Lansdowne MS 467/39

39. Summa quæ vocatur Glanvyle. p. 165. This is a French translation by some unnamed person in the reign of Edw. I. He tells his readers that he undertook it for the gratification of his friends, and not by any command whatever. He entitles the work "The Laws and Customs of the Second Henry, according to the course and usage of the Exchequer of London, taken from a book in Latin, compiled by a good and wise clerk, in the time of Randolf de Glanvyle, Chief Justice of the kingdom." He likewise states that he has preferred executing his task in "common romance," i. e. plain French prose, to translating it into rhyme. To understand this declaration properly, it is necessary to observe, that about this time it was a sort of fashion to put law matters into French verse. Thus there still exist metrical copies of the Statutes of Gloucester and Merton. It is not probable however that the lawyers, like the monks, attempted to rival the very popular minstrels of these times, or that they designed their poetical compositions to be chanted to the harp. We may rather suppose that the object was to impress these matters more strongly on the memory; and even that in this form they should be gotten by heart, and said, but not sung. The present translation extends no further than book xiii. ch. 22, of the original.