Statuta Angliae; Britton; Registrum Brevium; Summa Parva; Fet Asaver

1. Fols 1r^a-30r^b. Statuta Angliae. French and Latin.[ii]

Fol. 1r^a. Magna Carta.

Fol. 2v^a. Carta foreste.

Fol. 3r^b. [Sententia excommunicationis lata super cartas].

Fol. 3v^a. Articuli super Carta[s].

Fol. 5r^b. Mertone.

Fol. 6r^b. Marleburge.

Fol. 8v^a. Westm. Primum.

Fol. 12v^b. Gloucest.

Fol. 14r^a. [Explanationes].

Fol. 14r^b. Westm. Secundum.

Fol. 22r^b. De uiris religiosis.

Fol. 22v^a. Wynton.

Fol. 23r^b. Marchaunz.

Fol. 24v^a. Breve super eodem statuto.

Fol. 24v^a. De scaccario.

Fol. 25v^a. Districtiones scaccarii

Fol. 25v^b. Emtores terre.

Fol. 26r^a. Conspiratoribus.

Fol. 26r^b. De iuratoribus.

Fol. 26r^b. [De fragentibus prisonam].

Fol. 26r^b. Breve super eodem statuto.

Fol. 26v^a. Gaueletti.

Fol. 26v^a. Incipit statutum contra Regiam prohibitionem.

Fol. 26v^b. Incipit statutum de finibus.

Fol. 27v^a. De vasto.

Fol. 27v^b. Modus calumpniandi Essonia.

Fol. 28r^a. Incipiunt Dies communes in Banco.

Fol. 28r^a. Incipiunt Duies in placito Dotis.

Fol. 28r^b. Incipit statutum de Iusticiariis Assignatis.

Fol. 28v^b. Hic incipit statutum de coniuncto feoffamento.

Fol. 29r^b. Incipt statutum secundum de finibus et attornatis.

Fol. 29v^a. Incipit extenta Manerii.

Fol. 30r^a. Incipit statutum De sacramento Ministrorum Regis in principio Itineris.

Fol. 30r^b. Incipiunt statuta de Bigamis.

2. Fols 31r^a-109r^a. Britton. [iii] French.

Fol. 31r^a. (Opening unrubricated). Edward par la grace de deu Roi de Engleterre

seignor de Hirlaund… (text in three books, with Bk III embracing the contents of Bks III – IV – V of the edition; ends fol. 109r^a …en lur propre persone lour tendra lui nul attorné.[iv]

Fol. 109r^a -109r^b.List of titles of principal writs (fifteenth century).

3. Fols 110r^a-150v. Registrum brevium. Latin.

Fol. 110r^a. [Breve de recto patens]. Register breaks off on fol. 150v in the Breve de salvo conducto).[v]

4. Fols 151r^a-161r^a. Radulphus de Hengham, Summa parva. Latin.

Fol. 151r^a. (Opening unrubricated). Notandum quod quinque sunt essonia… (ends fol. 161r^a) …et petens expectat iudicium amittet imperpetuum scilicet si se absentaverit amittet nisi breue.[vi]

5. Fols 161r^a-166r^a. Fet asaver. French.

Fol. 161r^a. (Beginning unrubricated). Fet a saveyr au commencement qe chescon plé pledé en la Court le Roy . . . (ends fol. 166r^a) . . .quant l’em fiet defaute sicom desuz est dist.[vii]

Contemporary foliation in roman numerals i-lxxix on fols 31r -109r, and i-xli on fols 110r- 150r, with modern, arabic numeral foliation in pencil.

The main divisions of the texts are marked with decorated initials four to five lines high in dusky pink with dark blue extensions, or vice-versa. These initials have white embellishments and are set on gold grounds. Their long ivy tendrils occasionally include grotesques and floral motifs. Further divisions of the texts are marked by initials in blue ink flourished in red, preceded by red or blue paragraph marks . In the first item of the Magna Carta each section is preceded by a two-line roman numeral in red or blue. From fol. 110r^a the large initials mix pink and blue, and the smaller initials are in gold, with pink and blue extensions. They are usually only two lines high, and certain headings are highlighted with a yellowish wash. There is a small face painted in white at the top of the marginal floral pattern in the outer margin of fols 2v and 8v; they seem to be integrated, but were perhaps added later. Pencil underdrawing or sketching for the vineleaf decoration is sometimes visible (as between the columns on fol. 28r). Cues for the illuminator are visible throughout (e.g. ‘L’ on fol. 24v, ‘a’ on fol. 33r^b, an ‘m’ and an ‘a’ on f. 34v^a, etc.).

There are occasionally additions in the margins (e.g. on fols 16v and 17v); text has been sometimes been removed by scraping (e.g. fol. 18r^a, l. 11); the marginal addition on fol. 87r^b is accompanied by insertion signs. On fol. 90v^a, a word has been underpointed and the replacement text in the outer margin is preceded by an insertion symbol.

London, before 1333.

The main additions to this manuscript provide evidence of its early users or possible owners. On fol. 109r is a fifteenth-century list of the titles of the principal writs. On fol. 109v is a paragraph written in a fifteenth-century hand: ‘Willelmus de Bukworth’ (William de Bukworth), vicar of the church of ‘Branketre’ (Braintree in Essex; see: Sinclair, 1969, p. 376). Folio 166r has two short additional texts written in a fourteenth-century or fifteenth-century hand:` ‘J. de. B.’ or ‘J. de D.’ The first text, De attornato faciendo ad sectam  faciendum…, seems to relate to a common law exemption allowing an attorney to be sent to court in one’s place. The second text, Pateat universis p[er] p[re]sentes quod ego…, relates to the manner in which a letter patent might be introduced. Folio 166v also has a number of additional, short legal texts, the first mentioning a ‘Willelmus Carles’. At the foot of fol. 166v is a faded and abraded inscription, perhaps also in the hand of William de Buckworth, reading, Obit Johis de Bre… fil thom de Bre… a^o dm m^o ccc xxx iij^o.

The verso of fol. i has the stamp of Sir Thomas Phillipps, with his number ‘109’ written below, and Phillipps has written his name at the top of fol. ii. The number ‘109’ also appears on a small sticker on the spine of the manuscript. In an 1828 catalogue of the Phillipps Collection, number ‘109’ belongs in a sequence of manuscripts acquired from the book dealer Thomas Thorpe. However, as the manuscripts were subsequently renumbered, it is not entirely clear that the Statutes and Treatises came from that source.[i] The manuscript was bought from the heirs to Phillipps’ library by the English bookseller W.H. Robinson in 1946, and then sent by the bookseller to Melbourne in 1949, for possible purchase by the Public Library of Victoria (now State Library of Victoria). The manuscript was purchased by Geoffrey Cohen, and presented by him to the Library. The ex-libris on the front pastedown records the donation: ‘Presented to the Public Library of Victoria by Mr Geoffrey Cohen, 13-4-1949’. The verso of fol. iii has the inscription: ‘Don. Mr Geoffrey Cohen, 13-4-1949’.[ii] Folio ii also has the earlier shelf mark of the Library, *091/G79.

A.N.L. Munby, Phillipps Studies, 5 Vols, Cambridge, 1951–1960, Vol. III: The Formation of the Phillipps Library up to 1840 (1954), p. 145.

C.A. McCallum, The Public Library of Victoria, 1856–1956, Melbourne, 1956, p. 12.

K.V. Sinclair, ‘Phillipps Manuscripts in Australia’, The Book Collector, Vol. II, 1962, 332–7, p. 332.

K.V. Sinclair, ‘Anglo–Norman Studies: The Last Twenty Years’, Australian Journal of French Studies, Vol. 2, 1965, 250–51, pp. 250–1.

K.V. Sinclair, Descriptive Catalogue of Medieval and Renaissance Western Manuscripts in Australia, Sydney, 1969, pp. 376–81, No. 222.

M.M. Manion and V.F. Vines, Medieval and Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts in Australian Collections, London, 1984, p. 129, No. 48, fig. 106.

B. Hubber, ‘“Of the Numerous Opportunities”: the Origins of the Collection of Medieval Manuscripts at the State Library of Victoria’, The La Trobe Journal, Nos 51–52, 1993, 3–9, pp. 8­9.

J.H. Baker, English Legal Manuscripts Formerly in the Collection of Sir Thomas Phillipps, London, 2008, p. 2.

S. Carmody, ‘William H. Robinson, Booksellers and the Public Library of Victoria’, The La Trobe Journal, No. 81, Autumn 2008, 90–105, pp. 100–1.

S. Carmody, ‘Introduction’, in B. Stocks and N. Morgan (eds), The Medieval Imagination: Illuminated Manuscripts from Cambridge, Australia, and New Zealand, exh. cat., State Library of Victoria, Melbourne, 2008, 11–15, p. 14.

L. Warner, ‘The University of Sydney Statuta Angliae (RB Add. MS 39) and the 45,011 Parish Churches: England’s Most Popular Urban Myth, ca. 1327–1606’, Script and Print, Vols 32–3, 2008, 21–35.

Alteration in the scribal hands and in the decoration of this manuscript, together with the partial contemporary foliation in roman numerals, indicates that it was the subject of later additions. Changes to the law made medieval legal manuscripts particularly prone to such additions. As Don C. Skemer has noted, such manuscripts could be given limp-vellum covers, presumably to allow easy rebinding when new texts were added, sometimes in the form of little booklets composed of one or more quires.[i]

Digital imaging and research on this manuscript were supported by the Australian Research Council Linkage Grant, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Australia:Researching and Relating Australia’s Manuscript Holdings to New Technologies and New Readers (2010-13). Substantial donations from the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney, Catholic Church Insurance and the National Australia Bank are gratefully acknowledged. The Catholic Diocese of Ballarat, The Network for Early European Research, and Newman College, The University of Melbourne, have also generously contributed to the project.

Chief Investigators (CIs) of the ARC project were Professor emeritus Margaret Manion (The University of Melbourne), Professor Bernard Muir (The University of Melbourne), and Dr Toby Burrows (The University of Western Australia). Graduate research assistants were Alexandra Ellem, Dr Hugh Hudson, Dr Elaine Shaw and postgraduate scholar Elizabeth Melzer (The University of Melbourne). Shane Carmody was the representative of the Chief Industry Partner (The State Library of Victoria). The following curators, conservators, photographers and computer specialists at The State Library of Victoria also contributed their expertise: Katrina Ben, Des Cowley, Ian Cox, Adrian Flint, Ross Genat, Jean Holland, Shelley Jamieson, Afsana Khan, Coralie McInnes, Monika McIntyre, Helen McPherson, Peter Mappin and Sarah Mason. Before he left the project at the end of 2011, Hugh Hudson made a significant contribution to several of the entries, particularly in the area of Provenance and the updating of Bibliography. This contribution is acknowledged in appropriate endnotes. Other contributors, besides the ARC team, both in Australia and overseas, are also acknowledged in relevant endnotes.

These detailed entries draw on the information in earlier catalogues and also update it. In particular, they are based on the following: K.V. Sinclair, Descriptive Catalogue of Medieval and Renaissance Western Manuscripts in Australia, Sydney, 1969, M. M. Manion and V. F. Vines, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Australian Collections, London, 1984, and B. Stocks and N. Morgan, eds, The Medieval Imagination: Illuminated Manuscripts from Cambridge, Australia and New Zealand, Melbourne, 2008. Our debt to these pioneering publications and dependence on them are acknowledged here.

Margaret M.Manion on behalf of the ARC team, October, 2013.