Lex Ripuaria

The Lex Ripuaria, also spelled Lex Ribuaria, is a seventh-century collection of Germanic law, the laws of the Ripuarian Franks, and a major influence on the Lex Saxonum of 802 AD. It originated around 630 near Cologne and has been described as a later development of the Frankish law already known from the Lex Salica. The law falls into three divisions across its 89 chapters: the first, chapters 1 to 31, is a scale of financial compensations already influenced by the Salic Law though calculated on a different monetary unit; the second, chapters 32 to 64, is taken directly from the Salic Law with interpolated provisions on the freeing and sale of immovable property; and the third, chapters 65 to 89, consists of provisions of various kinds, some drawn from lost capitularies and the Salic Law and others of unknown origin. The compilation appears to date to the reign of Dagobert I, from 629 to 639, and its provisions show greater departure from old Germanic law than the Salic Law, giving more weight to written deeds, a higher wergild for the clergy, and the appearance of judicial duel.