Definition
A form of pecuniary compensation in Anglo-Saxon law equal to nine times the value of the thing for which payment was made. Novigild was a fixed monetary satisfaction imposed for certain injuries or wrongs, calculated as a ninefold multiple of the assessed value of the subject matter — whether stolen goods, damaged property, or the basis of a personal injury claim. It belongs to the broader family of compositional penalties by which Anglo-Saxon law resolved disputes through graduated monetary payments rather than physical punishment or blood feud.
Why It Matters in Research
Novigild is a term of historical-legal art with no continuing operative significance in modern law. Researchers encounter it almost exclusively in two contexts: (1) historical studies of Anglo-Saxon and early Germanic legal systems, and (2) dictionary and treatise discussions of the compositional penalty framework from which modern damages concepts partially descend.
The key navigational point is that novigild is one of several named gild-based penalties that appear in the historical sources — each defined by its multiplier. Researchers must be careful not to conflate novigild (ninefold) with twyhyndeman, weregild, or other compositional terms that carry different multipliers and different social or legal contexts. The multiplier is the definitional core; losing track of it collapses distinct legal concepts into a single undifferentiated category of "Saxon penalties."
All four dictionary sources in the Law Mind corpus cite Spelman as their authority — specifically his Glossarium Archaeologicum (Burrill cites it as "Spelman, voc. Geldum"). This means the entire historical dictionary tradition for this term rests on a single antiquarian source. Researchers working in primary Anglo-Saxon materials should treat the dictionary definitions as secondary glosses on Spelman rather than independent attestations. Gaps or errors in Spelman's interpretation would propagate across all four dictionaries without correction.
The term appears in no modern statutory or case law context and carries no jurisdictional variation in any living legal system. Its value to the Law Mind corpus researcher is comparative and historical: understanding how early law quantified wrongs through fixed multipliers informs the longer arc of damages theory, restitution, and the commutation of personal liability to monetary obligation.
Historical Dictionary Support
The four historical dictionaries are in complete substantive agreement. All define novigild as a pecuniary satisfaction for an injury amounting to nine times the value of the relevant thing, and all attribute the definition to Spelman. The definitions are functionally identical across Black's (both editions), Bouvier's, and Burrill's — suggesting direct copying from a shared source rather than independent research.
Burrill adds meaningful value by preserving the etymological components explicitly: from Latin novem (nine) and Saxon gild or geld (a payment). This breakdown is practically useful because it clarifies the term's internal logic and connects it to the gild/geld family of compositional penalties that pervade Anglo-Saxon legal vocabulary. None of the other three dictionaries offer this parsing.
What the historical dictionaries do not do: none situate novigild within the broader Saxon penalty structure, none distinguish it from related terms (twygild, threefold, or simple gild payments), and none provide a primary textual example of novigild being applied in a recorded case or law code. The definition is entirely derivative of Spelman's antiquarian gloss, which itself was written in the seventeenth century as a reconstruction of earlier usage.
Jurisdictional Note
Novigild has no application in any current jurisdiction. It is a term of Anglo-Saxon legal history, operative in pre-Conquest England, and was not received into the common law in any form that survived into modern doctrine.