Codification of Custom:

1453—Charles VII (ordonnance of Montils les Tours)

1495—coutume of Ponthieu

1509—coutume of Orléans

1510—coutume of Paris

1498–1574—285 coutumiers published

1580—Revised edition of the coutume of Paris

1582—death of Christofle de Thou, first president of the Parlement of Paris and anti-Romanist

Les grandes ordonnances:

Ordonnace de Villers-Cotterets (Francis I, Poyet, 1539)—general reform particularly in procedure for gracious acts.

Ordonnance d’Orléans (Charles IX, l’Hôpital, 1561)—inheritance and civil procedure.

Ordonnance de Moulins (Charles IX, l’Hôpital, 1566)—a kind of statute of Frauds.

Ordonnance de Blois (Henry III, 1579)—marriage.

Ordonnance de 1629 (= Code Michaud) (Louis XIII, Michel de Marillac)—extension of feudal tenure.

Ordonnance de 1667 sur la procédure civile (= Code Louis) (Louis XIV, Colbert)—close to a codification.

Ordonnance criminelle (Louis XIV, Colbert, 1670)—less successful but along the same lines.

Ordonnance du commerce (=Code Savary or Code Marchand) (Louis XIV, Colbert and Savary, 1673)—general commercial code.

Ordonnance sur le commerce de mer (=Code de la marine) (Louis XIV, ?Colbert, 1681)—perhaps the most influential beyond the borders of France.

Ordonnance de 1731 sur les donations (Louis XV, D’Aguesseau).

Ordonnance de 1735 sur les testaments (Louis XV, D’Aguesseau).

Ordonnance de 1747 sur les substitutions (Louis XV, D’Aguesseau).

Code civil (Napoléon, 1804).

The Alciateani:

Andreas Alciatus, 1492–1550

Editors of texts:

Jacobus Cujacius (Jacques Cujas), 1522–1590

Pierre Pithou, 1539–1596

François Pithou, 1544–1621

Dionysius Godofredus (Denis Godefroy), 1549–1622

Jacobus Godofredus (Jacques Godefroy), 1578–1652

Civilians and commentators:

Éguinaire Baron, 1495–1550, comparativist

Antoine de Govéa (Gouveanus), 1505–1566, historian

François Connan (Connanus), 1508–1551, general classification

Franciscus Duarenus (François Douaren), 1509–1559, systematizer

François Baudouin (Balduinus), 1520–1573, historian and comparativist

Hugo Donellus (Hugh Doneau), 1527–1591, systematizer

Lawyer-Historians and Theorists:

François Hotman, 1524–1590

Jean Bodin, 1530–1596

Étienne Pasquier, 1529–1615

Customary Lawyers:

Charles Dumoulin, 1500–1566, the ‘French Papinian,’ systematizer of the custom of Paris

Guy Coquille, 1523–1603, custom of Nivernais treated comparatively

Antoine Loysel, 1536–1617, maxims arranged according to the Institutes

Louis Charondas Le Caron, 1534–1613, historical inquiry into the custom of Paris

Charles Loyseau, 1566–1627, treatises on specific topics

Later Figures:

Jean Domat, 1625–1695

Gabriel Argou, 1640–1703

Joseph Pothier, 1699–1772

The Titles of the Custom of Paris (1580):

Tit. 1—On Fiefs (art. 1–72)

Tit. 2—On Quit-rents (censives) and seigneurial rights (73–87)

Tit. 3—Which goods are movable and which immovables (88–95)

art. 91. Fish being in a pond or in a ditch is regarded as immovable; but when it is in a shop (boutique) or reservoir, it is regarded as a movable.

Tit. 4—On Plaint in case of seisin and of novelty and simple seisin (91–98)

Tit. 5—On Personal actions and on hypotheque (99–112)

Tit. 6—On Prescription (113–128)

Tit. 7—On retrait lignagier (129–159)

Tit. 8—Judgments, executions, gages (160–183)

Tit. 9—On Servitudes and reports of juries (184–219)

Tit. 10—Community of goods (220–246)

Tit. 11—On Dower (247–264)

Tit. 12—On Guardianship of nobles and bourgeois (265–271)

Tit. 13—On Gifts and mutual gift (272–288)

Tit. 14—On Testaments and their execution (289–298)

Tit. 15—Of Succession in the direct line and in the collateral (299–344)

Tit. 16—Of Public proclamations [criées] (345–362)

Jean Bodin, A Method for the Easy Understanding of Histories (1566):

And so having compared the arguments of Aristotle, Polybius, Dionysius [of Halicarnassus], and the jurists—with each other and with the universal history of commonwealths—I find the supremacy (summam) in a commonwealth consists of five parts.  The first and most important is appointing magistrates and assigning each one’s duties; another is ordaining and repealing laws; a third is declaring and terminating war; a fourth is the right of hearing appeals from all magistrates in last resort; and the last is the power of life and death where the law itself has made no provision for flexibility or clemency.