A critical edition of 'Montpellier H119': A thirteenth-century Old Occitan coutumier

The purpose of this dissertation is to render the manuscript Montpellier H119 accessible to the modern scholar of philology, medieval studies, cultural history, and law. The manuscript is a late thirteenth to early fourteenth-century Old Occitan legal text stored in the Medical School Library of Montpellier and has never before been edited. Through research in the archives and libraries of Montpellier containing manuscripts contemporary to H119 and paleographical interpretation of the manuscript, it has been edited in its entirety. Difficult words have been glossed and tables of proper and place names have been provided. Peculiarities in the manuscript are signaled by footnotes, along with scribal errors and corrections. The introduction situates the manuscript historically and politically, and discusses its language and orthography. It also considers its role as a coutumier, or text of previously unwritten, oral law, in the legal tradition of medieval Languedoc.; The manuscript contains six parts: costumas, pre-existing oral laws that were written down in 1204, establiments, laws passed by the new municipal legislative council founded in Montpellier in 1204, oaths that members of trades were required to recite, an inventory of the municipal coffers of Montpellier, a list of the legislative council members from 1204 through 1343, and a chronicle covering important events in Montpellier from the years 809 through 1364.; The importance of this text to scholars of philology, medieval history, and law is that it is the oldest extant copy of these laws, which were written upon a change of feudal lordship in Montpellier, from local rule by the Guilhem family to control by the king of Aragon. Its linguistic particularities are in part due to the annexation of an Old Occitan-speaking region to the Aragonese crown. It holds legal interest by serving as an example of feudal law that had deviated from Roman law while still retaining certain Roman features. Through the study of the laws and language of medieval Montpellier, much can be learned about the daily life, values, and norms of this society.