Collection ID: 0023 | Metadata type: TEI | TEI XML | Data

Title

Statuta vetera (Old statutes)

Other related names

• John Willis, former owner
• Holmes, Thomas, active 17th century-18th century, former owner (http://viaf.org/viaf/68794309)
• Macclesfield, George Parker, Earl of, approximately 1697-1764, former owner (http://viaf.org/viaf/47163247)
• John Peacock, former owner
• Bragge, William, 1823-1884, former owner (http://viaf.org/viaf/238406190)
• Harkness, Edward Stephen, 1874-1940, former owner (http://viaf.org/viaf/4197598)
• Carson, Hampton L. (Hampton Lawrence), 1852-1929, former owner (http://viaf.org/viaf/67264132)

Funders

• Council on Library and Information Resources

Call number

LC 14 14
(Philadelphia, United States, Free Library of Philadelphia, Hampton L. Carson Collection on the Growth and Development of the Common Law)

Alternate identifiers

• deRicci: 13

Publisher

Free Library of Philadelphia

Language

Latin; Anglo-Norman; Middle French (ca. 1400-1600)

Origin

Place

England

Summary

This legal compendium contains a large number of English statutes, laws, and ordinances issues from the reign of Henry III onwards, including Magna Carta (fols. 1r-3r), the Charter of the Forest (fols. 3r-4r), and the Assizes of Bread and Ale (fols. 47r-47v) among many others. The majority are in Latin, but some (such as the Manner of Doing Homage and Fealty on fols. 42v, the View of Frankpledge on fol. 46r, and the Oath of the Sheriff on fols. 46v-47r) are in Anglo-Norman French. Appended to the main text is an alphabetical index of statutes (fols. 90v-127v). The text of both parts has been glossed, annotated, and corrected throughout by a number of medieval and early modern hands. For the most part, this book is plainly decorated, with only one illuminated initial (beginning Magna Carta on fol. 1r). The openings of the remaining texts are marked by colored initials with pen-work flourishes in red and blue ink. Two eighteenth-century owners have inscribed their names on fol. 90r, and one on 91r. The nineteenth-century binding has become entirely detached from the body of the book itself, as have the front flyleaves.

Notes

• Front cover with upper flyleaves detached; spine detached; back cover detached and final flyleaf loose
   

Extent

Iii+127+iii; 250 x 177 mm bound to 266 x 184 mm

Foliation

Occasional contemporary foliation in ink, upper right recto; two systems of early modern foliation in ink, upper right recto, one mostly trimmed away; supplemented by modern foliation in pencil, upper right recto, after fol. 62 and after fol. 90

Collation

Uncertain

Signatures

Contemporary quire signature in ink on fol. 62v

Support

Parchment

Catchwords

Contemporary catchwords in ink on fols. 62v and 69v

Binding

Nineteenth-century Russia binding with blind stamped border; stamped on spine: "MAGNA CHARTA AND STATUTES IX. HENRY III. TO HENRY VII".

Layout

One column of forty-one lines; lead point ruled; written area: 192 x 117 mm

Decoration

One illuminated initial with partial bar border; numerous smaller colored initials with pen-work flourishes

Script

Gothic--anglicana

Provenance

• John Willis (eighteenth century?, his signature on fol. 90r); Thomas Holmes (eighteenth century, his signature on fol. 91r); George Parker, Earl of Macclesfield (eighteenth century, his signature on fol. 90r); William Bragge (nineteenth century, his sale at Sotheby's, London, 7 June 1876, lot 289); John Peacock (nineteenth century, his bookplate inside the front cover); sold at Sotheby's, London (28 June 1912, lot 390); sold to Edward Stephen Harkness; lot 270 in an unidentified English bookseller's catalog (see print catalog clipping loose inside front cover); Hampton L. Carson, Philadelphia; given to the Free Library of Philadelphia in 1929
   

Related resources

• De Ricci, Seymour, with the assistance of W.J. Wilson, Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada, vol. 2 (New York,: H. W. Wilson, 1935-40), p. 2017-2018, no. 13.
• John Hamilton Baker, English Legal Manuscripts in the United States of America: A Descriptive List, part I, Medieval and Renaissance Period (to 1558) (London: Seldon Society, 1985), pp. 61-62, no. 173

Keywords

• 15th century
• English
• Charter
• Damage
• Gloss
• England
• Legal

Licenses

• Text

  These images and the content of Free Library of Philadelphia, LC 14 14: Statuta vetera (Old statutes) are free of known copyright restrictions and in the public domain. See the Creative Commons Public Domain Mark page for usage details, http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/.

  URL

  http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

• Text

  To the extent possible under law, Free Library of Philadelphia, Special Collections has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this metadata about Free Library of Philadelphia LC 14 14: Statuta vetera (Old statutes). This work is published from: United States. For a summary of CC0, see https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/. Legal code: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode.

  URL

  https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode

Table of contents

• fol. 1r — "Statuta vetera" and various tracts, followed by an index
• fol. 84r — Tracts, including "Quot modis dicitur exception," "Expositio vocabulorum," "De antique dominico corone, Distinctio de socagio," "Officium coronatoris."
• fol. 90v — Table of contents
• fol. 91r — Alphabetical index of the Statuta nova from Ambidexter to Wurstedes

Decorations

• Inside front cover — Armorial bookplate (John Peacock)
• Inside front cover — Bookplate, Free Library of Philadelphia, gift of Hampton L. Carson
• Loose leaf recto — Loose print catalog clipping
• Flyleaf 1 verso — Notations in pencil
• fol. 1r — Illuminated initial E
• fol. 1r — Partial bar border with foliate decoration
• Flyleaf 1 verso — Notations in pencil