<Preliminary introduction>

The HOLLIS cataloguing may be found here. The Provenance and Summary repeat what is found in Baker, leaving the only item relevant here:

“Description : 214 leaves ; 23 cm.

The cataloguing in Baker’s English Legal Manuscripts, 1, no. 95 reads as follows:

“STATUTA VETERA; TRACTS

“MS. 162.

“C.xiv, 214 ff., wooden boards. Preceded by a calendar, and historical notes from the reigns of Edward I and Edward II. On fo. 1 is a note of the earl of Warwick’s death in 1471. The tracts are: Quot modis dicitur exceptio; Exceptiones pro brevibus cassandis; Dampna; Fait asaver; Natura brevium; Regule registri (‘Le bref serra overt qe irra al chef seignior . . . ’), tract on accountancy.

“Calendar includes obits of Roger de Mora (d. 10 June, dominical letter E) and Alice Burgoyne (d. 11 May 1422); ‘Ex dono Magistri Johannis Garland consocii Aule Regis Cantebriggie’ (John Garland was a fellow of King’s Hall 1422-1471); sold at S. 4 April 1939, no. 264, to W.H. Robinson Ltd; bought from them, and received on 24 Jan. 1940.”

The foliation in the manuscript is quite unusual (see below), and the folio reference in Baker does not correspond to it. Even taking into account the peculiar foliation, the total number of folios in the manuscript in Baker and HOLLLIS does not correspond to what is actually there.

The manuscript measures approximately 230 X 170 mm.

The board-and-vellum cover, pocked and worn but intact, is old but probably not original. The final blank folio may be contemporary with the manuscript. It is certainly contemporary with binding.

The decorative program in the main manuscript, beginning with Magna Carta, is standard but well executed: initial capitals decorated in red and blue with penned scrollwork in the margins and red and blue paragraph marks throughout. The same artist may be responsible for the decoration on the contents and capitularia which lacks decorated initial capitals but has red paragraph marks and some scrollwork. The calendar has its own decorative program, not as elaborate as that on some calendars but well executed. The chart of the coins of England (fol. 2v) has two red paragraph marks. Apart from the chart of coins and the calendar there is no decoration on the items that precede the contents page, nor is there any decoration on the items that intervene between the capitularia and the beginning of Magna Carta.

The script of the main text is an English semi-cursive one in a style that is typical of the first half of the 14th century, clearly executed by a professional scribe. We did not check for changes of hand, but did not notice any except for the heading on fol. 127r and the items that are inserted between the capitularia and the beginning of Magna Carta. The hands in the items that precede the contents vary. Most of them are quite regular; a few are more informal. We are inclined to date all of these hands to the 14th century, except for the note of ownership on fol. 1v, the note of the death of the earl of Warwick on fol. 2r, and the obits that have been added to the calendar.

The pencilled foliation in the upper right-hand corner is modern. Quite unusually, it seems to treat the front cover as fol. 1r. There is no indication that anything is missing from the front of the manuscript. Hence, the reference to the death of the earl of Warwick, which both Baker and HOLLIS put on fol. 1, is in fact on fol. 2r. (The folio references to this manuscript in Baker’s Cambridge Legal Manuscripts are accurate.) The last marked folio is 210, which matches the digital foliation. We have extended it digitally into the blank endpaper, giving a total of 211 counting the front cover, and 210 if we do not count the front cover.

Lacking quire breaks and signature marks, and given that the photography does not allow one to see into the gutters, quiring will be postponed until we can do it physically in situ.

There is folio one missing at the beginning of Magna Carta (before fol. 23r), a fact that is confirmed by the one legible signature mark that we do have. There is probably one folio missing after fol. 116, resulting in the loss of the end of ‘De antiquo dominico corone’.

The interest of this manuscript lies in its non-statutory contents, both what is included in the main text and those items that seem to have been added before the contents and capitulary at a slightly later time. Among the former we might mention the Anglo-Norman verses on fol. 21v–22r; the oaths on fol. 22v, particularly that of the king, which is not in the form given in S.R.; the note ‘Receite ij’ in the margin of fol. 89v, which may be by a teacher; the oldest of the tracts bearing the title ‘Natura brevium’ on fol. 156v–168r; the extensive collection of ‘Regule registri’ on fol. 168r–173r, and the long extract or version of ‘Curia baronis’ concerning pleading in personal actions with the incipit ‘Chacune maner de trespas’, on fol. 174r–206r. Among the former we might mention the difficult-to-read versification of a case of criminal appeal held before Bereford, CJCB, on fol. 1v; the extracts from a gaol delivery roll temp. Edward II and from a ?chronicle account of the deposition of Edward II, on fol. 2r; the chart of coins of England on fol. 2v, and the notes of dates of events in the reigns of Edward I and Edward II added to the calendar (fol. 3r–9r).

Before we even speculate about the origins of this manuscript and the uses to which it was put, the items listed in the previous paragraph need to be pursued in more depth. We only suggest that close to its origin one or more owners evidenced an interest in the political, even in what we might call the ‘constitutional’, greater than that which is normally evidenced in such manuscripts. Do we have a hint of this, and of a possible original owner, when we learn that John de Bromfeld, one of the justices on the gaol delivery roll, was on a long list of those pardoned in 1327 for having held Caerphilly Castle against Isabella and Mortimer (Cal. Pat. R. (1327–1330) 38)?