Bechbretha
The Bechbretha[a] (Old Irish for "Bee-judgements"[3]: xvi ) is an early Irish legal text on the law of beekeeping. It dates to the 7th century CE.
Manuscripts
[edit]The text of Bechbretha is only preserved in a complete form in one manuscript (Dublin, Trinity College, MS 1387).[4]: 1 Five authors (writing between the 14th and 16th century) contributed glosses to this copy of the Bechbretha.[4]: 12 Ten other manuscripts (including British Library, MS Egerton 88) and O'Davoren's Glossary offer fragments of or quotations from the Bechbretha (of varying length).[4]: 8–13
Author
[edit]D. A. Binchy proposed that the Irish legal texts Bechbretha and Coibes Uisci Thairdne ("Kinship of conducted water", a tract on watermills) were by the same author. These texts both break from the previous archaic style of Irish legal writing, with explanations of their subject in unadorned prose. Thomas Charles-Edwards and Fergus Kelly follow Binchy in this hypothesis, and further propose that Bretha im fhuillema gell ("Judgements concerning pledge-interests") was a work from the same school as the author of the above two texts.[4]: 27–29, 32
Charles-Edwards and Kelly propose that the author of the Bechbretha was a legal professional writing a "professional tract designed to instruct actual or prospective judges".[4]: 37–38 Against this, Kim McCone has argued that the Bechbretha was written by a member of the church, as the church possessed special beekeeping rights and therefore a special interest in beekeeping law.[2]: 234
Contents
[edit]Charles-Edwards and Kelly divide the tract into five sections: a section on the relations between a keeper of a hive and his neighbours (§§1-26); a section on injuries to persons caused by bees (§§27-35); a section on the ownership of swarms (§§36-49); and a section on the theft of bees (§§50-54); ending with a colophon (§§55).[4]: 30–31 The author of the Bechbretha attempts to justify the rules he presents by analogy with better-known laws. Questions about the swarming of hives onto others' land, which he tries hard to fit into the existing law of animal trespass, concern him much more than injuries to persons by bees.[4]: 31–34
In §31, the Bechbretha gives the judgement against the keeper of a bee that blinded the Ulster king Congal Cáech: one hive awarded to the king. Early Irish law very rarely gives cases involving genuine historical personages (preferring to invoke mythical or Biblical stories). Therefore this case, involving the historical king Congal Cáech, is quite unique. However, the legal case itself is probably mythical, given the unlikely facts and charitable verdict.[2]: 238–239 Bechbretha §12-16 may preserve some information from the lost Irish legal work Fidbretha (tree-judgements).[2]: 274
Date
[edit]On the basis of its language, Charles-Edwards and Kelly have dated the Bechbretha to the 7th century CE.[4]: 4 A terminus post quem is established by the reference to Congal Cáech (who reigned from 626 to 637 CE).[4]: 13
See also
[edit]- Muirbretha (Sea-judgements) on early Irish maritime law
Notes
[edit]- ^ Old Irish pronunciation: [ˈbʲexvʲrʲeθa][2]: xxiv
References
[edit]- ^ Kelly, Fergus (2002). "Texts and transmissions: the law-texts". In Chatháin, Próinséas Ní; Richter, Michael (eds.). Ireland and Europe in the early Middle Ages: texts and transmissions. Dublin: Four Courts Press. pp. 230–242.
- ^ a b c d Kelly, Fergus (1988). A Guide to Early Irish Law. Early Irish Law Series. Vol. 3. Dublin: Institute for Advanced Studies.
- ^ Eska, Charlene M. (2022). Lost and Found in Early Irish Law: Aidbred, Heptad 64, and Muirbretha. Medieval Law and its Practice. Vol. 36. Leiden / Boston: Brill.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Charles-Edwards, Thomas; Kelly, Fergus, eds. (1983). Bechbretha: An Old Irish Law-Tract on Bee-Keeping. Early Irish Law Series. Vol. 1. Dublin: Institute For Advanced Studies.
External links
[edit]
Media related to Bechbretha at Wikimedia Commons
