarities between the topical organization shared by the Lb, La, and the English law attributed to Aethelberht (d. 616); the organization of the Lombard Edict of Rothair may have formed a model for all. That the English laws are really Aethelberht's can be doubted but not disproved, and the text certainly existed by the 670s. This does not materially affect the argument here; it does suggest that topical organization of laws was a practice introduced in the earlier seventh century, which the Lb, based on the La (itself based on the older Pactus) took advantage of. Wormald, Patrick, The Making of English Law: King Alfred to the Twelfth Century, vol. I: Legislation and its Limits (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 96–101Google Scholar.

36. Bruno Krusch, after initially arguing for dating the Lb to Hucbert's reign under Charles Martel's influence, later modified his view to support the 744–748 dating, Krusch, “Die Abfassung der Lex Baiuvariorum 788, ihre Entstehung aus einem karolingischen Diplom von 744 und de Entthronung der Merowingerdynastie: eine kritische Studie,” Zeitschrift für bayerische Landesgeschichte (ZbLG) 11 (1938): 1–8; Beyerle, Konrad, Lex Baiuvariorum: Lichtdruckwiedergabe der ingolstädter Handschrift des bayerischen Volksrechts mit Transkription, Textnoten, Übersetzung, Einführung, LiteraturÜbersicht und Glossar (Munich: Hueber, 1926)Google Scholar, proposed composition at the monastery of Niederaltaich. More recently Landau, Lex Baiuvariorum, has argued that an episcopal see such as Regensburg or Freising was a more likely place of composition than Niederaltaich.

37. The bishops assembled at the synod of Ascheim at Tassilo's coming of age in the mid-750s admonished him to uphold canon law, “which the world, spread east and west, maintains and which your predecessors' written law introduced [here].” (…quod tot diffusus orbs oriens occidensque conservat et precessorum vestrorum depicta pactus insinuat.) Concilium Ascheimense, MGH Legum III: Concilia, II.1, ed. Werminghoff, Albert (Hannover and Leipzig: Hahn, 1906), 57Google Scholar. The use of “pactus” here, which can also indicate a treaty or agreement, is consistent with the interpretation of the Lb in this article, although it does not by itself prove that the law was a political arrangement. Early references to the Lb in charters include Freising #5 (July 3, 750), and #7 (June 24, 754), both earlier than or contemporary to the synod, in Theodor Bitterauf, ed., Die Traditionen des Hochstifts Freising, 2 vols. Quellen und Erörterungen zur bayerischen und deutschen Geschichte. Neue Folge Band 4. (Munich: Scientia-Verlag, 1905: repr. Munich: Scientia-Verlag, 1967).

38. Landau, Lex Baiuvariorum, 34–37.

39. Arbeo of Freising, Vita Corbiniani, ed. Krusch, Bruno, MGH Scriptores Rerum Germanicarum in usum scholarum v. 13 (Hannover: Hahn, 1920) pp. 223–4Google Scholar, and Fredegar Continuationes, ed. Krusch, Bruno, tr. Haupt, Herbert in Quellen zur Geschichte des 7. und 8. Jahrhunderts (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft: 1982) ch. 12, 284–85Google Scholar. The Annals of St. Amand claim that Charles Martel went to Bavaria a second time in 728 without claiming it was a military campaign. See Jahn, Ducatus, 104–7.

40. Annales Mettenses Priores, Scriptores Rerum Germanicarum (Hannover: Hahn, 1905), 33Google Scholar, for the claim that Charles Martel had given Odilo the duchy; His exile is only mentioned incidentally in the Salzburg property listings, Breves Notitiae 8.1, as background to Salzburg's loss of property in the Pongau. Losek, Fritz, Notitia Arnonis und Breves Notitiae: Die Salzburger Güterverzeichnisse aus der Zeit um 800: Sprachliche-historische Einleitung, Text und Übersetzung (Salzburg: Gesellschaft für Salzburger Landeskunde 1990)Google Scholar. Jahn, Ducatus, 170–73.

41. Grifo was the son of Charles Martel's second wife, Swanahild (or Sunnichild), herself a daughter of the earlier Bavarian Dukes. Charles had brought her home with him after his 725 campaign. The Fredegar Continuations suppress all mention of Grifo until his attempt to take over Bavaria after Odilo's death in 748. The Prior Annals of Metz, however, describe Grifo's struggle against his stepbrothers in 741/2 and defer mention of his sister Chiltrud's marriage to Odilo, which must have taken place in 740 or 741 (where Fredegar Continuations puts it), until its description of Pippin and Carloman's campaign of 743. It is therefore apparent that Grifo's aspirations, Odilo's marriage, and the conflict of both with Pippin and Carloman were connected, and that the pro-Carolingian chroniclers have tried to control this information in different ways, Fredegar by removing Grifo's story from Odilo's and the Metz annalist by delegitimizing Odilo's marriage. See Jahn, Ducatus, 186–92.

42. This is the choice made by the Lb's English translator, Theodore John Rivers. It is an unusual formation—one would expect solum—but there are precedents in late antique Latin. I owe this observation to the anonymous reader of this article for Law and History Review.

43. Vita Corbiniani, 207 (the deceased Corbinian is also called “pontiff” at 225); Arbeo of Freising, Vita vel Passio Haimhrammi, ed. Krusch, Bruno, MGH Scriptores Rerum Germanicarum in usum scholarum v. 13 (Hannover: Hahn, 1920), 34Google Scholar.

44. For example, Willibald uses “pontifex” of all bishops but “summus pontifex” only of archbishops and the pope in his Life of St. Boniface. Vitae Sancti Bonifatii Archiepiscopi Moguntini, ed. Wilhelm Levison, MGH Scriptores rerum Germanicarum (SSRG) in usum scholarum 57, 7–47; see index at 208 for examples. There were no archbishops in Bavaria until 798, however, when the pope raised Arn of Salzburg to this rank at Charlemagne's request.

45. Landau noted the Lb's consciousness of canon law, but surprisingly did not use Lb I.10 for purposes of dating. The council of Antioch (canons XII and XIV) had established that bishops were to be judged by synods of other bishops or their metropolitans, and not to appeal to the emperor. Canons such as these were in circulation in early medieval collections such as that of Dionysius Exiguus. Strewe, Adolf, Die Canonessammlung des Dionysius Exiguus in der ersten Redaktion (Berlin and Leipzig: de Gruyter, 1931), 47–48Google Scholar.

46. The status of the bishops mentioned for the period before 739 has been much debated, mostly in German scholarship; various scholars have seen them as “Wanderbischöfe,” “Klosterbischöfe,” or “Landesbischöfe.” I have argued elsewhere that the hagiographies seem to anchor these saints in the ducal court; Couser, Jonathan, “A Usable Past: Early Bavarian Hagiography in Context,” Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History 4 (2007): 1–56, here at 32–37Google Scholar.

47. K. Beyerle, Lex Baiuvariorum.

48. See Schieffer, Theodor, Winfrid-Bonifatius und die christliche Grundlegung Europas (Freiburg: Herder, 1954), 181–85Google Scholar; Kaiser, Reinhold, “Bistumsgründung und Kirchenorganisation im 8. Jahrhundert,” in Der hl. Willibald – Klosterbischof oder Bistumsgründer? ed. Dickerhof, Harald, Reiter, Ernst and Weinfurtner, Stefan (Regensburg: Pustet, 1990) 29–67Google Scholar; and Freund, Stephan, Von den Agilolfingern zu den Karolingern: Bayerns Bischöfe zwischen Kirchenorganisation, Reichsintegration und karolingischer Reform (700–847) (Munich: Beck, 2004) 43–76Google Scholar.

49. Krusch, Bruno, Die Lex Baiuvariorum. Textgeschichte. Handschriftenkritik und Entstehung. Mit zwei Anhängen: Lex Alamannorum und Lex Ribuaria (Berlin:Weidmann, 1924), 255–305Google Scholar.

50. Schott, Clausdieter, Lex Alamannorum: Das Gesetz der Alamannen. Text-Übersetzung-Kommentar zum Faksimile aus der Wandalgarius-Handschrift, Codex Sangallensis 731 (Augsburg: Schwäbische Forschungsgemeinschaft, 1993), 16Google Scholar.

51. Bruno Krusch initially favored this idea, though he eventually changed his view to support the 744–748 dating. Krusch, Die Lex Baiuvariorum. Textgeschichte. Handschriftenkritik und Entstehung, and idem, “Die Abfassung der Lex Baiuvariorum 788, ihre Entstehung aus einem karolingischen Diplom von 744 und die Entthronung der Merowingerdynastie: eine kritische Studie,” ZbLG 11 (1938): 1–8.

52. Breves Notitiae 8.14 mentions one “Madalhoch the priest, son of Theodo's chancellor Madalgoz,” who testified in a property dispute in 750 or thereabouts.

53. Bischoff, Bernhard, Die südostdeutschen Schreibschulen und Bibliotheken in der Karolingerzeit, 2 vols., (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1940–80)Google Scholar.

54. See Everett, Literacy in Lombard Italy,163–96, on Rothair. Everett suggests that Rothair's legislative effort may also have had an immediate political aim; he invaded Byzantine holdings in Italy within two weeks of his edict's promulgation.

55. Codex Euricianus, in Zeumer, Karl, ed. Leges Visigothorum, MGH Leges Nationum Germanicarum I (Hannover: Hahn, 1902: repr. Stuttgart, Hahn, 1973), 1–32Google Scholar. Visigothic law codes appear as sole sources to forty-four chapters of the Lb (twenty-eight of them in titles XII–XVI) and as joint sources to eleven chapters (three of them in titles XII–XVI).

56. As the Lb uses the Lex Eurici, which only survives in a Corbie palimpsest, none of McKitterick's Carolingian manuscripts can account for the compiler's access to this text; I only intend to illustrate the challenge of collecting “multinational” legal texts.

57. The Lb was used to reconstruct the text of the Codex Euricianus, otherwise preserved only in a damaged palimpsest. H.L. Günter Gastroph, Herrschaft und Gesellschaft in der Lex Baiuvariorum: Ein Beitrag zur Strukturanalyse des Agilolfingischen Stammesherzogtums vom 6. bis 8. Jahrhundert (Munich: Kommissionsbuchhandlung R. Wölfie, 1974), 52–65. Gastroph rightly recognized that arguments for early dating based on the Lb's resemblance to sixth- or seventh-century legislation can establish a terminus post quem, but give little other guidance; allowing time for manuscripts to circulate, the use of this legislation as source material makes the early dating for the Lb most unlikely.

58. Schott, Lex Alamannorum, 12–17.

59. Literature on the Carolingian Renaissance is vast. A good introduction and further literature can be found in McKitterick, Rosamond, “Eighth-Century Foundations,” in New Cambridge Medieval History, vol. 2: c. 700–900 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 681–94CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and the other essays in the same volume.

60. Duft, Johannes, “Rechtshandschriften in mittelalterlichen Bibliothekskatalogen des Bodenseeraumes,” in Die Abtei St. Gallen, Band I: Beiträge zur Erforschung ihrer Manuskripte, ed. Ochsenbein, Peter and Ziegler, Ernst (Sigmaringen: Thorbecke, 1990), 176–91Google Scholar.

61. See the essays in Borst, Arno, ed. Mönchtum, Episkopat und Adel zur Gründungszeit des Klosters Reichenau (Sigmaringen: Thorbecke, 1974)Google Scholar.

62. Breviarius Urolfi, in Beiträge zur Deutschen Sprach-, Geschichts- und Ortsforschung, Bd. 3, Heft 11, ed. Roth, Karl (Munich: J.A. Finsterlin, 1854), 17–28Google Scholar; and Tiefenbach, Heinrich, “Die Namen des Breviarius Urolfi,” in Ortsname und Urkunde. Frühmittelalterliche Ortsnamenüberlieferung, Münchner Symposion 10. bis 12. Okt 1988, ed. Schützeichel, Rudolf (Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitätsverlag, 1990), 60–96Google Scholar, with an edition on 86–91. See Jahn, Ducatus, 193–202.

63. Angenendt, Arnold, Monachi Peregrini: Studien zu Pirmin und den monastischen Vorstellungen des fruehen Mittelalters. (Munich: Fink, 1972), 108–13Google Scholar.

64. Schott, Clausdieter, “Lex und Skriptorium: eine Studie zu den süddeutschen Stammesrechten, “in Leges – Gentes – Regna, ed. Dilcher, Gerhard and Distler, Eva-Maria (Berlin: Erich Schmidt, 2006), 257–90Google Scholar.

65. Annales Mettenses Priores, entry for 741, 33; Jahn, Ducatus; 125–28; and Becher, Eid und Herrschaft, 21–75.

66. Wallace–Hadrill, J.M., ed. and trans., The Fourth Book of the Chronicle of Fredegar, with its continuations. (London: Nelson, 1960), 90Google Scholar. The campaign of 728 is only known from a brief mention in the Annals of St. Amand, which states that Charles was “in Bavaria again” but does not specify that it was a military campaign. Georg Heinrich Pertz, ed., Annales S. Amandi, MGH Scriptores 1 (Hannover: Hahn, 1826), 8.

67. Jarnut, Jörg, “Die Adoption Pippins durch König Liutprand und die Italienpolitik Karl Martells,” in Karl Martell in seiner Zeit, ed. Jarnut, Jörg, Nonn, Ulrich, and Richter, Michael (Sigmaringen: Thorbecke, 1994), 217–26Google Scholar, points out that this marriage also created a link between Charles Martel and King Liutprand of the Lombards, who had also married a Bavarian princess in 714.

68. On these titles as the basis of a political constitution, see Gastroph, Herrschaft und Gesellschaft, 77–119.

69. Compare Hohenlohe, Konstantin, Das Kirchenrecht der Lex Bajuwariorum, (Vienna: Mayer, 1932)Google Scholar.

70. Rivers' translation renders this last, “let it be defended by the bishop,” but there is no precedent for translating “apud episcopum” this way; it clearly means “let it be defended in the presence of the bishop.” The “defensor” who is going to “defend” the property does not seem to be the bishop himself. This may mean that the bishop is actually to judge the case, or it may simply require the presence of an ecclesiastical representative in cases touching on church property. The Synod of Ascheim, in the mid 750s, would call on the duke to appoint churchmen to accompany secular officials to guarantee their honesty, so something similar may be intended here.

71. Brown, Warren, Unjust Seizure: Conflict, Interest, and Authority in an Early Medieval Society (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2001), 73–101Google Scholar.

72. There is no agreement in current scholarship as to whether the “servi” and “mancipia” of early medieval sources such as the Lb should be seen as “slaves” or “serfs.” Not intending to settle this debate here, I have opted for the neutral term of “unfree persons,” but it should be clear that the Lb treats the individuals in question as economic resources owned by the church. The argument for interpretation of these persons as “slaves” has been made by Hammer, Carl, A Large-Scale Slave Society of the Early Middle Ages: Slaves and their Families in Early Medieval Bavaria, (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002)Google Scholar.

73. Von Schwind's apparatus associates some of these clauses with title XVI of the Salic Law, but the only real point of contact is the common concern with arson, not any of the specific measures taken.

74. Lex Salica, per n. 15.

75. Bitterauf, Traditionen, #1.

76. Breves Notitiae c. 8. What evidence there is of the survival of Roman documentation traditions is very limited; a fragmentary document in Passau's charter collection could be dated anywhere from the mid-sixth to the mid-eighth century. See Erkens, Franz–Reiner, “Actum in vico fonaluae die consule. Das Rottachgau-Fragment und die romanische Kontinuität am Unterlauf des Inns,” in Nomen et Fraternitas: Festschrift für Dieter Geuenich zum 65. Geburtstag, ed. Ludwig, Uwe and Schilp, Thomas (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2008), 491–510CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

77. Holzfurtner, Ludwig, Gründung und Gründungsüberlieferung. Quellenkritische Studien zur Gründungsgeschichte der bayerischen Klöster der Agilolfingerzeit und ihrer hochmittelalterlichen Überlieferung, Münchner Hist. Studien. Bayer. Gesch. 11, (Kallmünz: Lassleben, 1984)Google Scholar.

78. A chart of the comparisons is in von Schwind's edition, 280.

79. The penalty is reminiscent of the Volsungssaga, when the gods must make composition for the killing of Otr by bringing enough treasure to cover his corpse. Any speculation about connections between the eighth-century south German law and thirteenth-century Scandinavian literature is beyond the scope of this article. The Saga of the Volsungs: The Norse Epic of Sigurd the Dragon-Slayer, trans. Byock, Jesse (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1990), 57–59Google Scholar.

80. Vita vel Passio sancti Haimhrammi episcopi, in Arbeonis Episcopi Frisingensis: Vitae Sanctorum Haimhrammi et Corbiniani, ed. Krusch, Bruno, MGH SSRG in Usum Scholarum 13, (Hannover: Hahn, 1920)Google Scholar.

81. This was suggested by Bernhard Bischoff in his edition and German translation of the text, Vita et Passio Sancti Haimhrammi Martyris, ed. Bischoff, Bernhard (Munich: Ernst Heimeran, 1953)Google Scholar.

82. Vita Corbiniani, 221–23.

83. It may be significant that Lombard dukes seem, on the whole, to have acted more independently of their kings than Frankish dukes; they did without a king altogether for a decade in the sixth century, and after Charlemagne's conquest of the Lombard Kingdom in 774, the dukes of Spoleto and especially Benevento continued to act as virtual sovereigns in their own right. Wickham, Chris, Early Medieval Italy: Central Power and Local Society 400–1000 (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1989), 31–38Google Scholar; and Christie, Neil, The Lombards (Malden, MA and Oxford: Blackwell, 1995), 204–25Google Scholar.

84. Floyd Seyward Lear argued that the Lb and La show a tendency to draw elements of primitive Germanic “folk law” into the sphere of “public law,” influenced by Roman jurisprudence. Few today would accept uncritically Lear's characterization of the “primitive Germanic spirit” of either text, but his observation is sound; Lb titles II and III do create a sense of “public” authority through ducally imposed death sentences for treason rather than reliance on vengeance and wergild alone, which stands in contrast with some other early medieval law. The influence may be Lombard rather than immediately Roman. See Lear, , “The Public Law of the Ripuarian, Alemannic and Bavarian Codes,” Medievalia et Humanistica 2 (1944): 3–27Google Scholar, repr. in idem, Treason in Roman and Germanic Law (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1965), 196–226Google Scholar.

85. On trial by combat, see Bartlett, Robert, Trial by Fire and Water (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986), 113–26Google Scholar.

86. The term “carmulum” is only used twice in other sources that I am aware of. In one, the Conversio Bagoariorum et Carantanorum, it refers to repeated rebellions against Bavarian rule by the Carantanians, a Slavic people in the eastern Alps. In the ninth century, the rebellion of Bernard in 818 was described by the Annals of St. Emmeram as a “carmulum.” Losek, Fritz, ed. and trans., Die Conversio Bagoariorum et Carantanorum und der Brief des Erzbischofs Theotmar von Salzburg. (Hannover: Hahn, 1997), 106 and 108Google Scholar; Annales s. Emmerammi, ed. Georg Pertz, MGH Scriptores in Folio I (Hannover: Hahn, 1826), 93.

87. Jahn, Ducatus, 123–25.

88. “…iudicio contendere…”

89. The title “duke” itself originates in Roman military titulature, indicating that the Bavarian leaders were originally commanders of local armed forces, presumably on behalf of the Franks. The addition of judicial authority is therefore an important ideological development, and one normally associated with early medieval kings.

90. Lb II.4–6 cover discipline within the army; II.10–13 deal with various offenses at the ducal court or failure to respect the ducal seal or orders; II.14–18 govern judges and law courts, including the scheduling of courts (monthly or biweekly), court fees, and general insistence on fair and objective judgments.

91. Rivers' translation here creates a separate bonus for the “duke's close family,” implying an inner circle within the Agilolfings. However, the “parentes” here are simply the Agilolfings themselves.

92. In the Ingolstadt ms.: von Schwind's edition has 960.

93. Brunner suggested that the contradiction may be more apparent than real, as the death penalty may not have applied in cases of manslaughter (rather than treasonous murder) or if the duke's killer sought church sanctuary, in which case wergild assessment would still be needed.

94. Wilhelm Störmer, holding to a sixth-century origin for the Lb, sees these families as the leaders of various ethnic groups out of whom the Bavarians were originally assembled (Thuringians, Alemanni, Rugians). My dating argument would make this impossible, but the basic insight, that such a concession represents an effort to win the loyalty of existing interests, is sound. Störmer, WilhelmDie Baiuwaren (Munich: Beck, 2002), 32–37Google Scholar. See Brown, Unjust Seizure, 25–29; and Hammer, Ducatus to Regnum, 27–29 and 84.

95. Bitterauf, Traditionen, #5.

96. Wilhelm Störmer, Adelsgruppen (per n. 32), 114–16. Störmer observes that whereas the name Fagana only appears in the one document, signatories to TF 5 appear in all the early Freising charters up to 750, suggesting that they were a very important group under Odilo.

97. Bitterauf, Traditionen, #142 and 703a. Brown, Unjust Seizure, 68–72.

98. Störmer, Adelsgruppen, 90–113.

99. TF 763, 853. Gertrud Diepolder, “Die Orts- und, in Pago'-Nennungen im bayerischen Stammesherzogtum zur Zeit der Agilolfinger,” ZBLG 20 (1957): 364–436.

100. I have not counted Carolingian-period documents from these institutions, which are more numerous in all cases. Doing so would only strengthen the point, as the Lb's genealogiae are not named in the later charters either.

101. Störmer, Adelsgruppen, 58–59. Prinz believed that all the genealogiae named in the Lb were a group of pro-Frankish nobles from western Bavaria, so that title III represents the empowerment of a group that would limit ducal independence. However, there is no reason to assume that kin other than the Huosi and Fagana were from the west; if anything, their absence from the Freising charters would imply the opposite. Prinz, Friedrich, Frühes Mönchtum im Frankenreich: Kultur und Gesellschaft in Gallien, den Rheinlanden und Bayern am Beispiel der monastischen Entwicklung (4. bis 8. Jahrhundert), 2nd ed., (Munich: Oldenbourg, 1988), 317–445Google Scholar.

102. Hammer, Ducatus to Regnum, 27; Lb I.8, II.4, VIII.14, and XV.9, as cited by Hammer.

103. See n. 92.

104. Bitterauf, Traditionen, #235.

105. Breves Notitiae, 8.

106. Pauli Historia Lagobardorum, MGH SSRG in usum Scholarum 48, ed. Waitz, G.. (Hannover: Hahn, 1987)Google Scholar. Translated in: Edward Peters, ed., William Dudley Foulke, trans., Paul the Deacon, History of the Lombards Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1974/2003 (transl. originally published 1907). I.21 (Garibald I), IV.7 (Tassilo I), IV.39 (Garibald II). The presumption that all the Bavarian dukes back to the sixth century were Agilolfings is nearly universal.

107. Hammer, From Ducatus to Regnum, 26–51. The state of the evidence is summed up at 49: “Moreover, where we have evidence for the early Bavarian dukes there are no Agilolfings, and where there is evidence for Agilolfings, there are no Bavarian dukes.”

108. “…qui de genere illorum fidelis regis erat et prudens, ipsum constituerunt ducem ad regendum populum illum.” Lb III.

109. Concilium Dingolfingense, ed. Werminghoff, Albert, MGH Concilia II (Hannover and Leipzig: Hahn, 1906), 93–97Google Scholar. Störmer, again, thought that a single generation from the 740s to the 770s was too soon to generate such a nobility. However, the language of “nobility” in this legislation is probably the application of new vocabulary to long-standing realities in Bavarian society. These concepts were presumably adopted from Frankish or Lombard sources. Compare Störmer, , “Zum Prozess sozialer Differenzierung bei den Bayern von der Lex Baiuvariorum bis zur Synode von Dingolfing,” in Typen der Ethnogenese, 155–71Google Scholar.

110. Jahn, Ducatus, 170–76.

111. Annales Mettenses Priores for 743, 33–35.

112. Wilfried Hartmann and Heinz Dopsch, “Bistümer, Synoden und Metropolitenverfassung,” in Die Bajuwaren: Von Severin bis Tassilo 488–788. Gemeinsame Landesausstellung des Freistaates Bayern und des Landes Salzburg, ed. Hermann Dannheimer and Heinz Dopsch, Rosenheim/Bayern, Mattsee/Salzburg, 19. Mai bis 6. November 1988. pp. 318–27.

113. Bruno Krusch, Die Lex Baiuvariorum. Textgeschichte. Handschriftenkritik und Entstehung. 125–63.

114. See Hammer, Ducatus to Regnum, 201–65.

115. Wormald, Patrick, “Lex Scripta and Verbum Regis: Legislation and Germanic Kingship, from Euric to Cnut,” in Early Medieval Kingship, ed. Sawyer, Peter H. and Wood, Ian N., (Leeds: the editors, 1979), 105–138Google Scholar.