Definition
A civil law term for a wood or forested area set aside for the feeding and pasturing of cattle. The phrase is Latin, meaning literally "feeding wood" or "pasture wood." In Roman law, pascua silva designated land characterized by timber or woodland that was dedicated primarily to the grazing and sustenance of livestock rather than to cultivation or timber production as such.
The term appears in the Digest of Justinian (Dig. 50.16.30.5), which contains juristic definitions of various categories of rural land and their uses. Within that framework, pascua silva represented a recognized classification of land tenure and use — distinct from arable land (ager), cultivated woodland, or purely ornamental or timber-producing forest.
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Why It Matters in Research
Pascua silva is a term of narrow application, appearing primarily in treatises and dictionaries derived from Roman civil law sources. Researchers will encounter it most often in:
1. Historical property law research, particularly in jurisdictions whose land law descends from Roman or civil law traditions — including Louisiana, Quebec, and former Spanish and French colonial territories. In these contexts, distinctions among categories of rural land (arable, wooded, pasture, mixed) could carry legal consequences for ownership rights, servitudes, and easements of pasture.
2. Annotations and commentaries on the Digest. The source citation — Dig. 50.16.30.5 — places this term in Book 50, Title 16 of the Digest, which is the great definitional title (*De verborum significatione*, "On the meaning of words"). Researchers working through civil law commentaries will find this title cited heavily wherever precise land-use vocabulary is at issue.
3. Easement and servitude research in civil law systems. The right of pasture (*jus pascendi*) was a recognized real servitude in Roman law. Pascua silva, as land dedicated to that use, intersects with the law of servitudes and may appear in older pleadings, conveyances, or judicial opinions from civil law jurisdictions attempting to classify land subject to pasture rights.
The term has no meaningful foothold in common law property doctrine and will not appear in English or American case law outside of historically civil-law-influenced jurisdictions. Researchers using it as a search term in common law corpora are unlikely to find relevant results.
Note the Burrill's entry: the text as preserved appears to conflate two separate entries — the definition of pascua silva is followed by text describing a sea-letter or passport issued to merchant vessels in wartime. This is an artifact of the dictionary's typesetting or digitization, not a secondary meaning of the term. Researchers should not treat the sea-letter text as part of the pascua silva definition.
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Historical Dictionary Support
All three source dictionaries agree on the core definition: a feeding wood devoted to the pasturing of cattle, sourced to Dig. 50.16.30.5. Black's (both editions) and Burrill's reproduce essentially the same formulation. Burrill's adds the Latin gloss *quæ pastui pecudum destinata est* ("which is set aside for the feeding of flocks/cattle"), which clarifies that the defining characteristic is dedication to animal feeding rather than timber production or cultivation.
None of the source dictionaries expand on the legal consequences that attached to this classification, nor do they trace the term's application in post-Roman civil law systems. For fuller treatment, researchers should consult commentaries on the Digest directly, as well as works on Roman agricultural and property law such as those of Gaius and Ulpian (whose writings are embedded in the Digest), or modern civilian treatises on real servitudes.
The Burrill's textual corruption (intrusion of sea-letter text) is noted above and should be discounted.
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Jurisdictional Note
Pascua silva is a Roman civil law term with no direct analog in English common law. Its practical relevance today is limited to jurisdictions retaining civilian property law traditions — principally Louisiana in the United States — and to historical research involving land grants or conveyances made under Spanish or French colonial law, where Roman-derived land classifications sometimes appeared in official documents.
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