Statutes of England

Title

Statutes of England

Shelfmark

St John's College MS 257

Associated place

Gonalston, Notts.

Place of origin

England

Date

s. xv/xvi

Language

Latin

Anglo-Norman

Middle English (1100-1500)

Contents

Form

codex

Support

Vellum (FSOS/FHHF).

Physical extent

Fols. xix + 250 + xx (numbered fols. 251, xx–xxxviii) .

Hands

Written in legal anglicana (‘court hand’) ; in his unsubmitted Oxford D.Phil. thesis, the late Jeremy Griffiths identified our scribe with the hand of BodL, MS Hatton 10and more than twenty other copies of the New Statutes. Punctuation by occasional point.

Decoration

Five-line champes, including some of a greenish tinge, with floral pattern and flower, leaf, and bud sprays at the head of each parliament. Leaf patterns but no green in Statutes of Edward IV, becoming a bit crude near the end; in the first part of Statutes of Henry VII, the champe hand of Edward IV returns, but part 2 of Henry VII in a different hand, using extensive gold leaf and often rather minimal blue/violet, with white-shaped leaf outlines. The border sprays here also appear to be by a different hand than earlier.

Headings in decorative textura.

Chapters of the statutes are divided by blue paraphs, with the chapter number, headed by a red paraph, in the leading edge margin.

Running titles (preceded by red and blue paraphs) to identify the regnal year and monarch.

At the head of the index, a 5-line champe with leaf and bud sprays to form a demivinet.

Alternating red and blue paraphs to separate topics and the subordinate entries.

Five-line champes with floral sprays at the head of each alphabetical letter.

Fully illuminated pages at the head of each reign. Scott discusses the prolific London illuminators and border artists associated with a group of apparently mass-produced Statute MSS c.1470–86, of which this is but one example, at 2:319, 329, 345.

Ker cites Hunt Exhib, fig. 74 (102; Hatton 10, fol. 290) and Scott’s discussion there. The illuminations include:

Fol. 86, a 12-line historiated initial: Edward IV enthroned between lords spiritual (on the left) and temporal, within a full vinet of leaves, vines, and flowers; at the page foot in the border the royal arms, England quartering France modern.

Fol. 143v: a similar depiction of Richard III, with royal arms (a different set of artists, for both the border and the miniature).

Fol. 156: a similar depiction of Henry VII, in a red robe, with royal arms (resembling the Richard III artists).

See AT, no. 621 (61), saying Harvard University Library, MS Richardson 40 ‘is closest in script and illumination’, and plate xxxvi (fol. 86).

Binding

Brown leather over millboards, s. xviii; with a stamped gold achievement of arms (no supporters); see Provenance below. The spine has been rebacked. Sewn on five thongs. Gold ‘257’ at the head of the spine; red and black speckles on all edges. Pastedowns are modern paper, a College bookplate on the front pastedown. At the front, nineteen modern paper flyleaves; at the rear, a vellum flyleaf (probably a former pastedown) and nineteen further paper flyleaves (251, xx–xxxviii).

Provenance

‘Pascha xxvjto. henrici viijui. Ro S lxxxij. viij. li’ (fol. 251).

A memo indicating ownership by someone responsible for royal records c.1544: ‘Memorandum that there ys owyng to Thomas grene of Audenham for the Caryage of the kinges recordes From seynt albons to Westm’ after the terme of saynt Michell anno xxxv to. henrici viij. there holden and fynysshid xj. s viij. d’ (fol. 249v).

‘Anno secundo Edwardi quarti nuper Regis Angi’ etc.’ (fol. 97v, upper margin; s. xvi?).

‘Iacobus Dyer Miles Capit alis Iustic’ domine Regine Elizabeth uiuit duodecimo etc.’ (fol. 241v, partly cut away; court hand, s. xvi ex.). For James Dyer(d. 1582), speaker of the House of Commons in 1553 and justice of the king’s and queen’s bench from 1558, see BRUO 1501–40, pp. 180–1.

A list of legal books (s. xvi ex.), with three older inscriptions below (fol. 251); see Ker for details.

Termino sancti Michaelis anno regni domini Iacobi quartodecimo et Scocie quinquagesimo etc. CC xlij o. Memorandum quod dominus Rex nunc predicto vicesimo quinto die Novembris isto eodem Termino mand’ Iustic’ suis hic litteras suas’, with a text of the writ in English (fol. 238v; court hand, s. xvii in.).

Below two erased signatures, one partially legible as ‘Lawrence ’: ‘Wyllyam Iohns’ twice; and a distich: ‘Tria sunt que non paciuntur iocum Oculus Fama Pecunia Oculus ne ledetur Fama ne denigretur Pecunia ne auferetur’ (fol. 247v; court hand, s. xvii).

The proverb ‘Multi famam consienciam paucivorentur’ (s. xvi ex.) and near the page foot (s. xvii italic) ‘ ius legis cristus omni credenti’ (fol. 249v).

Accounts: ‘Paid vnto Master’ Hall Item for iij. quarters of a C. of [spot]elyn borde for the Wyndowe in the Tresor hows ’, below a set of entries for ‘The Comon’ place’ (fol. 250v, s. xvii?).

On the binding, the arms of Francklin (of Gonalston, Notts.); Sr John Francklin’ and ‘ Dorothea Francklin’ (fol. 1, upper margin; s. xix).

The old shelfmarks ‘A.10.14’ in red, corrected to ‘9.16’ (on the bookplate, front pastedown).