Spain: Sources from the Fifth to the Eighteenth Centuries C.E.

Abstract

The Spain chapter covers sources from the fifth to eighteenth centuries C.E. It begins with a review of the rules that specifically address the built environment in the Visigothic code the Liber iudiciorum. This is followed by a study of the earliest extant treatise from the tenth century of the Islamic period in the Iberian Peninsula that lasted seven centuries. During the late thirteenth century an important treatise the Las Siete Partidas, in its third redaction, was circulated. It can be considered as a major reference of the law and as a model code. The intent of each rule is clearly indicated and supported by the reasons for its adoption and implementation. It can be described as being a proscriptive code that can be responsive to the particular conditions of a locality. After the conquest of major cities from the Muslims, municipal government in each city was established and the institution of alarife was a part of it. Alarife codes were established in important cities such as Toledo, Cordoba, and Granada. The earliest that was studied by contemporary scholars is from fifteenth century Toledo. It is fully analyzed in this chapter, followed by the alarife code for Cordoba that dates about a century later. Continuity of specific rules is indicated as well as highlighting new additional rules that were absent in the earlier Toledo code. The alarife codes embody rules that address the compact built form characteristics of the towns and cities that were inherited from the previous Islamic period and such rules, in essence, preserved the physical qualities of these towns and cities to the nineteenth century when ‘modern’ planning and building regulations began to replace them.

A part of this chapter are Figs. 3.1–3.9 and Appendices 7–10.