Definition
A Latin term from old English law designating a writ or action of trespass. Transgressione was the procedural vehicle by which a plaintiff brought a formal complaint of trespass before a court, encompassing the wrong committed and the remedy sought. The term appears most commonly in the titles and recitals of early common law writs, and in legal maxims derived from the same tradition. The associated maxim — Transgressione multiplicata, crescat poenae inflictio — means "when transgression is multiplied, let the infliction of punishment be increased," a principle cited in Coke's Institutes (2 Inst. 479) to support graduated or cumulative punishment for repeated wrongs.
Common Confusion
Transgressione is not synonymous with transgression as a general term of moral or criminal disapproval. In the Latin legal vocabulary of the old English writ system, it referred specifically to the procedural form — the writ or action of trespass — rather than to any underlying moral failing. Researchers encountering the term in historical pleadings or writ registers should not read it as a general accusation but as a technical designation for the form of action.
Why It Matters in Research
This term belongs to the Latin writ vocabulary of the early English common law and will surface primarily in pre-modern sources: writ registers, plea rolls, year books, and treatises organized around the forms of action. Researchers working in these materials need to recognize transgressione as the Latin equivalent of the English "trespass" writ, not as a standalone cause of action distinct from that tradition.
Several research traps are worth flagging. First, Rapalje & Lawrence redirects entirely to DE TRANSGRESSIONE, the fuller writ designation. Researchers using that dictionary must follow the cross-reference to find substantive treatment; the stub entry under transgressione alone will not satisfy a research need. Second, the maxim Transgressione multiplicata, crescat poenae inflictio occasionally appears in historical arguments about recidivism or cumulative sentencing. When encountered in that context, the citation traces to 2 Institutes 479 (Coke), and researchers should go to that source directly rather than treating the maxim as freestanding authority. Third, the forms-of-action framework that gives transgressione its meaning was abolished in England by the Common Law Procedure Acts of the mid-nineteenth century and was never transplanted wholesale into American practice. American researchers encountering the term in early colonial or reception-era sources should understand it as carrying English procedural meaning, not as a term of art in American common law.
The connection to trespass doctrine is the primary corpus link. Transgressione is an ancestor term to the cluster of trespass actions — trespass vi et armis, trespass on the case, trespass quare clausum fregit — and understanding it assists researchers tracing how those forms developed and differentiated.
Historical Dictionary Support
The four source dictionaries are in agreement on the core definition: transgressione denotes a writ or action of trespass in old English law. Black's (both editions) and Bouvier's are substantively identical on this point. Rapalje & Lawrence decline to define the term independently, treating it as a fragment requiring the full phrase de transgressione for meaning.
Black's alone includes the associated maxim with its citation to Coke's Institutes. Bouvier's omits the maxim entirely, and the remaining sources provide no additional doctrinal content. None of the historical dictionaries elaborate on the procedural mechanics of the writ, its relationship to specific trespass forms, or its operation within the broader writ system. Researchers seeking that depth must move beyond the dictionary shelf to writ registers, Fitzherbert's Natura Brevium, or Blackstone's Commentaries.
The orthographic variation between the two Black's editions — "Tranusgressione" appearing in the second edition, almost certainly a typographical error for "Transgressione" — is not substantively significant but may cause momentary confusion when comparing editions.
Jurisdictional Note
Transgressione is a term of English legal history and has no direct American procedural counterpart. Its relevance to American legal research is historical and genealogical — tracing the roots of trespass doctrine in jurisdictions that received the English common law.