Definition
In old English law, a viridarius was a verderor — an officer of the royal forest charged with oversight of the vert, meaning the green growth of the forest. The viridarius held judicial and administrative responsibilities within the forest court system, attending forest eyres and swainmotes to record and attest to offenses against the vert and venison. The office was one of the four principal offices of the royal forest, alongside the warden, regarder, and agisters.
The closely related term viridis (or viride) denotes the vert itself — the green vegetation of the forest, including trees, underwood, and other growth capable of harboring or feeding the king's deer. The viridarius was, in essence, the guardian of the viridis.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers encountering viridarius in historical English legal documents should proceed directly to the entry for VERDEROR, which is the anglicized form of the same office and carries the fuller treatment in secondary literature. Burrill cross-references Reg. Orig. 177b, placing the term in the context of the original writs — meaning viridarius may appear in writ practice when initiating proceedings connected to forest offenses or the forest courts.
The Latin form viridarius appears predominantly in medieval records: forest eyre rolls, plea rolls of the forest courts, and administrative writs issued out of Chancery. Researchers working in Year Books or early common law reports are more likely to encounter the anglicized verderor; viridarius belongs chiefly to the Latin administrative and chancery record tradition. Knowing both forms is essential for full-corpus searches.
The companion term viridis — the substantive object of the viridarius's jurisdiction — is equally important for understanding the scope of forest law. Forest offenses were divided between offenses against the vert (the vegetation) and offenses against the venison (the deer). A viridarius's duties tracked the former category. Misreading forest records that distinguish viridis from venison offenses can lead to mischaracterization of the nature of the offense and the applicable court or penalty.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's entry is spare but precise, doing exactly what a cross-reference entry should: identifying viridarius as the Latin form of verderor and pointing to Reg. Orig. 177b as the writ authority. The companion entry for viridis/viride similarly cross-references the anglicized vert and cites Cowell. Both entries function as navigational markers rather than substantive definitions.
Burrill's brevity here is appropriate given that the substantive content on the forest office and the doctrine of vert resides in the verderor and vert entries. Researchers should not treat the viridarius entry in isolation — it is designed to route the reader, not to stand alone. What historical dictionaries including Burrill do not supply is any account of how the office functioned in practice, how verderors were elected or appointed, or the procedural role they played at forest eyres. For that, supplementary sources on English forest law are necessary.
Jurisdictional Note
Viridarius and the forest law system from which it derives are exclusively English in origin, rooted in the Anglo-Norman royal forest administration. The term has no direct counterpart in Scots law, Welsh law, or the American legal tradition. Research utility is limited to English legal history prior to the decline of the forest court system.