Add MS 8512

CUSTOMS OF THE LATIN EASTERN EMPIRE: attested copy of a collection of the customs and statutes of the Latin Eastern Empire in the use of the principality of Achaea circa 1221-1228; 24 July 1423. Italian and Latin. This collection of 219 customs and statutes of the Latin Eastern Empire apparently relates to an occasion when Geoffrey I de Villehardouin, Prince of Achaea (1209-1226/31), made peace with the Latin Emperor, Robert of Courtenay (1221-1228), paid homage to him and was confirmed in his principality. Printed, from a manuscript in the possession of Amadeus Svajer and from Venice, Biblioteca Marciana, It., Z. 31 (15th cent.), in P. Canciani, Barbarorum Leges Antiquae (Venice, 1785), iii, pp. 493-534. Biblioteca Marciana It., II. 91, 127 and 163 are other copies of this text (15th-17th cent.). Inc. prologue (f. 1) 'Quando la sancta citade de Jerusalem fo conquistata', inc. customs (f. 1v) 'In prima che per le usanze predite', expl. 'non devesse esser punito a pena capital zoe dela testa. Explicit liber de consuetudinibus imperii Romanie. Deo gracias' (f. 21v). Some of the entries have rubricated headings. Written, apparently in a Venetian dialect, by Francisco Blancho, notary, 24 July 1423 (colophon, f. 21v), but not included in A. Watson, Dated and Datable Manuscripts c. 700-1600, (1979). The colophon is followed (f. 21v) by an extract in a later hand, in Italian, taken 'per mi Johane Antonio Padoano cancellario della Naxia' from the customs of Naxos drawn up by Jacomo Crispo, Lieutenant of Naxos from 1494. This extract is printed in P. Viollet (ed.), Archives de l'Orient Latin, i (1881), pp. 613-614. The final folios (ff. 22-22v, 23v) include many later notes, pen-trials, writing exercises and imprecations, in Latin and Italian, and a list of some of the rubrics (f. 23v) in Italian, from the customs of the Latin Eastern Empire, in the hand of the main text. Ownership inscription (partly erased) 'Iste liber est Bartolomeus Ponson Saror'' (f. 23v). Armorial bookplate of 5th Earl of Guilford, with shelfmark L/18/B (f. i). Purchased, together with Add. 8361, from R. H. Evans, 8 December 1830, lot 578 (part).

Vellum; ff. i+23. 253 x 200mm. Original gatherings now mounted on guards, 1¹² (ff. 1-12), 2¹² (10 cancelled; ff. 13-23). Ruled in a single column circa 218 x circa 148mm, with 46 lines. British Museum binding with red covers.