1.

In the year 1713, a gentleman named Juan Manuel Fernández Pacheco established
what we know today as the Spanish Royal Academy. He aimed “to assure that Spanish
speakers will always be able to read Cervantes" – and the academy did this by
exercising a progressive up-to-date maintenance of the formal language through a
series of reference works.
2. Until today, the Academy published 23 editions of the Dictionary of Spanish language
and thus it not only maintained but also captured the evolution of the language
through time.
3. Its first endeavor was the six-volume Dictionary of Authorities published from 1726 to
1739. The one thing that particularly distinguished this dictionary from the other ones
was the decision of the academics to include very concise usage examples from
diverse literary and nonliterary texts, stating the title and the name of the author
inside every article of the dictionary.
4. The cited texts date from the 12th to the 18th century and were composed by the
greatest masters of the use of the Spanish language. This leads us to the project that
I am working on. I intend to analyze the legal documents used as sources and to show
both diachronic and synchronic information this dictionary provides on legal
terminology.
5. Since the dictionary cites more than 20 legal documents and since we have to keep in
mind that the obligatory extension of my master thesis doesn’t allow me to analyze
them all right now, I decided to concentrate on one of the oldest and yet the least
investigated sources of this dictionary.
6. This particular text is called Fuero Juzgo and it is a codex of Spanish laws enacted in
1241. However, this document is essentially a translation of the set of laws called Liber
iudiciorum formulated in 654 by the Visigoths.
7. So, in 1726 Spanish academics used this text that had been compiled in 1241 and
based on a document from the year 654. This particular case provides an insight into
the legal terminology used in 13th century and – even more exciting – it may even
show us certain legal concepts that existed way back in the 7th century.
8. What I aim to do is to in the first place describe the roll the Fuero Juzgo has as a source
in the Dictionary of Authorities, but also to include a lexicological analysis which would
show the evolution of certain juridical concepts. This particular analysis would include
 a case study which would illustrate the evolution of these concepts till the present
day.
9. It is my wish to one day be able to digitalize this project. Not only a part of it, but
broader study of the legal terminology inside the Dictionary of Authorities. And that’s
why I am here today.