Sachsenspiegel (Saxon Mirror)

Eike von Repgow compiled the Sachsenspiegel ("Saxon Mirror") at Count Hoyer of Falkenstein's request between approximately 1220-1235 CE in Saxony. Originally written in Latin, then translated into Middle Low German, it documented existing customary law in two sections: Landrecht (common law) and Lehnrecht (feudal law). The code spread throughout Germany and Eastern Europe, becoming the most influential Germanic legal text of the medieval period. It served as the first major German legal codification and among the earliest substantial German prose works. Elements of its legal principles persisted in later German and Dutch law.