Definition
A bundle or sheaf of arrows, specifically one containing twenty-four arrows. The term is a Latin phrase drawn from medieval legal usage, appearing in historical Scottish law and early English legal records. The quantity — twenty-four arrows per sheaf — was the standard measure recognized in legal contexts where arrows were inventoried, taxed, traded, or accounted for as property. The term is sometimes rendered as schaffa sagittarum, a variant form carrying the same meaning.
Common Confusion
GARBA SAGITTARUM should not be confused with GARBALES DECIMÆ, which appears immediately adjacent in several historical legal dictionaries. Garbales decimæ refers to tithes of grain (corn) in Scots law — a completely unrelated concept. The proximity of the two entries in alphabetical legal dictionaries has led to occasional conflation, particularly in manuscript notes and older indexes where the entries are compressed.
Why It Matters in Research
This term will surface almost exclusively in historical inventories, feudal records, exchequer accounts, and medieval property or military equipment schedules. Researchers working with Scottish or English records from the medieval and early modern periods — particularly royal armories, castle inventories, baronial accounts, or records of purveyance — may encounter this term when arrows are being enumerated as taxable or transferable goods.
The fixed quantity of twenty-four is legally significant: the sheaf was a standard unit of measure, much as other commodities were counted in dozens, scores, or specific bundled quantities by legal convention. Misreading or ignoring this unit can produce errors in reconstructing historical inventories or valuations.
Researchers should note that the variant term schaffa sagittarum may appear in different source traditions and regional records for the same concept. When searching corpus materials, both forms should be queried. The term garba also appears in agricultural contexts meaning a sheaf of grain (compare garbales decimæ), so context is essential — the modifier sagittarum (of arrows) is what distinguishes this as a military or equipment-related measurement rather than an agrarian one.
There is no modern legal application for this term. Its utility is entirely historical and archival.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary provides the core entry: a sheaf of arrows containing twenty-four, with schaffa sagittarum noted as an alternative form, citing Skene. Sir John Skene's De Verborum Significatione (1597), a glossary of Scots legal terms, is the principal authority behind this definition, situating the term firmly in the Scottish legal tradition. Black offers no further elaboration beyond the quantity and the variant name, which is consistent with the term's narrow, technical character — it required little interpretation, functioning simply as a unit of measure.
Historical legal dictionaries universally treat this as a brief entry requiring minimal commentary, which itself signals that the term was well understood within its original context and did not generate interpretive disputes. No meaningful divergence exists across historical sources on the core meaning. What the historical dictionaries do not address is how garba sagittarum interacted with broader systems of taxation, purveyance, or military obligation — for that, researchers must look beyond lexicographic sources to the underlying records and treatises of Scottish and English medieval administration.
Jurisdictional Note
The term originates in Scottish legal usage as recorded by Skene, though analogous sheaf-based measurements for arrows appear in English medieval records as well. Research use is effectively confined to historical Scots law and medieval British legal history.