<Preliminary introduction.>

The HOLLIS cataloguing may be found here. The following items are of relevance and not repeated in Baker:

“Description : 203 leaves ; 10 cm.

“Summary : A collection of statutes beginning with Magna Carta as confirmed 25 Edward I; the latest statute is the Statute of Westminster VI, 5 Edward III.

“Notes : Illuminated initial of King Edward II seated on his throne (leaf [13]r); other illuminated initials throughout.

“On vellum.”

The cataloguing in Baker’s English Legal Manuscripts, 1, no. 108 reads as follows:

“108 STATUTA VETERA
“MS. 177.

“C.xiv, 202 ff., illum. initials, miniature of a king.

“Sold at S. 4 May 1948, no. 433, to Thorp; purchased from him, and received on 16 June 1948.”

The stylized image of a king on fol. 13r is probably that of Edward I, who figures prominently in the confirmation of Magna Carta that follows. It is almost certainly not to be thought of as an image of Edward II. For a reconciliation of the HOLLIS foliation with that in Baker, see below.

The manuscript is small, approximately 100 mm X 75 mm.

Bound in board covered in ?calf, probably in the 19th century.

The two blank folios at the beginning and at the end were probably added when the manuscript was bound.

The blank folios at the beginning are not foliated. The first seven folios after that are foliated in heavy arabic numbers, certainly not contemporary with the manuscript. When the manuscript was placed in the PDS we continued that foliation digitally until we reached the first added blank folio at the end. That gave us 203 folios; the Baker foliation ends with the last folio that has writing on it.

Following the blank bifolium at the beginning, the manuscript begins with two ternions that contain the table and capitularia. The main text of the manuscript contains 23 regular quaternions, followed by a duernion, which ends with the end of the last statute (1 Edw. 3, stat. 1). The notes on ‘Dampna in triplo’ begin what was probably originally also a duernion, but two folios have been torn out, without, so far as we can tell, any loss of text.

Collation: 1² (unfoliated), 2-3⁶ (f. 1–12), 4-26⁸ (f. 13–196), 27–28⁴ (f. 197–203, fols. torn out after f. 202v and 203v), 29² (unfoliated).

Most, perhaps all, of the pages of the main manuscript are laid out in pencil with lines for 26 lines of text, and a rather large space at the bottom. A later hand has made some corrections to the texts, particularly in the statute of Westminster II.

The condition of the manuscript is generally quite good, an exception being made for fol. 1r, which is faded. Except for ‘Dampna in triplo’, the script is a regular, professional, semi-cursive book hand.

The manuscript is decorated profusely throughout with illuminated major initials with floral strapwork, painted initials for subheadings, red and blue paragraph marks, and an occasional grotesque. Color is varied, and there is much use of gold leaf. The initial ‘E’ of Magna Carta is decorated with a minature of a king and much color.

The decoration continues almost to the end of the manuscript. There is none on ‘Dampna in triplo’. The final statutes of Edward III have only the major initials illuminated, and after the Statute of Northampton the headers and headings have been supplied by a more informal hand. There may be a change of hand at the beginning of the statutes of Edward III. The contents and capitularia at the beginning of the manuscript, however, includes all of the statutes of Edward III except for 1 Edward 3, stat. 1. If the Edward III material is a bit later than the rest of the manuscript, it is certainly not much later. The last datable item in the manuscript is 5 Edward 3 (1331), and there is nothing in the manuscript that would lead us to assign a date to it much after that year.

The contents of the manuscript suggest that in the early years of Edward III a distinction between ‘Statuta vetera’ and ‘Statuta nova’ had not yet emerged.

Lacking any indications of medieval provenance, any tentative conclusion about original purpose of the collection must be speculative. Someone, probably early in the reign of Edward III, wanted a portable copy of the main statutes. The only clue as to who he was lies in the inclusion of that portion of what has come to be called ‘Notabilia stautorum’ that lists statutes that provide for multiple damages or penalties. That may be enough to lead to the suggestion that the original owner was a legal professional of some sort, probably someone who represented clients rather than a clerk. The putative original owner’s scribe may have begun with an already-existing and quite profusely decorated manuscript from a slightly earlier period.

The HLS bookplate, which says that the manuscript was a gift of Gilbert Montague, and Baker’s provenance may be reconciled if we assume that Montague provided the funds that allowed HLL to purchase the manuscript.