According to the present state of research, Manuscript M`s.201 kept in Abbey Fiecht/Georgenberg provides the
earliest record of the ,Common Law of Upper. Bavaria" of 1346.
Known also as the legal code of Emperor Ludwig the Bavarian it was of major importance for legal development
and the consolidation of sovereignty of the Dukedom of Bavaria and the adjacent land of Tyrol.
However, several contemporary copies of the manuscript can be proved parallel to this central legal code but so far
research efforts had mainly been confronted with questions relating to problems of origines, forerunners and
traditions.
The search for the ancient "Common Law" has prevented adequate treatment and further scientific evaluation for
nearly 150 years.
With the present edition known as "Georgenberg Manuscript" the source is edited now for the first time which can
provide a key to the more ancient scripts in question.
Due to an analysis of the reconstructable steps of the establishment of the Georgenberg source this manuscript can
be understood as a last "interadministrative" preliminary stage of the legal code as it was publicized later on.
Editorial additions and remarks, marginal notes and deletions are providing indications on the possible origine of
the manuscript which is characterized by its complexity and whose final editing could only be completed due to the
intervention of the sovereign himself.
It can be assumed with certainty that this Codex is composed of the most varying elements while the edition seeks
to trace down the genesis of this legal code in its structure via relevant items laid down in a secondary catalogue.