"Gives the reader a portrayal of the social institutions of a Germanic people far richer and more exhaustive than any other available source."--from the Foreword, by Edward PetersFrom the bloody clashes of the third and fourth centuries there emerged a society that was neither Roman nor Burgundian, but a compound of both. The Burgundian Code offers historians and anthropologists alike illuminating insights into a crucial period of contact between a developed and a tribal society.

Katherine Fischer Drew is Lynette S. Autrey Professor of History Emerita at Rice University and is translator of The Lombard Laws, also available from the University of Pennsylvania Press.