Stowe MS 380

BRACTON De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliæ. No title; begins with a table of chapters. Instead of the usual division into five books, there are here seventy divisions, the number of chapters in each varying between two and 109. At the heads of the pages is a further division into sixteen books [apparently seventeen originally, as at the end of the table of chapters is written, in a later hand, " septemdecim libri," but the end of the work is lost]; but no notice is taken of tliis in the text. As in other early copies, the iiame of the author is omitted from § of ch. 1. At the end of bk. ii. ch. 2 [ed. Twiss, Rolls Series, vol. i. p. 544] there is no drawing of the tree of consanguinity, and the reference to it runs " in figura inferius depicta " (f. 41). In the writ of mort d'ancestor [cf. Twiss, Introd., vol. i. pp. xviii-xx] the limitation of time is omitted altogether, the passage running, " cum pertinenciis in tali villa,etsi idem ii propinquioreius heres sit"(f.129). The reference to the case of Petrus de Sabaudia [cf. Twiss, ib., p. xv] in 46 Hen. III. [1261-1262] is present (f. 84b). The passage concerning the responsibility of the king (referred to by President Bradshaw during the trial of Charles I.) is absent (f. 24b); [cf. F. W. Maitland, Bracton's Note-Book, Introd. vol. i. pp. 29-33]. The end is lost; the last words are " ut infra totum tempus illud possit qui ius " [bk. v. ch. 29, § 1, ed. Twiss, vol. vi. p. 444]. The MS. is described by Twiss, vol. vi. p. lxiv, but does not seem to have been used for the text. lt has also been consulted by Maitland, and is quoted by him as MN. Vellum; ff. 202. End of xiiith cent. In double columns of 50 lines. Initials coloured in red and blue. Titles of chapters in the margin, and pa,e-headings. On f. 1 are the names of 31,-try Lucas and Anne Parke, in a hand of the 17th cent.; and that of Thomas Astle is written inside the cover. Bound in boards, covered with stamped leather of the xvith cent., rebacked. Folio.

Law OF ENGLAND: H. de Bracton de legibus et consuetudinibus Angliæ: 13th cent.

Henry de Bracton: De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliæ: 13th cent.

Bindings ENGLISH: Boards, covered with stamped leather: 16th cent.