The Late Roman Law and Isidorian Tradition in the Anonymous Treatise on the Roman and Frankish Offices (Vat. Lat. Reg. 1050)

Abstract

The objectives of this article are a source study and the first critical translation of a source, known among West European scholars as the Decursio de gradibus, or “Treatise on Roman and Frankish Offices”. Palaeographical and codicological analysis permits to reveal the history of creation, the circumstances of its transfer to the Vatican Apostolic Library. The authors of the article analyze the reception of late Roman law and Isidore of Seville’s tradition by an anonymous author who compiled this source around the 7th—8th centuries. A hypothesis based on the text is insistent on ecclesiastical belonging of the well-educated anonym, as well as denominates the purpose of this source in the education of his pupils and explanation of crucial Roman offices to Frankish nobles and kins’s court.