The legal treatise, originally known as the ‘Royal and Imperial Law’ and the ‘Land and Feudal Law’, was first published in 1609 by Melchior Goldast (1578–1635) in 1609, modelled on the *Sachsenspiegel*, and was erroneously named the *Schwabenspiegel* – a name that quickly became established.

The source was an Upper German translation of the *Sachsenspiegel* produced between 1265 and 1275, known as the *Augsburger Sachsenspiegel*. It is likely that a Franciscan monk from Augsburg wrote the so-called *Deutschenspiegel* in 1274/75, introducing further groups of articles. Presumably because this remained unfinished, the *Schwabenspiegel* was in turn compiled from it in 1275/76, incorporating Frankish capitularies, institutions of Justinian, the Mainz Landfriede of 1235 and other sources. The Book of Kings, a history book which frames the development of secular rule and law within the context of salvation history, was not included in all manuscripts. In contrast to the ‘Two Swords’ doctrine of the Sachsenspiegel – and of the ‘Deutschenspiegel’ – according to which, for the protection of Christendom, the Pope is entrusted with the spiritual sword and the Emperor with the secular sword – the author of the *Schwabenspiegel*, who was close to the Pope, held the conviction that both swords are handed over to the Pope so that he may enfeoff the Emperor with the secular sword. There is no evidence of the influence of the Schwabenspiegel as a whole, or of its name, on other legal codes. However, individual articles of German law can be identified in Hungarian municipal laws such as the Ofner and the Tavernikalrecht, as well as in Saxon municipal laws in Transylvania.^[1]

It appears that the *Schwabenspiegel* was never given a final edit. Older scholarship, in particular, criticises the varying quality of the text passages and contradictions in content^[2]. In the 19th century, the view began to gain ground that the *Schwabenspiegel* constituted ‘inferior’ German law. Under the influence of Romanticism, criticism was levelled at the weakening and marginalisation of the German law found in the *Sachsenspiegel* and at a decline in its ‘poetry’,^[3] an idea that was particularly well received during the Nazi dictatorship.^[4]

The paradigm of ‘degraded’ Sachsenspiegel law still seems to prevail today, even though there is no longer any explicit argument to that effect. Whilst research into the *Sachsenspiegel* experienced a new, lively resurgence after a relatively quiet phase in the post-war period, particularly after 1990, the *Schwabenspiegel* still leads a marginal existence in academic circles: It was not until 2002 that the first translation of the Schwabenspiegel into High German was published.

It is difficult to classify the individual manuscripts according to textual lineage due to various mutual influences. The existence of a single original form is now doubted. A classification into short form, long form, standard form and systematic form has become established; these denote editorial differences in length – for example, through the selection of articles – and in structure.

Considerations that may lead to reducing the ‘distance’ between the *Sachsenspiegel* and the *Schwabenspiegel* and to promoting interest in the *Schwabenspiegel* as a collection of all law currently stem from questions regarding the interpretation of the *Sachsenspiegel*: Is the *Sachsenspiegel*, much like the *Schwabenspiegel*, not in fact also a compilation of different bodies of law which, contrary to the traditional view, created new law – all the more so in combination with Magdeburg law?^[5]

Like the *Sachsenspiegel*, the *Schwabenspiegel* was also used in Eastern Europe. A manuscript of unknown origin, probably dating from the 13th century, known as the ‘Codex Altenberger’, which was in use in Sibiu, contains, amongst other texts, an abridged version of the Schwabenspiegel. The manuscript from Košice, dating from 1430, is preserved in the town archives there. The script shows evidence of having passed throughOfen/Budapest. A manuscript entitled ‘Codex Altenberger’ was produced in Sibiu.

The book of municipal laws from Sillein/Žilina (14th century) contains a text from the Schwabenspiegel, as does a Breslau codex from the late 15th century. Several passages from the Schwabenspiegel are found in the municipal laws of Ofen (15th century).

In Prague/Praha and Sibiu, the *Schwabenspiegel* was regarded as Nuremberg law.

In the 19th century, a number of editions were published, the most authoritative of which was:

• Friedrich von Lassberg (ed.): *Der Schwabenspiegel* or *Swabian Book of Land and Feudal Law* based on a manuscript from the year 1287. Tübingen 1840.

Numerous reprints in:

• Karl August Eckhardt (ed.): *Bibliotheca Rerum Historicarum – Studia iuris Suevici*. Aalen 1971–1979; *Bibliotheca Rerum Historicarum. Books on Land and Feudal Law, Nos. 4–8. Aalen 1972–1974; Bibliotheca Rerum Historicarum, Reprints, 2, 3, 5–8. Aalen 1972–1977; Bibliotheca Rerum Historicarum, Corpus iuris Europensis, 17/1 and 17/2. Göttingen 1974; Schwabenspiegel (abridged version), First and Second Parts on Land Law. Aalen 1960/1961.

Standard German text:

• Harald Rainer Derschka (ed.): The Schwabenspiegel. Translated into modern German with illustrations from old manuscripts. Munich 2002.

• Elemér Balogh (ed.): Research on the *Schwabenspiegel* in the Danube Region. Conference papers from Szeged on the medieval transfer of law from German *Spiegel*. Berlin 2015 (Ius saxonico-maideburgense in Oriente 4).
• Dieter Belling: The Criminal Law of the Schwabenspiegel. A Contribution to the History of German Criminal Law. Typewritten doctoral thesis, Tübingen 1949.
• Harald Rainer Derschka: The Schwabenspiegel and Human Cognitive Development – New Questions for an Old Text. In: Journal of the Savigny Foundation for Legal History, German Studies Section 118 (2001), pp. 100–147.
• Julius Ficker: On a ‘Mirror of the German People’ and its Relationship to the ‘Sachsen-Spiegel’ and the ‘Schwabenspiegel’. In: Proceedings of the Philosophical-Historical Class of the Imperial Academy of Sciences. Vol. 23. Vienna 1857, pp. 115–292.
• Herman U. Kantorowicz: On the Sources of the ‘Schwabenspiegel’. In: Neues Archiv der Gesellschaft für ältere deutsche Geschichtskunde 38 (1913), pp. 688–700.
• Ol’ga Keller: The Sphere of Influence of the ‘Saksonspiegel’ and the ‘Schwabenspiegel’ in Central and Eastern Europe. In: Vestnik Polockogo Gosudarstvennogo Universiteta. Serija A Gumanitarnye Nauki (Bulletin of Polotsk State University. Series A: Humanities), No. 1 (2005), pp. 27–34.
• Ernst Klebel: Studies on the Versions and Manuscripts of the Schwabenspiegel. In: Communications from the Institute for Austrian Historical Research 44 (1930), pp. 129–264.
• Ernst Klebel: On the Sources of the *Schwabenspiegel*. In: Wilhelm Wegener (ed.): Festschrift for Karl Gottfried Hugelmann. Vol. 1. Aalen 1959, pp. 273–293.
• Dirk Moldt: Saxon-Magdeburg Law among the Transylvanian Saxons. In: Heiner Lück (ed.), in collaboration with Martin Olejnicki and Anne-Marie Heil: From Saxony-Anhalt to the World. The Sachsenspiegel as a European Source of Law. Halle an der Saale 2015 (Signa ivris. Contributions to Legal Iconography, Legal Archaeology and Legal Folklore 14), pp. 233–253.
• Winfried Trusen: Schwabenspiegel. In: Concise Dictionary of German Legal History. Vol. IV, Berlin 1990, cols. 1547–1550.

[1] László Blazovich: The Impact of the *Schwabenspiegel* in Hungary. In: Balogh (ed.): *Schwabenspiegel* Research, pp. 13–24.

[2] See, for example, Julius Ficker: ‘On a Mirror of the German People and its Relationship to the *Sachsen-Spiegel* and *Schwabenspiegel*’. In: Proceedings of the Philosophical-Historical Class of the Imperial Academy of Sciences. Vol. 23, Vienna 1857, pp. 115–292; Carl Gustav Homeyer: The Relationship between the *Sachsenspiegel* and the *Schwabenspiegel*, Berlin 1853.

[3] Jacob Grimm: ‘On Poetry in Law’. In: Zeitschrift für Law 2 (1815), pp. 25–99, here p. 36.

[4] Claudius Freiherr von Schwerin: A History of Germanic Law. An Outline. Berlin 1936, p. 155.

[5] Peter Landau: The Place of Origin of the *Sachsenspiegel*. Eike von Repgow, Altzelle and Anglo-Norman Canon Law. In: *Deutsches Archiv für die Erforschung des Mittelalters* 61 (2005), pp. 73–102.

Dirk Moldt: Schwabenspiegel. In: Online Encyclopaedia on the Culture and History of Germans in Eastern Europe, 2020. URL: ome-lexikon.uni-oldenburg.de/p32739 (accessed 8 September 2022).