A remarkable tome, a scholarly work on the Lord’s right to deflower virgins, aka the’ droit du seigneur’, and women's marital obligations, is being auctioned in Brussels this week.
The publication on ancient Germanic marriage customs is a ‘remarkable piece of cultural history’ says auction house Arenberg Auctions. The 18th-century work also treats the ius primae noctis' or the Lord's right to deflower virgins.
The work is entitled ‘De uxore Theotisca, von der Teutschen Frau’ and was written by Christian Ulrich Grupen, a German legal historian, lawyer and mayor of the German town of Hanover. He quotes heavily from early medieval sources and describes the transition from young girl to wife and mother.
How did a (married) Germanic woman have to dress and cap herself? What did the dowry consist of? And what marital obligations did she have to fulfil towards her husband, family, and any foster children?
The Lord’s right
What makes the book especially unique is the mention of three practices. The virginum praegustatoribus is the establishment of virginity. The second is the jure deflorationis, or right to deflower. And last comes the jure primae noctis - also known as the Lord's right. This was the medieval right of the feudal lord to take the virginity of the daughters of his serfs on the eve of their marriage.
The publication has no legal basis. Such practices are not to be found in canon law or in civil codes, but by some it was seen as a right.
Isn't it myth?
Today, historians classify the Lord’s right as a myth. ‘The author probably peppered his treatise on common practices and traditions with old stories and myths in a mixture of old German, English and Latin,’ says Henri Godts, auction expert at Arenberg Auctions.
A Congolese tale
Yet forms of the ‘Lord’s right’ still seem to exist to this day. In his book Congo, for example, Belgian writer David Van Reybrouck points to an old Congolese custom, allowing traditional chiefs to use the jus primae noctis. ‘(...)When President Mobutu was touring the country, the local chiefs always offered him a virgin. It was a great honour for the family when the girl was deflowered by the highest chief.’
The publication will be auctioned on 11 and 12 October at Arenberg Auctions. The work is titled ‘De Uxore Theotisca, von der Teutschen Frau’. It dates from 1748 and counts 120 pages.