Book of the Consulate of the Sea

Book of the Consulate of the Sea

Book of the Consulate of the Sea
Author	Unknown
Original title	Llibre del Consolat de Mar (Catalan)
Language	Catalan
Genre	Compendium of laws
Publication date	1320–1330
Published in English	N/A
Media type	Paper and parchment

The Book of the Consulate of the Sea (Catalan: Llibre del Consolat de Mar, lit. 'Book of the Consulate of Sea') is a compendium of maritime law that governed trade in the Mediterranean for centuries. Of Catalan origin, it was translated into many languages and served as the basis for current international maritime law.

When setting the first Consulate of the Sea in Valencia, king Peter III of Aragon decided to apply the maritime customs of Barcelona, called costums de mar, which had not yet been codified, although there did already exist in Barcelona another compilation of maritime rules, called Ordinacions de Ribera, which established norms for policing harbours and coastal waters.^[1]

The merit of the Book of the Consulate of the Sea is that it is the first work to collect the scattered laws and customs of Roman, Greek, Byzantine, Rhodian, Italian, French and Spanish maritime rights.^[2]

Until the publication of the Ordonnance de la Marine in France in 1681,^[3] the Book of the Consulate of the Sea was the code of maritime law in force throughout the Mediterranean. In Spain it continued in use until the introduction of the Spanish Commercial Code. The Book of the Consulate of the Sea effectively replaced the Amalfi Tables, a set of rules written in Amalfi to regulate maritime trade.^[4]