King Stephen's charters and laws, Admont codex

Pannonhalma - Letter of foundation 2
St Stephen
King Stephen's charters

Under the name of King Stephen, ten charters survived altogether. Of these one is written in Greek, and six are later forgeries (the Nyitra one from 1006, the Pécsvárad one from 1015, the two Zalavár ones from 1019 and 1024, the Bakonybél one from 1037, and a chrter from Ravenna without a date). The remaining three Latin charters are interpolated, that is the texts of them were changed by insertions later. The letter of foundation of Pannonhalma from 1002, the letter of foundation of the bishopric in Veszprém and Pécs from 1009. The latter two survived in a later transcription, only the letter of foundation of Pannonhalma would want to seem to originate from the age of Stephen.

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King Stephen's laws

Under the name of the first king of Hungary two law-books survived, containing 56 acts altogether.The first book was probably compiled in the beginning of the reign of King Stephen, the second one at the end of his reign, but it is also possible that the 56 acts are the product of several legislative occasions. Its oldest codex is the Admont codex. The editor of these laws used the resolutions of the 847 Mainz synod, the Bavarian common law and the Fake Isidorus collection of canons as his source. There is a preface to the first book.

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The Admont codex

The oldest manuscript of St Stephen's laws, which contains only 50 clauses of the two law-books. The codex was written in a scriptorium of a monastery in the 12th century. Today it is kept in the National Széchényi Library in Budapest.

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