Royal MS 20 A VII

STATUTES of Richard II (incomplete), bound with the legal treatise known as Britton. Contents:-

1. Statutes of Richard II, imperfect at end and by loss of a quire in the middle. The contents are 1-9 (part) and 12 (part)-17 (part) Ric. II, coinciding generally with the Tower-Roll text printed in Statutes of the Realm, vol. ii, except that 13 Ric. II, stat. 3 is not included, and between 7 and 8 Ric. II is inserted (f. 30 b) the stat. De appellatis of 28 Edw. I (Stat. R., i, p. 141). French, except 28 Edw. I, 6, 8 Ric. II, which are in Latin. The text appears from marginal notes to have been collated in the 16th cent. with early printed editions. f. 1.

Art. 1 is in a band of circ. 1400. Gatherings of 8 leaves. Illuminated initial and border to f. 1. Art. 2 is in a hand of the first half of the XIV cent. Gatherings of 10 leaves (v⁹, viii¹²), with signatures (i-xvii) at beg. and catchwords. Initials flourished in green and red.

2. Britton, the law-treatise in French compiled about 1290 from Bracton De Legibus and other sources, and headed as if issued by the King (Edward I). The name, which does not appear here, has been supposed to be either a corruption of the name of Bracton (properly Bratton) or to refer to John Le Breton, Bishop of Hereford (though the treatise in its extant form is later than his death in 1275), see Britton, ed. F. M. Nichols, Oxford, 1865, and art. Breton in Dict. Nat Biog. Nichols does not mention this MS., which seems a better representative of the same family as his C (Cambridge Univ. MS., Gg. v. 12). Ch. v of bk. iv is not omitted. Imperfect at end, breaking off in bk. vi, ch. 5, and by loss of a leaf after f. 181. After bk. vi, ch. 2 is noted 'deficit figura', i.e. the tree of consanguinity. Beg. 'Edward (&c.) a touz ces feus e leaus e sugez . . . Asquns des leies qe lem ad vse'. f. 57.

Vellum; ff. 225. 91/4 in. x 61/4 in. XIV cent. (see above). Sec. fol. 'manoirs et villes'. Perhaps no. 131 of the cat. of MSS. at Richmond Palace in 1535 (see 15 D. I) ; not identified in the other old catalogues.