from
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)
REAL CONTRACT, com. law. By this term are understood contracts in respect to
real property. 3 Rawle, 225.
2. In the civil law real contracts are those which require the
interposition of thing (rei,) as the subject of them; for instance, the loan
for goods to be specifically returned.
3. By that law, contracts are divided into those which are formed by
the mere consent of the parties, and therefore are called consensual; such
as sale, hiring and mandate, and those in which it is necessary that there
should be something more than mere consent, such as the loan of money,
deposit or pledge, which, from their nature, require the delivery of the
thing; whence they are called real. Poth. Obl. p. 1, c. 1, s. 1, art. 2.