Medieval Manuscripts in Cambridge Libraries

A catalogue of Western manuscripts and papyri at Cambridge University Library, the Fitzwilliam Museum and selected Cambridge colleges

Cambridge, Queens' College, MS 23

Britton (legal treatise)

Contents

1. iv recto-v verso
Capitula
Language(s): Latin and French
Incipit: iv recto: Incipiunt capitula libri subsequentis qui dicitur Brettoun
Explicit: v verso: Expliciunt capitula Iibri subsequentis qui incipit hic.
2. 1r-2v
Prologus
Language(s): French
Incipit: 1r: Edward par la grace dieu Roy dengleterre et sire de Irlaunde
Explicit: 2v: en veue de franc plegge een autres courtz.
3. 3r-136v
Britton (legal treatise)
Language(s): French
Incipit: 3r: I. De Coroners. E pur ceo qe nous voloms qe coroners seient en chescun counte.
Explicit: 136v: saunz jour iesqes al retourn de cely. Explicit.

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: 2r: nous especiaument
Form: codex
Support: Parchment (FHFH)
Extent: 5 + 136 + 1 leaves. 175 × 135 mm.
Foliation:

15th-century foliation:

1-75, 78-136

Numbering in ink in upper right-hand corner of each leaf recto.

20th-century foliation:

i-v, 131A, 137

Leaf between 131 and 132 unfoliated; numbered 131A in pencil. Fols i-v, 137 numbered in pencil.

Collation

The manuscript comprises one quire composed of six leaves followed by fifteen quires of eight leaves. The last quire is made of ten leaves. There are leaves missing in quires a and 17, and some leaves are cancelled in quire 16. Folio i was formerly a pastedown, now lifted.

  • Quire a6-1 (ff. i recto-v verso: first leaf missing)
  • Quires 1-158 (ff. 1-122)
  • Quire 1610-2 (ff. 123-130: third and ninth leaves cancelled)
  • Quire 178-1 (ff. 131-137: last leaf missing)

a4-1 (1 missing) + 2 (ff. ii-iii inserted after 2) 1-158 1610-2 (3 and 9 cancelled) 178-1 (8 missing)

Quires numbered on recto of first leaf of each quire.

Catchwords.

Layout

153 × 97 mm. Single columns, lines, frame and lines ruled in ink, written below top line.

Hand(s)

Cursiva anglicana

Decoration

Spaces left for initials with guide letters.

Additions

Title written in a 17th-century hand on f. ii recto.

Binding

17th-century calfskin with blind-tooled concentric frames composed of double fillets and floral rolls, floral cornerpieces to inner frames. Rebacked in 20th century.

History

Origin: 13/14th century ; England

Provenance and Acquisition

On iv recto and 136v is inscribed 'Liber Johannis May Cantuar'.

Late 16th/early 17th-century inscription on ii recto of Joseph Wasse (1672-1739), clergyman and classical scholar, Queens' alumnus (matric. 1691) : 'Sum Josephi Wasse et amicorum'.

Presented to the Library by Joseph Wasse in 1722. His gift is recorded in Queens' Donors' Book, p. 45.

Additional Information

Record Sources

This catalogue entry draws on the description in M.R. James, A descriptive catalogue of the western manuscripts in the library of Queens’ College, Cambridge (Cambridge, 1905).

Availability

For further information on the availability of the manuscript, please contact Queens' Old Library and Special Collections.

Bibliography

    A catalogue of the library of the college of St. Margaret and St. Bernard, commonly called Queen's College in the University of Cambridge, Horne, Thomas Hartwell (London, Society of Queen's College, 1827) A descriptive catalogue of the western manuscripts in the library of Queens' College, Cambridge, James, M.R. (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1905)

Funding of Cataloguing

Dr Virge James in memory of the late Dr Nigel James (Queens' mat. 1960)

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Cambridge Digital Library

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