In this article, the author summarizes the results of a study of medieval European legal manuscripts and proposes to consider them as polycode spatial texts, characterized by a combination of verbal and non-verbal sign systems. The existence in the tradition of the High Middle Ages of legal texts, which simultaneously use combinations of verbal and non-verbal methods of presenting the content of a legal norm, according to the author, reflects the process of transition from an oral legal tradition to a written one. Following a broad approach to understanding the text, the author classifies the non-verbal elements of medieval legal language. Depending on the subjects and artistic means used, the miniatures of the Saxon mirror are classified into images of a narrative nature, images that compare related legal norms, images that record the social status of individuals, numerical indicators, and “visual terms.” Author highlights the functions of non-verbal elements of the language of medieval legal monuments: decorative, navigational, interpretative, implicative and didactic.
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