Old Tenures, Natura brevium and Subject index to the statutes, Accusacions to Wurstede : [manuscript]
Contributor
Webb, Philip Carteret, 1700-1770, former owner Ricketts, C. L. (Coella Lindsay), 1859-1941, former owner Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery. Manuscript. HM 47619
RESTRICTED. Available with curatorial approval. Requires extended retrieval and delivery time. For information on use of Digital Library materials, please see Library Rights and Permissions: https://www.huntington.org/library-rights-permissions
Description
ff. ii verso-v verso: [15th cent. notes on the number of vills, etc. in England; mnemonic verses on the return days in Michaelmas, Hilary, Easter and Trinity terms; a couplet in a more formal hand, "Dat crux lucia mereres [?] karismata dies/ Ne sis in angaria quarta sequens feria"; ownership notes; notes in prose on the beginnings and endings of the terms; a note defining measurements of land, "In libro de domsday sub titulo terre Regis in comitatu Surr. inter al. continetur sic, xxiiii acres terre faciunt unam virgatam" ff. iii verso-v verso, blank] ff. 1-6v: [Calendar in red and black, including the feasts of David (1 March), Chad (2 March), "Resurrectio domini" (27 March, in red), Richard of Chichester (3 April, in red), Dunstan (19 May, in red), Translation of Richard of Chichester (16 June, in red), Anne (26 July, in red)]. ff. 7-13v: [Old Tenures; beginning defectively in the section on mortgages, with 18 sections; at the end, a number of short definitions, Sute service through Obligatio]: Incipit: //ou tenementz sount donez a un homme a un certeyn terme ... Explicit: astringitur ratione debeti vel contractus absolucio perpetua et cetera. ff. 14-69v: [Natura brevium, ending defectively in the writ Quale ius]. Incipit: Dicitur q'il ad breve de droit patent et brief de droit clos ... Explicit: et s'il ne demande deinz l'an donques le proscheyn//. ff. 70-117v: [Index to statutes, Accusacions to Wurstede; with no later additions in the spaces reserved for that purpose]. On the back flyleaf iii, ownership note; a proverb, back flyleaf iii: [Ownership note; a proverb"Multa volumus, pauca scimus et minora possumus"; a biblical passage (Luke 14, 26); a citation attributed to Augustine on living a good life to avoid a bad death]. Title supplied by cataloger. Manuscript contains several works including a Calendar, the Old tenures, Natura brevium and the subject index to the statutes, Accusacions to Wurstede. Written in England during the middle years of the fifteenth century. The latest date in the text is 23 Henry VI, i.e. 1444-45 (on, e.g., ff. 74v, 84v, 86); the calendar does not include Osmund, canonized in 1456. The manuscript may have been copied in London by or for a stationer associated with the Inns of Court, as suggested by the existence of other legal manuscripts in related hands; the presence of Dunstan in the calendar may point to a connection with Clifford's Inn. Span folios: ff. 1-117v. Support: Parchment. Layout: 1⁶ 2⁸(-1; through f. 13) 3-15⁸. 34 long lines, ruled in lead with top and bottom 2 lines full across; additional set of narrow double rules in the outer margin of ff. 7-69v for nota bene marks; additional vertical rule 2/3 across page for column of statutes cited on ff. 70-117v. Calendar ruled in ink; slash prick marks visible in this section. Calendar written in a textura script; the rest of the manuscript in a legal anglicana script by the same scribe who copied a statute book in Auckland Public Library, Med. MS S1571 Decoration: Opening initials, ff. 1, 14 and 70 in 3- and 2-line gold on white-patterned blue and maroon grounds with black ink sprays terminating in green and gold leaves or in pink and blue leaves; 3-line blue initials with red flourishing; in the calendar, 2-line initials alternating in blue with red flourishing and in gold with blue; alternating red and blue paragraph marks. Calligraphic initial with 2 sketched faces, signed "w.w.," on the Byrley ownership note, f. ii verso. On the back flyleaves, rough sketches in crayon of a stag (?), a dog's head, an interlace design and a bird's head. Input into Digital Scriptorium by: C. W. Dutschke, 1/29/2012. Cataloged from existing description: C. W. Dutschke with the assistance of R. H. Rouse et al., Guide to Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Huntington Library (San Marino, 1989). Bound in 20th century vellum from a document as recovering over earlier pasteboards; earlier spine label laid down; previous binding in red-brown calf, English, ca. 1780. HM 47619. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.
Extent
ff. i + iv + 117 + iii + i : parchment ; 160 x 214 mm.
Writs--England--Early works to 1800 Land tenure--Law and legislation--England--Early works to 1800 Writs England 15th century. (aat) Sketches 15th century. (aat) Manuscripts (documents) (aat)
Source
Manuscripts, Huntington Digital Library
Provenance
On f. ii verso, twice, the name of Thomas Byrley; on the third back flyleaf,"Ihesu mercy/ of Byrley constat/ Lady helpe/ [...?]" and"Ihesu haue mercy on me so al men." A Thomas Byrley was admitted to Lincoln's Inn in 1501 (see Records of the Honorable Society of Lincoln's Inn, Admissions (1896) 1:29 and The Black Books (1897) 1:122). The same man apparently owned a statute book now in Lincoln's Inn, Hale 176 (Misc. 12) with the inscription,"Thome Byrley constat liber." 16th century inscription on f. ii verso,"Thomas Hever [or Henery?] Arthur Towers Francis Arm [?] J. Anthony Francis Anderson [...?]." Belonged to Philip Carteret Webb; his sale, 25 February 1771, lot 2814 to John Lowes of Ridley Hall, Northumberland; Lowes' book plate on the front pastedown and, on f. ii, his acquisition note and collation of the text of the Old Tenures against the 1521 Pynson edition. By 1877 owned by Sir Henry Ingilby, Bart., of Ripley Castle, Yorkshire; in the sale of Lt.-Col. Sir William Henry Ingilby (1874-1950), Sotheby's, 21 October 1920, lot 171. Sold by Leighton, Cat. II, 2 (1921) n. 671 to Coella Lindsay Ricketts of Chicago.
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