Add MS 48598

LEGAL TREATISES by Sir John Fortescue (b. 1385-1395; d. circ. 1479), Chief Justice of the King's Bench 1442-1461; early 16th cent. Latin.

(1) 'De natura legis nature', part i only, including the preface beg. 'Libellus iste dividitur in duas partes', but lacking the last chapter, c. 47, though space has been left for it in the MS. after its rubricated heading 'Finis', f. 24b. Other MSS. are Oxford, Bodleian Library, Laud 585, Lincolnshire Archives Office, Worsley MS. 36, and Lambeth Palace MS.

262, from which last the work was printed by Lord Clermont, 1864, and again, with English translation, in The Works of Sir John Fortescue, 1869, i, pp. 59 sqq. ff. 1-24b.

(2) 'De laudibus legum Anglie'. Edited by S. B. Chrimes (to whom the present MS. was unknown), 1942, from (A) Cambridge University Library, MS. Ff. 5.22 collated with (W) the editio princeps of Edwarde Whitechurch, London [1545-1546], (B) Harley MS. 1757 and (C) Bodleian Library, Digby MS. 198. The present MS. has many variants from A found also in B, C and W, together with variants peculiar to itself. It includes the third of the three

passages noted by Chrimes, p. lxxxiv, as present in W but wanting in A, B and C. ff. 25b-46b. Paper; ff. v+48. 390 mm. x 265 mm. Early xvI cent. Watermark, a crescent within a circle, surmounted by a cross, similar to C. M. Briquet, Les Filigranes, 5236 (1496-1500). Written in England, in a fine bastard hand with red chapter headings and elaborate strap-work initials decorated with floral designs and grotesque animals in pen-and-ink, similar to the decoration in Lambeth MS. 262, cf. Lord Clermont, ibid., plate facing p. 115. Binding, English, 16th cent., brown leather on boards, blind-tooled, with interlocking 'cresting and acorn' decoration in a central panel and border (cf. J. B. Oldham, Blind Panels of English Binders, 1958, pp. 13-14, pl. I-III), and metal clasp plates (clasps missing). At f. 46b is a presentation inscription, in Latin hexameters, by H. Whalley, early 16th cent., 'Exiguum munus quum det tibi pauper amicus, accipito placide, plene laudare memento'. Signed inscription, 17th cent., f. 46b, by John Matthew (the same name is written in another hand, f. v), presumably of Gray's Inn (admitted 9 July 1660), see J. Foster, Register of Admissions, 1889, p. 289, where he is described as son and heir of Brian Matthew, of Hoddington, co. Southt., a manor which descended to the Sclater (afterw. Sclater-Booth) family, later Barons Basing (Victoria County History, Hampshire, iii, p. 384); armorial bookplate, f. ii, and signature of William Lutley Sclater (b. 1789; d. 1885), f. 4. Later belonged to Edward J. Finneron, of Brookwood, Surrey, signature f. iii.