LAUSR

Actorum (as is the case with other series in the papal archives). In any event, the manualia consist of procedural entries which do not contain much information about the content of the litigation. Copies of the materials relating to the cases, however, such as the initiating claim (libellus), the documents presented in evidence (articuli) and detailed notes from the questioning of witnesses or the contents of sentences were not recorded in the manualia but in the acta of the process, handed over to the parties at the end. Such as survive are usually to be found in local archives and libraries. Mention is also made of the series of Decisiones in the Rotal archives, comprising the legal explanations given by the auditors in the course of litigation. Collections of early decisions circulated widely and affected the wider European legal culture. Salonen’s study is very valuable on its own terms, but it also prompts wider sociological and, where appropriate, ecclesiological reflection: why and by whom is there resort to a court of law? When it comes to the Roman Rota, one recalls Maitland’s phrase about ‘a centripetal, Romipetal’ jurisprudence.