Add MS 48186

ABRIDGEMENT of case law; 17th cent. French. Table of contents, ff. 6-13b. This volume contains entries from 'Faits' to 'Pier de royalme' and is evidently part of a larger compilation, perhaps originally consisting of three volumes, of which the present MS. would have been the second. This abridgement does not apparently correspond to any of the works discussed and listed in: J. D. Cowley, A bibliography of abridgements, digests, dictionaries and indexes of English Law to the year 1800, Selden Soc., Special Volume, 1932; J. H. Beale, A bibliography of Early English Law Books, Ames Foundation, 1926, and R. B. Anderson, A supplement to Beale's bibliography of Early English Law Books, Ames Foundation, 1943. The present compilation is comparable in size and scope to such well-known abridgements as those of Anthony Fitzherbert, 1516, Sir Robert Brooke, 1574, and Henry Rolle, 1668 (but compiled sometime before 1640). In addition to a wide range of standard sources, use is also made of such works as William Camden, Brittania, 1586, Sir George Croke, Reports, 1st edn. 1657 but probably circulating in MS. much earlier, Sir John Davies, Le Primer report des cases . . . , 1615, R. Holinshed, Chronicles . . ., 1577, William Lambarde, A Perambulation of Kent, 1576, an 'Explicatio vocabulorum' attributed to Lambarde, J. Perkins, A Profitable booke . . . , 1555,

J. Selden, Titles of honour, 1614, Notes on Fortescue, 1616, J. Speed, History of Great Britain, 1614, Sir Henry Yelverton, Reports, 1st edn. 1661 but probably circulating in MS. much earlier. The present abridgement was compiled sometime between 1615, the date of the latest material included in it, and 1640, the date of the note on the cost of the MS. on f. 1.

Paper; ff. i + 153. Contemporary pagination 1-975. Folio. 1640. On f. 1 is a note '1640 In this Booke there is 10: quire of paper wch cost writing vizt the 2. first quires 16s a quire. in all 1li -12s -0 and the other 8 quires 1li 12s 0 a quire in all 12li 16s 0 the paper 10s the binding 3s 6d the totall of all wch sommes are 15li 1s 6d.' The present binding is not, however, the binding mentioned in this note, but an 18th-cent. brown leather binding in poor condition. 19th-cent. titling on spine labels, also label 'Ap. IX'.

Law OF ENGLAND: Abridgement of case law: 17th cent: Fr.