Pravila of Govora and its Legal-canonical Institutions
Pravila of Govora and its Legal-canonical Institutions

Summary/Abstract: The byzantine nomocanonical collections, known as „Pravila”, was the dominant law in pre-modern Romanian society until the introduction of modern Western-influenced codes (in the 19th century), and it provided a normative framework which reflected the balance between orthodox tradition and the social needs of the time. This Pravila was printed in 1640 in Govora Monastery, in Wallachia, during the reign of Matei Basarab (1580-1654). The historical importance of the Pravila of Govora, lies both in its normative content and in the fact that it contributed to the formation of legal consciousness in the Romanian language and to the consolidation of the authority of the Pravila of Govora, which was the forerunner of other more extensive legal codifications, such as, for example, the Nomocanon (Pravila) of Târgoviște, printed in 1652, with the title „Îndreptarea legii” (Straighten the law) or Pravila of Matei Basarab. The purpose of this study is to present some aspects related to the legal-canonical institutions of this precious nomocanonical collection.

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