The Costuma d’Agen (customary laws of the Agenais, in south-west France) compiled in Occitan at various times in the thirteenth century and preserved in the Livre Juratoire, or swearing copy (Agen, Archives départementales de Lot-et-Garonne, MS 42), is here transcribed with an English translation on facing pages. An introduction and an index are included. Appendices provide the text of five chapters “missing” from this manuscript, along with several pertinent charters from Agen and a fuller description of the Livre juratoire by Professor M. Alison Stones, University of Pittsburgh. The manuscript contains many colored illustrations and capitals.

The Costume emphasizes the power of the local city council, which often seems to override that of the local count. The laws or customs written in the book deal with many topics including jurisdiction, citizenship and military duties, crime, property, civil and criminal procedure, the local wine and salt trades, and local feudal law.

F. R. P. (Ron) Akehurst (B.A. Oxford, 1962, Ph.D. Colorado, 1967, in French; J.D., Minnesota, 1986). A professor of French at Minnesota since 1968. He has published translations of two other medieval French customaries.

La collection « Publications de l’Association Internationale d’Études Occitanes » (PAIEO) publie des thèses et des éditions de textes dans le domaine occitan, ancien et moderne. La direction de la collection est assurée par l’Association Internationale d’Études Occitanes (AIEO), qui a pour objectif la promotion des études occitanes dans l’ensemble des disciplines des sciences humaines et qui réunit les spécialistes, universitaires et non-universitaires, travaillant dans ces disciplines. A côté des rencontres régulières – congrès tri-annuels, colloques, journées d’étude – organisées par l’AIEO, cette collection représente une composante remarquable de la recherche scientifique internationale en domaine occitan.