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The Meaning of ‘carruca’ in the ‘Leges Barbarorum’
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 July 2016
Extract
The term carruca (or carruga), like many other terms in medieval Latin, acquired a new and different meaning in the Middle Ages in place of its original classical meaning. There is no confusion over the meaning of carruca in Roman historical and literary sources: it clearly means a four-wheeled wagon or carriage. However, its original meaning was modified during the medieval period so that by the early ninth century carruca denoted a wheeled plow. Although the medieval plow is often called a carruca (whereas the Roman plow is called an aratrum), one should not infer that all references to carruca in medieval sources signify a plow, particularly if these sources are datable to that transitional period during which the classical meaning of the word was beginning to be transformed into its medieval one. Characteristic of the sources which fall within this period are the Germanic tribal laws (leges barbarorum), and of these, three individual laws in particular are of interest: the Pactus legis Salicae 38.1, Lex Ribuaria 47.2, and Lex Alamannorum 93.2.
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References
1 See, for example, Suetonius, The Lives of the Twelve Caesars 6 (Nero 30.3); Pliny, Natural History 33.140; and Martial, Epigrams 3.62. Google Scholar
2 Reference is made to abbot Irminon's Polyptych 22.4: 'Facit in unaquaque ebdomada curvadam I cum quantis animalibus habuerit, quantum ad unam carrucam pertinet.’ See A. Longnon, Polyptyque de l'abbaye de Saint-Germain de Prés (Paris 1895) 2.298. Cf. the Capitula Pistensia ( a.d. 869) 12, which refers to a carruca indominicata. MGH LL 2.2.337. Unfortunately, the reference to carruca in the Capitulare de villis 23 could be interpreted as either a wagon or a plow. In addition, see the comments by K. Verhein, 'Studien zu den Quellen zum Reichsgut der Karolingerzeit,’ Deutsches Archiv für Erforschung des Mittelalters 10 (1954) 353 and n. 229.Google Scholar
On wheeled plows in general, see E. M. Jope, 'Agricultural Implements,’ in A History of Technology edd. G. Singer et al. (New York & London 1956) 2.88–89.
3 MGH LL 4.1.136. Pactus leg. Sal. 38.1 appears as the later Lex Salica (Recensio Pippina) 63.1, but in somewhat abbreviated form. Google Scholar
4 Parain, C., 'The Evolution of Agricultural Technique,’ in Cambridge Economic History of Europe ed. Postan, M. M. (Cambridge 1966) 1.142, believes that the horse described in Pactus leg. Sal. 38.1 pulls a plow and that this application is indicative of an 'abundance of horses among the Franks.’ But even he admits that the use of horses to pull plows at this period is exceptional.Google Scholar
5 'Si quis [vero] aratro de campo alieno anteostaverit …’ MGH LL 4.1.103. Also see the later Capitula legi Salicae addita 127.2: ibid., 266. In the Lombard laws, notably in the Edictus Rothari ( a.d. 643), plow appears either as aratrum or in the latinized Lombardic plovum. See MGH LL 4.69. Also see B. Kratz, 'Zu lat. plovum in den langobardischen Gesetzen,’ Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 66 (1965) 217–29.Google Scholar
6 MGH LL 3.2.98. Law 47.2 in the Beyerle-Buchner edition is equivalent to law 44 in the edition of Rudolf Sohm. See MGH LL 5.235. Google Scholar
7 MGH LL 4.1.127. Google Scholar
8 Ibid. 126.Google Scholar
9 Unfortunately, it is impossible to assume that carruga in MS A3 was added no earlier than the medieval meaning of this term became evident, because the majority of the MSS of the Pactus legis Salicae were written between the late eighth and mid-ninth centuries (and other MSS even later). In fact, the so-called first text (MS A1: Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale lat. 4404) is dated by paleographers to ca. 800–14. Google Scholar
10 We should also disregard the argument put forth by F. Schramm, Sprachliches zur Lex Salica: Eine vulgärlateinisch-romanische Studie (Marburger Beiträge zur romanischen Philologie 3; Marburg 1911) 45 n. 2, namely that MS A3 of Pactus leg. Sal. 34.3 (which he refers to as codex 3 of law 34.2) should be taken as conclusive proof that carruca means plow and that all other MSS must be interpreted in the light of this usage. In fact, the collation supplied in Eckhardt's edition of the Pactus legis Salicae (MGH LL 4.1.126–27) indicates the lesser significance of MS A2 in comparison to other and more important MSS. Google Scholar
11 One author who assumes that carruca in this law is a wheeled plow is L. White, Jr., Medieval Technology and Social Change (New York 1966) 50. Nevertheless, he does not believe that carruca in Pactus leg. Sal. 38.1 is also a plow. Google Scholar
12 MGH LL 5.1.154. Google Scholar
13 Ibid. English translation of these Alamannic laws is available in my Laws of the Alamans and Bavarians (Philadelphia 1977) 99.Google Scholar
14 For example, see DuCange II, s.v. carruca; A. Ernout and A. Meillet, Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue latine, Histoire des mots (Paris 1959), s.v. carrus; A. Walde, Lateinisches etymologisches Wörterbuch ed. Hofmann, J. B. (Heidelberg 1965) I, s.v. carracutium; J. F. Niermeyer, Mediae latinitatis lexicon minus (Leiden 1954–76), s.v. carruca. Google Scholar
15 See ThLL 3 s.v. carrus. Also see G. Duby, Rural Economy and Country Life in the Medieval West (Columbia, S.C. 1968) 19. Although a cart may be defined as a two-wheeled vehicle and a wagon as a four-wheeled one, a wagon may also be described as a four-wheeled cart, particularly if it is not large, Therefore, carts can have either two or four wheels. Cf. Oxford English Dictionnary (Oxford 1933), s.v. cart. Google Scholar