ROTARI, Edict of. – The first compilation of the customs and judicial usages (cavamfidae) of the Lombards. It marks the abandonment of oral law, permits an assessment of the initial but already significant influence of Roman civilization (use of the Latin language, knowledge of the Theodosian and Justinian Codes, the Institutes and the Novels), demonstrates the influence of Christianity, and finally attests to the now achieved affirmation of royal supremacy over the barbarian assembly.
The Edict, published from the palace at Pavia on 22 November 643, according to official texts compiled in the royal chancery with the authentication of the notary Ansoaldo, constituted the sole law of the kingdom to be cited in legal proceedings. A legislative monument of original character (Leicht), whose general structure appears derived from Roman law (Paradisi), while Germanic norms form its most characteristic, if not also its most vital, part (Besta), it displays repetitions, cross-references, and contradictions already attributed to hasty drafting, but perhaps due to two distinct drafts or to the uncoordinated work of various scribes. It distinguishes itself from earlier barbarian compilations even in its title, *Edictum dispositionis regiae*. This title, seemingly modest and inappropriate, was imposed by R. (as king and not as an imperial magistrate) either out of political shrewdness toward the Romans and Byzantines living in the kingdom who were not its intended recipients, or because the Roman scribes remained faithful to classical terminology, or for diplomatic expediency toward the distant Emperor and the nearby Pope. It has also been suggested that this title reflects the tradition of the Edict of Theodoric in Italy, or the autonomous legislative character that the Edict had assumed for the Germanic and Italian populations. The King wished to present himself as one who corrects the law, renewing and amending all prior laws (as in Justinian Nov. 7), while in the epilogue he affirmed having composed it by blending and recalling the ancient laws of the fathers which had not been written down. Since the version in the Cavense and Vatican manuscripts published by Baudii di Vesme (Turin 1845)—*quam priores homines renovent et emendent...*—i.e., the succeeding princes or dignitaries of the kingdom rather than the prior laws—is now rejected (Bluhme, Padelletti), the issue remains unresolved. Some have deemed both contrasting passages substantially true on technical grounds (Besta), while others have posited two distinct periods between prologue and epilogue (Bognetti), two editions of the Edict, and prior royal laws alongside customary norms (Paradisi). Other theories regard the prologue and epilogue as mere literal copies of earlier models, and the Edict as a collection of orally transmitted norms (Calisse), rejecting as inconclusive attempts at reconciliation (Calasso).
The Edict is presented in simple and intelligible form, despite the low cultural level of the time, but it does not yet succeed in grouping special norms under general ones, nor individual chapters under collective rubrics. To avoid limiting future developments, Rotari allowed for additions and integrations by himself and his successors: already the chapters of Girolamo di Migiarono addressed what, twenty-five years later, appeared in the Edict as *inhumanum et impium*; later, the chapters of Liutprand, the first Catholic king, were added, which strengthened royal power and expanded Roman and Christian influence; then those of Ratchis; and finally those of Aistulf, who in the prologue sought to justify and defend the most recent Lombard conquests with the principle—drawn from ecclesiastical sources—of a divine *traditio*, but whose intervention by the Franks marked the beginning of the political decline of his people and, unwittingly, concluded the legislation of the Lombard kings in his chapters. The extension of the Edict to new Roman subjects seems aimed at that unification of victors and vanquished which, in the ambitions of Aistulf and Desiderius, might have favored dominion over all Italy and a *renovatio imperii* of the Lombards, while the Edict itself bears witness to the slow but unstoppable advance of Roman law and Christianity in replacing primitive barbarian usages.
Rotari – The Edict of R. Cod. Vat. lat. 5350, fol. 1. The codex is a palimpsest: the lower script, a Psalter in the Vetus Latina, dates to the 7th–8th century; the upper script, the *Leges Langobardorum*, to the 9th century – Vatican Library.