Doom book

Alfred codified three prior Saxon codes – those of Æthelberht of Kent (c. 602 AD), Ine of Wessex (c. 694 AD) and Offa of Mercia (c. 786 AD) – to which he prefixed a modified version of the Ten Commandments of Moses and incorporated rules of life from the Mosaic Code and the Christian code of ethics.

In the book's extensive prologue, Alfred summarises the Mosaic and Christian codes.

Michael Treschow, UBC Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies, reviewed how Alfred laid the foundation for the Spirit of Mercy in his code,[4] stating that the last section of the Prologue not only describes "a tradition of Christian law from which the law code draws but also it grounds secular law upon Scripture, especially upon the principle of mercy".

"[5] On the other hand, this precept may have anticipated the future common law of negligence, which provides that a person who is injured by the unintentional carelessness of another is entitled to recover compensation for his or her injury.

Manuscripts containing the Old English text are:[6]: 8 The text was translated into Latin during the reign of Cnut as the third part of the Instituta Cnuti, and survives in the following manuscripts:[6]: 8 The text was independently translated into Latin a second time during the reign of Henry I as part of the Latin compilation known as Quadripartitus, which survives in ten manuscripts.