<Preliminary introduction>

The HOLLIS cataloguing may be found here. That cataloguing is fuller than most, and parts of it are worth repeating here:

“Summary: Eight leaves of tables precede the text. Then follow: Magna Carta; Chartre de la Forest, Sentence sur les Chartres; Chartres par le Roi H fitz Iehan: Lestatutz de Merton, Marleberge, Westmonster I, Gloucestre, Westmonster II, Akatours de terre, religions, Escheker, Destresces del Eschequer, Machantz, Wincestre, Assise de Pain, Champartours, Conspiraturs, Chivalers, Viscontes; Estatut Deuerwik (York) I, Ordenance de les Tenures Dengl., Feez Dengleterre, la Moneie, Homage a France, Gardes et Reliefs; Nouels Articles ordinez sur les Chartres des Fraunchises (1299); Vewe de Frauncplegge, Lestatut des Atteintes; Nouels Estatuz faits en temps nostre Seignur le Roi Edward tiers . . . Come Hugh le Despanser . . . , Estatuz de Westm., Northampton, West. (1329, 1330) Euerwik (1335). Here ends the work of the original scribe, written probably in 1335.

“Notes: Last ten folios added at end in later hand, giving Lestatuz de lestaple, in French, with a Latin preamble (1353-1354).

“In law French by an English scribe, written in long lines, 29 to a full page, with a grotesque initial in pen and ink on the first folio.”

The cataloguing in Baker’s English Legal Manuscripts, 1, no. 58 reads as follows:

“STATUTA VETERA

“MS. 32.

“C.xiv, 140 ff.

“‘Iste liber constat Thome de Rotsee’ (C.xv), and again but with ‘Thome de Rotse’ altered to ‘Mone, et ipse in custodia sua pro isto libro alium librum Johannis Soper de Staunton [Taunton]’ (John Soper of Taunton was a member of Strand Inn before 1524); later belonged to the Rev. Lewis Stephens DD (d. 1747); ‘Donum Reverendissimi Ludovici Stephens Sanctae Theologiae Professoris Francis[co] Gregors' (cf. no. 16, above); acquired by George Dunn in Feb. 1897; his sale, S. 11 Feb. 1913, no. 159; bought privately by HLS.

“Census, I, 1028, no. 32.”

The manuscript is approximately 235 X 76 mm.

Bound in parchment of uncertain date.

The foliation is modern, beginning with the capitularia of Magna Carta, which is in French as is the text the charter itself, and omitting the first two folios, the second of which contains notes of accounts in English in a hand that is roughly contemporary with the manuscript. The note of the gift of the Rev. Lewis Stephens is at the top of fol. 1r. The notes concerning Thomas Rotsee are on fol. 140v and are preceded by contemporary notes of accounts

The quiring comprises an initial bifolium followed by 16 complete, regular quaternia through fol. 128v. The 12 remaining folios appear to be a quaternion bracketed by two bifolia (although the number 12 allows for many other possibilities, and lacking signatures and carryovers figuring out the quiring from the images is a chancy proposition). This leaves us with the following collation:

1² (unfoliated), 2-17⁸ (f. 17–128), 18² (f. 129-130), 19⁸ (f. 131-138), 20²(f. 139-140).

There is no illumination. A few of the initial majuscules are decorated in pen and ink; more have a space for a decorated initial that is not decorated.

The script of the base manuscript is a fine script, less cursive than many English semi-cursive scripts. It ends on fol. 128v. The final items are added in a script that is somewhat faded and more cursive.

The condition of the manuscript is generally good.

All of the statutes are given in French, including Magna Carta and the statute of Westminster II, which are normally given in Latin. The regnal years added to the French names of the statutes in another hand are in Latin.

In the middle of a collection of statutes temp. incert. are two headings that seem to be related and which contain a brief treatise on tenures and what we would call estates. The first heading is ‘Ci comence lordenance de les tenures Dengl[eterre]’ (fol. 93r), the second ‘Des feez des Dengleterre’ (fol. 95r). The latter we probably should amend either by taking out the second ‘des’ or adding ‘terres’ after it.¹ The contents are entirely in French, and are related to, but not a translation of, Diffinitio tenementorum, an extract, largely from Bracton, that appears in HLS MS 10. They are also related to, though so far as we can tell, not just a translation of, the treatise Distinctio tenementorum, which appears in CUL, MS Add. 3129 and Add. 8870, and a number of other manuscripts noted in Baker, Cambridge Legal Manuscripts, at 569. For treatises written in French, the obvious parallel is the Old Tenures, which appears in a number of manuscripts and was frequently printed in the early modern period. This is not, however, that treatise, nor is it extracts from it, but an independent treatise. We have so far been unable to identify any other copies of this particular treatise. Incipit under the first heading: ‘Pur ceo quil y sount plusours maneres de fees dount lez pluis renomez sount fez de chivaler et grauntz serianties les queux fez sount purveus a la defens du roialme’. Explicit: ‘et le sokeman ne gist autre bref qe le petit bref de droit’. Incipit under second heading: ‘Feservice est a tenir certeins tenements du chief seignur donant a lui la value des tenements par an’. Explicit: ‘quant un home tent a la volonte son seignur com son neif’.

1. A corrector actually inserted something after the second ‘des’, but then he, or someone else, rubbed it out.

A number of facts point to the manuscript’s having been made for a student who was at a rather elementary level: (1) The manuscript is almost entirely in French. (2) It lacks a number of statutes, a fact that is noted at the end (fol. 140r). (3) It contains a rather elementary treatise on tenures. (4) It is later associated with a man who was in one of the Inns of Chancery and never seems to have gone beyond that. Item (1), however, could also point in the direction of a merchant, as does the fact that the only addition to the manuscript is the ordinance of the Staple. Whether we take this as the book of fledgling lawyer or Chancery clerk or of a merchant, it is clearly, despite the quality of the script, at the opposite end of the social spectrum from, to take the polar opposite, HLS MS 12.