One more item for the Norman reading list
May 3, 2007
Emily Zach Taboutier, Transfers of Property in Eleventh Century Norman Law.
Argues against the view that most land in pre-Conquest Normandy was held by feudal tenure.
But if land was “owned” rather than “held,” how did it come to be owned in the first place? Alas, it seems ownership was originally acquired in pre-literate times, and when charters and other documents began to be drawn up they simply assumed a pre-existing title. Based on what? Oral tradition?
