London. British Library, Add MS 14252

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Source
The British Library, Polonsky Pre-1200 Project
Library
London. British Library
Shelfmark
  • British Library, Add MS 14252
Biblissima authority file
Language
  • Middle English
  • Latin
  • Anglo-Norman
Title
  • Ranulf de Glanvill, Tractatus de Legibus et Consuetudinibus Regni Anglie ; ‘Prester John’, Epistola Manueli Comneno Imperatori Graecorum ; Hildebert of Lavardin, De Tribus Mortuis a Christo Suscitatis ; a prose description of England based on Henry of Huntingdon’s Historia Anglorum ; Laws related to the Commune of London; genealogies
Agent
Description
  • This manuscript is the second volume of a collection of legal treatises, of which Manchester, John Rylands University Library, MS lat. 155 is the first volume. Add MS 14252 mainly contains law texts related to England and the ‘Commune of London’: a corporation of London citizens which had been recognised as a governing body by King John in 1191. The manuscript also includes a prose description of England in Anglo-Norman and a Latin copy of the so-called ‘Letter of Prester John’. The latter text presents a letter from a certain Christian priest-king named ‘John’ who writes to the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos (b. 1118, d. 1180) about the treasures and marvels of a kingdom that he would have established in the ‘East’. ff. 1r-87r: Ranulf de Glanvill (d. 1190), Tractatus de Legibus et Consuetudinibus Regni Anglie (Treatise on the Laws and Customs of the Kingdom of England), continued from the Manchester manuscript. ff. 88v-89r: A list of rentals for land from the city of London. ff. 90r-90v: A rental of tenements near the Thames, beginning ‘[H]oc est veredictum inquisitum ab et discretioribus provintie quid libertas aquae de tamisia a castello barnardi usque ad pontem de stanes’. ff. 92r-97v: Iohannes presbyter ('Prester John'), Epistola Manueli Comneno imperatori Graecorum (Letter to Manuel I Komnenos, Emperor of the Greeks), known as ‘The Prester John Letter’ [Redaction B]. f. 97v: Hildebert of Lavardin (b. 1056, d. 1133), Archbishop of Tours, De Tribus Mortuis a Christo Sucsictatis (On the Three Dead Brought back to Life by Christ), ‘Mens mala . mors intus. malus actus. mors foris. usus. / Tumba. puella. puer. lazarus ista notant.’. ff. 98r-101r: Laws relating to London in Anglo-Norman. ff. 101r-104v: A description of England in prose (Anglo-Norman), based on the verse history of Henry of Huntingdon (b. 1084, d. 1155)'s Historia Anglorum (History of the English). ff. 104v-108v: Laws pertaining to London’s citizen’s, merchants, the city charters, wardship and the Assize of Buildings; including a list of names of aldermen (‘Nomina iuratores ad assisam muri lapides’) and a list of the names of the sheriffs of London during the reign of Richard I (b. 1157, d. 1199) and John (b. 1166, d. 1216) (‘Nomina vicecomitum a primo anno Regis Ricardi usque ad Johannis regis’). ff. 110r-111r: Oaths to be pledged by each of the 24 members of the Commune of London. ff. 111r-112r: Laws of the Weavers and Fullers at Winchester, Marlborough, Oxford, and Beverley (Anglo-Norman), beginning ‘Co est la lai teliers et des fuluns a Wincestre’. ff. 112v-113r: An account of the Commune of London pledging loyalty to Richard I during his imprisonment in Germany, beginning ‘Sacramentum commune tempore regis Ricardi quando detentus erat Alemaniam’. ff. 113r-117r: Laws, especially pertaining to violent crime (murder, robbery, rape, etc.) in London, in Latin and Anglo-Norman. ff. 117r-118r: The Articles of Eyre of 1208, beginning ‘Capitula domini regi per cursum errantium justiciarum’. f. 118v: The law of the Assize of bread, decreed at the Guildhall, beginning ‘De constitutione et ponderatione panis’. ff. 119r-124r: Laws on the rules and liberties for citizens of London, in Latin and Anglo-Norman, e.g. laws for merchants, cornmongers and bakers. ff. 124r-125r: Laws for London made during the reign of King John, approved by him and made at his request, beginning ‘Quedam consideratio facta ad civitatem claudendam tempore regis johannis per eius petitionem et assensum’.ff. 125r-125v: On the genealogy of the house of the Honour of Boulogne, beginning ‘De honore Bolonie in Anglia post conquestum normannorum certissima successio’. ff. 126r-127r: A list recording the land taxes for the hundreds of the county of Middlesex, beginning ‘Hidagium comitatus totius middelsexe’. f. 127v: A genealogy for the Anglo-Norman Hubert of Caen, identifying Gervase of Cornhill and William Blemund as his sons. ff. 128v-129v: Decrees of the Commune of London at the Guildhall for regulating the city of London and protecting it against fire, following the Great Fire of 1212, beginning ‘Quedam consideratio facta per consilium proborum virorum sanctum ad sedandam et pacificandam civitatem et contra incendium cum dei adiutorio muniendam’. The manuscript contains a later addition:f. 109v: A recipe for ‘Metheglyn’ (a type of mead) in Middle English, beginning ‘Take þe rote of fenkell Persell with þe rote of tansay’, added in a 15th-century script. f. 130v: ‘Ite ad Regem turcorum’, added in a (?) 15th-century script. [ff. i recto, i verso, i*recto-iv*verso, 1r, 1v, 87v, 88r, 89v, 91r, 91v, 109r, 128r, 129r-130v are blank].Decoration:4 medium initials in gold on blue grounds, some with filigree decoration in red (ff. 11r, 87r, 92r, 98r); Medium initials in red or blue with pen-flourishing or penwork decoration in the other colour. Decorated line-fillers in red or blue or in both colours. Rubrics in red.
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  • Public domain in most countries other than the UK
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