Alexandros Ypsilanti’s Code of Laws (Pravilniceasca Condica). From The Dowry “Ante Nuptias” And “Post Nuptias” To The “Sheet Of Dowry” Of The Old Romanian Law

Abstract

The examination and assessment of the contents of the Code of Laws published in the year 1780 by Alexandros Ypsilanti, Prince of Wallachia (1774–1782; 1796–1797) – known as Pravilniceasca Condica – is the result of an interdisciplinary research, carried out on the basis of documentary material of prime importance for the history of Romanian medieval law and the country’s old legal institutions. One of these legal institutions was marriage, which occupied a leading place in the framework of juridical institutions of the Romanian principalities, even though in some Codes and Collections of secular legislation – such as the one of 1780 – we find provisions that concern only certain matrimonial documents (dowry, dowry sheet, testamentary inheritance etc.). Since in the specialized literature there is no interdisciplinary study with historical and legal content about Ypsilanti’s Code of Laws, or about its “sheets of dowry”, through our research we managed to bring new contributions regarding the genesis and legal status of the “dowry”, as well as about the process of reception of Byzantine law in the Romanian geographical space at the end of the 18th century.

Keywords

• phanariot period
• roman and byzantine legislation
• customary law
• dowry
• marriage