Definition
In old European law, to load or to carry goods on a cart or other wheeled vehicle. The term appears in medieval Latin legal texts and documents of commercial and feudal administration, denoting the physical act of loading cargo onto a conveyance or transporting goods by cart. It surfaces most commonly in contexts governing the obligations of tenants, carriers, or laborers to transport goods — whether as a feudal service, a contractual duty, or a defined term in mercantile custom.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers will encounter carricare almost exclusively in medieval and early modern Latin legal manuscripts, land records, custumals, and documents recording feudal tenure obligations. Its significance lies primarily in identifying transport-related duties — particularly the class of labor services owed by villeins or tenants to lords, which frequently included carting services alongside plowing and other agricultural obligations. When reading manorial records or surveys such as extent rolls, the presence of carricare may signal a specific tenure condition rather than a casual description of physical movement.
The term is closely related to the broader family of Latin words governing carriage obligations in feudal contexts, including carcare, cariage, and avera, which together define the spectrum of transport duties that appear in English and continental European tenure documents. A researcher who encounters carricare in a source without recognizing its feudal-service dimension may underread the legal significance of the passage — treating it as mere physical description when it is in fact a term of obligation.
Because the term is essentially extinct in modern legal use, it presents no ambiguity in contemporary sources. The research challenge runs entirely in the other direction: correctly situating it within the vocabulary of medieval tenure and commercial obligation when reading historical texts.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill derives carricare from Italian carrico (a load) and Latin carrum (a car or cart), citing Spelman. The entry is minimal but precise — Burrill frames it as an act of loading or transporting by wheeled vehicle, situating it firmly within old European law. Spelman's Glossarium Archaiologicum, to which Burrill points, is the natural next source for researchers needing fuller treatment, as Spelman's glossary provides more extensive coverage of medieval Latin terms embedded in English tenure and manorial law.
No other major historical legal dictionaries in common circulation give carricare independent treatment. Jacob's Law Dictionary, Tomlin's Law Dictionary, and Black's do not carry the term. This gap means Burrill's brief entry — itself dependent on Spelman — represents the thin edge of available secondary authority. For primary material, researchers must look to the source documents themselves: Latin custumals, Domesday-era surveys, and continental legal compilations.
Jurisdictional Note
Carricare appears in both English and continental European legal records. In English sources it surfaces primarily in manorial and tenure contexts; in continental sources it appears in mercantile and administrative documents. Researchers should not assume uniform usage across jurisdictions.