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.

[1] The General Encyclopedia of the Sea says there is a controversy on the origin of the book, in which three countries dispute the glory of being the first to have written it: France (Marseille), Spain (Valencia, Barcelona and Tortosa) and Italy (Pisa).

Later, Wildscut, considering that the original compilation makes no reference to the Bills of exchange, he concludes that this Catalan document must predate the first half of the 13th century.

[6] The expansion of the Catalan Navy and its commercial and maritime supremacy meant that the Book of the Consulate of the Sea was respected throughout the Mediterranean and up into the Atlantic.

[1] Originally written in Catalan, the Book of the Consulate of the Sea was translated into Italian, French, English, Castilian and other languages, and for centuries was the basis of merchant marine legislation in many countries, even up to modern times.

The rules of the Book of the Consulate of the Sea were active in Spain until 1829, when they were replaced by the Spanish code of commerce, inspired by French law.

[9] There are several medieval manuscript copies, although one of the finest examples from the artistic point of view is the codex called "Consolat del Mar" with miniatures from Domingo Crespi made in 1407, kept in the Municipal Archives of Valencia.

[2] Pedro the Ceremonious gave Barcelona its Consulate of the Sea saying he would be in the same form as that of Mallorca, "sub ea scilicet forma qua concessum est civitati Maioricarum".

[13] Part I consists of 43 chapters that prescribe methods to choose the consuls of the sea and appellate judges in Valencia, the legal responsibilities of each and the procedural regulations of awards of cases brought before them.

The original manuscript of the Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris has the following inscription appearing at the end of Article 217: "El llibre acaba aquí.

[14] One of the most complete editions is due to Moliné y Brasés of 1914, which contains not only the old customs prior to the first compilation but included all subsequent contributions.