Portugal inherited from the kingdom of León legal sources and its earliest law code. With the "rebirth" of Roman law, the Ius commune -arriving very early in the twelfth century-soon came to shape everyday life, from the middle ages until the Enlightenment of the late eighteenth century. Enormous research efforts have been made to locate chronologically and spatially medieval remnants of these legal texts. This work aims to provide a summary, including a comprehensive and updated picture, of the status quaestionis of this theme.