<Preliminary introduction>

The HOLLIS cataloguing may be found here.

The cataloguing in Baker’s English Legal Manuscripts, 1, no. 46 reads as follows:

“46 STATUTA NOVA MS. 19.

“Late C.xiv, 90ff., illum. initial. At the end is a commission of 10 Richard II.

“Belonged to William Buttery (d. 1535), adm. Lincoln’s Inn 1497; ‘Liber Richardi Heydon ex dono Wellelmi Boteri’, i.e. Richard Heydon (d. 1554), adm. Lincoln’s Inn 1522; ‘Heydon ex dono Butery anno xvii° H. viii, vii die Julii’ (1525); ‘Imo liber Radolpheum [sic] Hopkins generosi’ (later C.xvi); probably no. 1399 in Sir Samuel Meyrick’s sale, S. 23 July 1871; acquired by George Dunn in Dec. 1887; his sale, 12 Feb. 1913, no. 267; bought privately by HLS.

“Census, I, 1025, no. 19.”

Pencilled notes by George Dunn are found on seq. 4 which give his date of acquisition and argue for a date of c. 1387. The first and third ownership notes that Baker quotes are found on seq. 20; the second is found at the top of fol. 1v.

The manuscript measures approximately 290 X 198 mm.

The binding is modern and undistinguished, with marbled pastedowns and endpapers, in fair condition (both covers are quite loose). The spine was not photographed. The basically blank leaves at the beginning and end were probably added when the manuscript was bound. If that is right, then the binding is 19th century because Dunn’s notes are on the front endpaper. There is evidence that the manuscript was trimmed slightly at the bottom for binding.

The main manuscript has 90 folios and is foliated in black ink, initially in Roman numerals. A second set of foliation marks in red ink begins at the bottom of fol. 9r and continues through 48r; this red foliation may have been trimmed or erased on the other quires. At fol. 76, the black foliation changes to Hindu-Arabic numerals and a later hand. The initial capitularia section is foliated separately, also in black Hindu-Arabic numerals and a later hand. The digital foliation follows that in the manuscript, giving us two foliations with the front and back end papers unfoliated.

The manuscript has 12 regular quaternions with one or two shorter quires in the middle (f. 49–58). The carryover on f. 54 would suggest that these are a ternion and a duernion. The signature marks would suggest that f. 49–56v are a regular quaternion with a bifolium that was added to accommodate the first of the two ordinances about herring. That possibility is supported by the fact that the dorse of fol. 58 is blank. The end papers were bifolia but a folio has been cut out of the initial one. Signature marks can be discerned on the first four folios of many of the quires, although some have been nearly or entirely erased. This gives us the following collation:

Collation: i (unfoliated, a second endpaper has probably been cut out), 1–8⁸ (f. 1–8, f. 1–54), 9² (f. 57–58), 10–13⁸ (f. 59–90), ii (unfoliated).

The initial ‘C’ of 1 Edw. 3 is decorated in dark red and blue and what may be gold leaf extending into a decorative border in red and blue around the entire text. The initial ‘R’ of 1 Ric. 2 at fol. 75r is nearly as elaborate, red and blue with a semi-border beside the text and red scrollwork issuing into the margins. Other major initials are decorated in red or blue with scrollwork of the opposite color issuing into the margins; a few of these initials were left undrawn. There are red paragraph marks throughout, and major headings are bisected by red lines. There are no miniatures.

Most, perhaps all, of the folios of the main manuscript are laid out in pencil with lines for a header, 44 or 45 lines of text, and a rather large space at the bottom.

The condition of the manuscript is generally very good, with clear and legible handwriting. As a pencilled note in a modern hand on seq. 201 notes, fol. 17, 18, 19 and 58 are cut off at the bottom (fol. 58 quite substantially). There does not, however seem to be anything missing from the text.

The header of the capitularia is written in a florid hand of the 18th or 19th centuries. The foliation in the capitularia and in the latter part of the main manuscript is also written in later hand of uncertain date, but probably not totally modern.

There are marginalia throughout the manuscript, but not on every page. These marginalia vary as to their date and content. For example, on fol. 76r opposite c. 9 of 1 Ric. 2 a hand of the early fifteenth century has referenced a scire facias case in Y.B. Hil., 5 Hen. 5. Later on the same page opposite c. 12, the same hand has glossed ‘baston de Flete’ as ‘gardeyn del flete’. In the upper right-hand corner of fol. 89, there is a much more elaborate note in a hand of roughly the same period that cross-references a statute found on fol. 20. We have not attempted to transcribe all these marginalia, but a transcription and analysis of them would certainly be valuable.

Like HLS MS 170, MS 19 contains a number of items from the early years of Edward III that are not found in S.R. These seem be ordinances rather than statutes in the modern sense, or writs and mandates that implement statutes. It is hard to imagine that they are not published somewhere, but we have so far been unable to find most of them. Even more peculiar is the inclusion in MS 19 of a copy of the statute of York of 12 Edward II, the only item that antedates 1 Edw. 3. Since this item is between a statute of 11 Edward 3 and 14 Edward 3, it seems likely that its inclusion is just a mistake.

The last datable item in the manuscript is the ‘commission’ of 10 Ric. 2. There is nothing that would indicate a date any later than that. Hence our approximate date: ca. 1386.