<Preliminary introduction>

The HOLLIS cataloguing may be found here. The following items are worth repeating:

“Description : 125 leaves : vellum ; 15 cm.

“Summary : Contains the Magna Carta and other statutes through the reign of 14 Edward III.

“Notes : Written by an English scribe, long lines, 34 to a full page.

“Painted and ornamental pen initials, with pen drawing in red of a crowned head of King Edward III holding a sword.

“Illuminated initials and borders throughout.”

The cataloguing in Baker’s English Legal Manuscripts, 1, no. 78 reads as follows:

“STATUTA VETERA

“MS. 55.

“Mid-C.xiv, 125 ff., drawing of a king in initial.

“Bookplate of William Hamper FSA (d. 1831); his sale, Evans, 21 July 1831, no. 496, to Thomas Thorpe; acquired by George Dunn in June 1886; his sale, S. 11 Feb. 1913, no. 165; bought privately by HLS.

“Census, I, 1033, no. 55.”

The manuscript measures approximately 150 X 95 mm.

The marbled binding is modern and in good condition. The blank modern endpapers at the front and back were probably added when the manuscript was bound.

For many years the HOLLIS catalogue has described this manuscript as containing statutes through the reign of 14 Edward III (1340).¹

1. The source of the error may be that the index of statutes at the beginning of the manuscript calls 1 Edw. 3, stat. 2, ‘Westminster IV’, a name that is sometimes assigned to the statute of 14 Edw. 3.

The focus of the manuscript is very much on what a later age would call ‘Statuta vetera’, with particular focus on the statutes of Edward I. There is only one statute of Edward II, the statute of York. There are two from the first two years of the reign of Edward III, which serve to give us the approximate date of the compilation. There are quite a number of statutes ‘temp. incert.’, all of which were probably in existence by the end of the Edward the First’s reign. The only item in the manuscript that is not in S.R. is the opinion of Anger of Ripon on the ancient demesne. This is found in many manuscripts of statutes from this period.²

2. See Baker, Cambridge Legal Manuscripts, 49–50.

The order of the statutes is typical of that found in many manuscripts of Statuta vetera. It begins with Magna Carta and the charter of the Forest in the versions promulgated by Edward I in 1297. It then proceeds in chronological order through Merton, Marlborough, Westminster I, II, and III. Gloucester and its explication and De viris religiosis are inserted out of chronological order between Marlborough and Westminster I. After Westminster III the chronological order breaks down entirely, with dated statutes and those temp. incert. inserted in seemingly random order, though the latter tend to come at the end. The manuscript closes with two post-Edward I statutes, Edward the Second’s statute of York and 1 Edw. 3, stat. 2. Interestingly, and quite unusually, Edward the Third’s statute of Northampton follows the statute of Winchester in the disordered group of Edward I statutes. It is possible that Northampton was thought of, as it in some sense is, a revision and updating of Winchester. Winchester is mentioned and confirmed in c. 6 of Northampton.

This is a portable manuscript, quite well made, that seems to have been in active use as late as the reign of Henry VII. Different hands made corrections at different times. When we recall how these statutes were often used for readings in the Inns of Court, the continued use of the manuscript is not surprising. There is some fading in the basic writing, perhaps because of the quality of the ink used but possibly also because the manuscript was so much used. At least one folio has been lost at the end.

The manuscript appears to have 14 quires of either eight or 12 folios each, excluding the initial and final modern endpapers. In addition to the folio(s) missing from the end of the manuscript, one is missing after f. 89 and one after f. 91. This gives us the following tentative collation:

i (unfoliated), 1⁸ (f. 1–8), 2¹² (f. 9–20), 3–8⁸ (f. 21–68), 9¹² (f. 69–80), 10⁸ (f. 81–88), 11¹² (f. 89–98, lacks one after f. 89 and one after f. 91), 12–13⁸ (f. 99–114), 14¹² (f. 115–125, lacks one after f. 125), ii (unfoliated).