Beaumanoir

A celebrated French law writer, nearly or quite contemporary with the English Bracton, whose work, entitled Coustumes de Beauvoi-sis, contains the whole body of the law and practice of the French courts as it existed in his time. Dr. Robertson makes him a contemporary of Defontaines, who wrote in the reign of St. Louis, but Montesquieu places him after that writer, (whom he calls the oldest law writer in France,) and says he wrote a little after St. Louis' Weath, which happened A. D. 1270. 1 Rob. Charles V. Appendix, note XXV. Esprit des Lois, liv. 28, c. 38. The Coustumes de Beauvoisis has been considered by Mr. Barrington as a systematic and complete performance, throwing much light on the ancient common law of England, but it is rarely referred to by English writers. Marvin's Leg. Bibliog.