A Source Book of Mediæval History: Documents Illustrative of European Life and Institutions from the German Invasions to the Renaissance
History
A Source Book of Mediæval History: Documents Illustrative of European Life and Institutions from the German Invasions to the Renaissance
Middle Ages -- Sources
Source--Text in _Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Leges_
(Boretius ed.), Vol. I., No. 32, pp. 82-91. Translated by
Roland P. Falkner in _Univ. of Pa. Translations and Reprints_,
Vol. III., No. 2, pp. 2-4.
[Sidenote: Report to be made to the king by his stewards each
Christmas-tide]
=62.=[149] We desire that each steward shall make an annual
statement of all our income, with an account of our lands
cultivated by the oxen which our plowmen drive, and of our lands
which the tenants of farms ought to plow;[150] an account of the
pigs, of the rents,[151] of the obligations and fines; of the game
taken in our forests without our permission; of the various
compositions;[152] of the mills, of the forest, of the fields, and
of the bridges and ships; of the freemen and the districts under
obligations to our treasury; of markets, vineyards, and those who
owe wine to us; of the hay, fire-wood, torches, planks, and other
kinds of lumber; of the waste-lands; of the vegetables, millet, and
panic;[153] and of the wool, flax, and hemp; of the fruits of the
trees; of the nut trees, larger and smaller; of the grafted trees
of all kinds; of the gardens; of the turnips; of the fish-ponds; of
the hides, skins, and horns; of the honey and wax; of the fat,
tallow and soap; of the mulberry wine, cooked wine, mead, vinegar,
beer, wine new and old; of the new grain and the old; of the hens
and eggs; of the geese; of the number of fishermen, smiths,
sword-makers, and shoe-makers; of the bins and boxes; of the
turners and saddlers; of the forges and mines, that is iron and
other mines; of the lead mines; of the colts and fillies. They
shall make all these known to us, set forth separately and in
order, at Christmas, in order that we may know what and how much of
each thing we have.
[Sidenote: Domestic animals]
=23.= On each of our estates our stewards are to have as many
cow-houses, pig-sties, sheep-folds, stables for goats, as possible,
and they ought never to be without these. And let them have in
addition cows furnished by our serfs[154] for performing their
service, so that the cow-houses and plows shall be in no way
diminished by the service on our demesne. And when they have to
provide meat, let them have steers lame, but healthy, and cows and
horses which are not mangy, or other beasts which are not diseased
and, as we have said, our cow-houses and plows are not to be
diminished for this.
[Sidenote: Cleanliness enjoined]
=34.= They must provide with the greatest care that whatever is
prepared or made with the hands, that is, lard, smoked meat, salt
meat, partially salted meat, wine, vinegar, mulberry wine, cooked
wine, _garns_,[155] mustard, cheese, butter, malt, beer, mead,
honey, wax, flour, all should be prepared and made with the
greatest cleanliness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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