Bulletin of Spanish Studies | 2021
Reviews of Books
Abstract
Jesús Velasco’s remarkable book on the Siete Partidas provides a number of unique and intriguing perspectives on the Alfonsine legal masterpiece. The author clearly states that he does not intend to write a legal history—the relationships of manuscripts, sources, specific translations etc.—but rather a cultural history, a rethinking of the Siete Partidas as a cultural product with political consequences. He begins his study with a definition of vox mortua in the context of theories and techniques of legal codification in the Middle Ages. He demonstrates how Alfonso used ‘dead language’, the written instrument of law, to create not a summa, or handbook as some scholars have argued, but rather a code of legislation. To this end, the ‘Wise King’ ‘combined law, philosophy, and fiction to produce a legal code that would keep its integrity over time, cannot be altered, and whose content at the level of both the letter and the spirt of the law will be remembered’ (20). In the five chapters that follow the Introduction, Velasco explains how Alfonso achieved his goal of redrawing legislative technique and created a legal aesthetic in which the people themselves become responsible for the perception and integrity of the legal code. Chapter 1, ‘Dead Voice’, details Alfonso’s concern for establishing a reliable, unalterable legal archive of notarial records i.e., protecting the physical integrity of the written document. This chapter deals primarily with the third Partida which defines the properties of a person before and within the law, the authentica persona. According to Velasco, the crowning achievement of this Partida is the creation of the legal subject, a judicial person that replaces the biological individual by means of documents. In Chapter 2, ‘Vernacular Jurisdiction’, Velasco interrogates Alfonso’s choice to write in the vernacular or roman paladino. By doing so the king challenged the general theory and practice of jurisdiction. He claims that Alfonso achieved an unmatched degree of clarity in the language in which the Siete Partidas was composed. Although the code incorporates various existing legal traditions—canon law, Roman law (Corpus Iuris Civilis), local legal regulations (municipal charters, fueros etc.)—Velasco argues that it is not a translation. Rather it ‘endeavors to create a universal, central jurisdiction that works from the perspective of the vernacular’ (60). In order to achieve this aim, the Partidas create a moral climate inscribed in the legislation itself through philosophical and fictional devices centred on the concept of ‘justice’ as ultimately emanating fromGod and common to every legal subject. Chapter 3, ‘Revenant Manuscripts’, addresses the challenges of legal manuscripts that come back to renew the force of law. Alfonso met the challenges and obstacles that revenant manuscripts could cause by regulating the types of material with which documents should be composed and assuring that notaries and other officials possessed the necessary knowledge and skills to act as custodians of the integrity of ‘dead voice’. Velasco coins the term ‘legal philologists’ for these officials and asserts that, in the Siete Partidas, codicology, paleography and diplomatics were crucial legal operations and not ancillary disciplines as prior historians have classified these fields. Alfonso was concerned with normalizing written legal documents but also with how these documents were viewed in terms of affects and emotions caused by the presence of the law. Chapter 4, ‘Legislating Friendship,’ examines the fourth Partida. This chapter is particularly enlightening and highlights the lasting scope and impact of the ideas that