Medieval Manuscripts in Cambridge Libraries

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

Cambridge, University Library, MS Dd.12.23

Compilation of legal and language texts

Contents

Introduction: The contents of this manuscript comprise a mixture of legal and language texts: notes relating not only to laws and court procedures but also in aid of correct French grammar and conversation. Though there are frequent changes in scribal hand, often though not always coinciding with divisions between the quires, the manuscript is likely not a composite but one formed of codicological units copied more or less around the same time. The reason is that this particular combination of subjects bears similarities to the courses on dictamen, conveyancing, court-keeping and French language taught at Oxford during the fifteenth century. That this volume contains fictional cases in which one of the parties concerned is 'W.K.', and the existence of similar combinations of notes in other manuscripts, has led scholars to propose that the notes in this volume derive from the teaching of William Kingsmill William Kingsmill . Kingsmill had been a scrivener of London from at least 1402 until at least 1419, and was also under-marshal of the King's Bench until his dismissal around the same time (for a brief biography of Kingsmill, see Jonathon Bush, Learning the law: teaching and the transmission of English law, 1150-1900 (London: Hambledon, 1999), pp. 167-70). He taught thereafter in Oxford, and perhaps as late as 1450. Kingsmill's treatise De forma et compositione cartarum, a guide to the correct composition of legal documents, is preserved in another University Library manuscript, MS Dd.5.46. This other manuscript is datable to c. 1429 on the basis of most of its deeds being dated with the regnal year 7 Henry VI (1428-29), with a copy of an Inquisition dated 1430 being added on the flyleaves, and is thus the earliest datable version of his conveyancing course known to survive in manuscript. Given the compilatory nature of the present manuscript, which suggests copying from other manuscripts and lecture notes in circulation in Oxford, it is likely that it dates from around the same period. Dr James Freeman| Medieval Manuscripts Specialist| Cambridge University Library
1.1. 1r-7r
French language and vocabulary, beginning with pronunciation and conjugations
Explicit: 7r: quatrecentisme quarantisme et septisme et cetera
Language(s): Middle French

This and the following item are probably notes from a course of instruction.

There are other versions in Cambridge, University Library, MS Ee.4.20 (ff. 165r-166r) and MS Gg.6.44 (ff. 19r-30r). Cf. Cambridge, Trinity College, MS B.14.40 , f. 149r (printed by Meyer, Romania (1903), 32: p. 49; Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Rawlinson C.507 , p. 106.

Meyer (1886), p. 262
1.2. 7v-13r
Guide to French conversation
Incipit: 7v: Sir bon jour sir bon jour a vous
Explicit: 13r: douszeme esquilez in douszeme sancere et cetera
Final rubric: 13r: Explicit liber donati
Language(s): Middle French

One of a group of French conversation manuals, known as La manière de langage .

Legge (1939) attributes the work to William Kingsmill William Kingsmill .

Meyer (1903)
1.3. 13v-14r
Miscellaneous legal notes
1.3.1. 13v
Notes on tenures
Incipit: 13v: Feodum et jus in feodo simplici
Language(s): Latin
1.3.2. 13v
Notes on common appendant (c. 1490), citing year-book cases from Edw. II to Mich. 5 Hen. VII
Language(s): Middle French
1.3.3. 14r
Three forms of presentment for felony, relating to Oxford, 21 Hen. VI
Language(s): Latin
1.3.4. 14r
A form dated 1521
Language(s): Latin
1.3.5. 14v
Notes on common, citing cases from Edw. III to Mich. 5 Hen. VII
Incipit: 14v: Et nota que sount quater maners de comon
Language(s): Middle French

Cf. related mnemonic note in Cambridge, University Library, MS Mm.5.2, f. 78*r and MS Add. 7558, f. 57r, and Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Rawlinson C.507 , p. 190

2. 15r-24v
Old Tenures
Incipit: 15r: Tenura dicitur per servicium militare per servicium socagii...En primes est assavoire que tener per service de chivaler est tener per homage, feaulte, escuage
Explicit: 24v: deins lan per un scire facias
Final rubric: 24v: Liber est scriptus qui scripsit sit benedictus
Language(s): Middle French, with beginning of text in Latin

This is the latest of several elementary treatises on tenures, and belongs to the later 14th century; there is an internal reference to 21 Edw. III on f. 18r. It was first printed c. 1494 by Ricard Pynson (S.T.C. 23877.7. ff. 15r-20v correspond with Cambridge, University Library, MS Gg.6.44, ff. 1r-12v.

There are other versions (most of them beginning, as in the printed version, 'Tenir per service de chivaler est...'):

3. 25r-48v
An elementary course on procedure and pleading
Incipit: 25r: Curia baronis et etiam regalis. En primez coment quen lune court et lautre soient appellez essoynez et profrez
Explicit: 48v: responsio potest dari preter debet vel non debet detinet vel non detinet
Final rubric: 48v: Explicit liber da mihi quod ego merui quod Mershfeld
Language(s): Middle French and Latin

This is an elementary course on procedure and pleading, perhaps delivered at Oxford, which is mentioned in the precedents. (Mershfeld may have been an Oxford student: see Provenance).

There are a number of different texts called Curia baronis, and their interrelationship is complex. They contain a mixture of guidance in French, with specimens of oral pleading, entries in Latin, and charges and oaths in English. The present text corresponds with CUL MS Gg.6.44, ff. 30v-65r. It is probably from William Kingsmill William Kingsmill 's course at Oxford, for which see Baker and Ringrose (1996), pp. 33-34. The same incipit also occurs in:

Legge (1939) attributes to Kingsmill the part of the text commencing on f. 33r, where 'W.K.' is brought in as one of the parties to the actions.

It is a late version, quite similar to that first printed c. 1525 as Modus observandi curiam cum leta (S.T.C. 7713.7). It is different from the collection first printed c. 1501 as Modus tenendi curiam baronis (S.T.C. 7705.7), for which see CUL, MS Ee.1.3, ff. 13r-20r. Cf. also CUL, MS Add. 7558, ff. 29v-30r, 41r-56v. On f. 32v there are some mnemonic verses on wager of law ('Qui legem vadiat nisi lex in tempore fiat | Tunc condempnetur taxatio sic sibi detur'): see CUL, MS Gg.5.30, f. 165r (Baker and Ringrose (1996), p. 305).

4.1. 49r-53r
Miscellaneous notes
Language(s): Latin
4.1.1. 49r-51v
Financial calculations and diagrams
4.1.2. 52r-52v
Astrological notes, notes on the humours
4.1.3. 53r
Notes on numerals
Incipit: 'Ternusiii undenixi'
4.1.4. 53r
Verses
Incipit: Nemia familiaritas parit contentum
4.2. 53v-65v
Treatise on law and procedure in London
Language(s): Middle French, with opening rubric in Latin
Rubric: 53v: Intratur in libro de custumis in Camera Guyhalde Ciuitatis London Foliis quinto vito, viimo, viiio, ixo, pertini in prima parte
Incipit: 53v: En primes les maire et audermans de la cite de Loundres teignent
Explicit: 65v: partie auera respouncement contre esteant cell enquest doffice
Final rubric: 65v: Et fair assavoir qu sount plusurs autres pointz et usages touchamitz les Courtz des viscomtz doun homme ne poet mye avoir remembraunce de toutz

Cf. the tract on Lincoln procedure in CUL, MS Add. 7558, ff. 30r-37r.

4.3. 65v
Account of miracles that prompted the Magi to travel to the Nativity
Incipit: 65v: Ista erant miracula que movebant magos querere salvatorem. Balthsara habuit ortum aromaticum
Explicit: 65v: In cuius signum triginta tribus diebus vivam et tunc moriar quod ita factum est
Language(s): Latin
4.4. 66r-67r
Statute of Apprentices
Incipit: 66r: Item ordeignez est et establiez que les bones estatutz faitz
Explicit: 67r: levez et paiez en aide de la quinszisme agramitier en temps avenir et cetere
Final rubric: 67r: Explicit statutus de apprenticiis
Language(s): Middle French, with explicit in Latin

SR 2:157; 7 Hen. IV, c. 17.

4.5. 67r
Play on the word 'count'
Language(s): Middle French
Incipit: 67r: Je vey un count comptant un cont a le viscount
4.6. 67v-87r
Specimens of French speech and vocabulary
Rubric: 67v: Ici a nostre comencement de cesti tretis nous dirrons ainsi
Incipit: 67v: En noun de pier et filz et seint esprit amen. En noun de la glorius Trinite
Explicit: 87r: et piteons ottroit eu le fine sil liu pleast amen
Final rubric: 87r: Ici fine le commune parlance nulle meliour en tout le France
Language(s): Middle French, with a few interlinear glosses in Middle English

Includes various forms of La manière de langage : see Meyer (1886), p. 262.

For other versions, see CUL, MS Add. 8870, ff. 34r-35r.

4.7. 87v-88r
Form of a bond by Guy Wikam of Whicheford, conditioned to perform an arbitration award, before the feasts of SS. Simon and Jude, 2 Hen. VII.
Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: 2r: aroie tu
Form: codex
Support: Parchment (HFFH)
Extent: Codex: i + 91 + i leaves. 175 × 135 mm.
Foliation:

?17th/18th-century foliation, with 20th-century additions:

[i] + 1-15, 15a/15*, 16-35, 35a/35*, 36-37, 37a/37*, 38-88 + [ii]

Numbering in ink, mostly in the centre of the upper margin of the rectos. Owing to dirt or damage, no numbers are visible on the first (1) or last (88) leaves. Three leaves were omitted from this sequence of foliation, after 15, 35 and 37; these have been numbered in pencil, in two different ways, apparently during the 20th century. References to folio numbers and letters are preferred over asterisks, and are followed in this description.

Collation

The manuscript comprises seven quires of varying numbers of leaves, perhaps formed from four codicological units: ff. 1-14, 15-24, 25-48 and 49-88.

  • Quire 114 (ff. 1-14)
  • Quire 212-1 (ff. 15-24: 12th leaf excised, after f. 24, probably blank)
  • Quire 312 (ff. 25-35)
  • Quire 414 (ff. 36-48)
  • Quire 58 (ff. 49-56)
  • Quire 618-1 (ff. 57-73: 1st leaf, before f. 57, cancelled)
  • Quire 716-1 (ff. 74-88: 12th leaf, after f. 84, missing. The stub of the missing leaf has been misbound, appearing between ff. 78 and 79, rather than ff. 84 and 85)

114; 212-1 (12th excised, probably blank); 312, 414; 58, 618-1 (1st cancelled), 716-1 (12th missing)

No leaf signatures.

No quire signatures.

 Occasional catchwords.

Layout

130-140 × 95-105 mm. Ruled in leadpoint, frame only, with occasional line ruling. Mainly single columns (except ff. 1v-5r and 49r-51v, which have two columns, and 5v, which has three). 25-31 lines to the page, written above top line.

Hand(s)

Folios 1r-13r, 15r-21r and 25r-37r written in secretary hands.

Folios 13v-14v, 21v-24v, 37v-48v, 49v-51v, 52r-67r, 67v-87r and 87v-88v display predominantly anglicana features.

Decoration

Plain red initials (ff. 6r, 7v, 15r, 25r, 26v, 53v, 65v, 67v), in one instance ornamented with red-brown infill and marginal flourishing (f. 26v).

Cadel in black ink, with red infill (f. 67v), and practices / pen-trials for interlaced cadel decoration (f. 24v).

Outline genealogical diagram illustrating the descent and relationship between members of two branches of a family connected by two brothers/brothers-in-law, involving individuals named in the case described above (Adam, Symon, Geffray, Wylliam, Robert Thomas and John) (f. 46v).

Additions

Calculations written by a post-medieval hand on blank spaces (ff. 49r, 51r).

Additions to the margins by another post-medieval hand on ff. 2r and 4r.

Collation formula by the hand of H.L. Pink , c. 1958 ([ii] recto).

Binding

From note by binder pasted on rear pastedown: 'Spine covered with brown Oasis Morocco, marbled paper sides, vellum tips, lettering labels.' Note of work signed "SMC" ('Sydney Morris Cockerell', i.e. Sandy Cockerell , October 1958.

Binding removed in 1958 described by Sandy Cockerell as follows: 'Narrow brown sheep skin spine, faded green paper sides over millboards. Book sewn on three thin cords.'

History

Origin: First half of the 15th century. ; England, perhaps Oxford.

'It is credibly supposed that much of this volume derives from one of the courses on dictamen, conveyancing, court-keeping and French language at Oxford, probably that given by William Kingsmill William Kingsmill .'
Legge (1939).

Provenance and Acquisition

48v: Colophon contains the name 'Mershfeld', perhaps a student attending the course at Oxford.

50v: 'Jhon Balding', perhaps a former owner of the manuscript.

The precise date of acquisition by Cambridge University Library is not known. The manuscript is first recorded in a catalogue compiled in 1753 (now MS Oo.7.53), with 'R' next to the classmark, denoting it as one of the books that came to the Library in 1715 from the collection of John Moore (1646-1714), bishop of Ely , via the gift of George I , following the Moore's death the previous year. However, the manuscript cannot be identified among those listed as being in Moore's collection, either in Bernard, Catalogi librorum (1697) or in the handwritten supplement compiled by Thomas Tanner (1674-1735) (CUL, MS Oo.7.50(2)), nor is there any evidence of the manuscript having contained a Royal Library bookplate.

Additional Information

Record Sources

This catalogue entry draws on the description provided by John Baker and Jayne Ringrose, Catalogue of English Legal Manuscripts in Cambridge University Library (1996) (used here by kind permission of the Boydell Press).

Availability

Entry to read in the Library is permitted only on presentation of a valid reader's card. For information on eligibility and admissions procedures, see Joining the Library). For further enquiries, and to confirm the availability of the manuscript, please contact the Special Collections Reading Room.

Custodial History

The manuscript was sent for conservation and rebinding c. 1958, at which time the condition of the item was described as follows by Sandy Cockerell : 'Sewing and cords broken. Vellum in fair condition though leaves stained, dirty damaged and dogeared with parts missing at beginning and end. First leaf very dirty and worn, obliterating the text. Some water staining and running of colours, particularly on leaves 50 and 51' (see Binding for further details). Water staining is to be found on ff. 42-56. There are also ink splashes on ff. 9v-10r. Losses to the upper margin and upper outer corner of the leaves on ff. 73-88, perhaps caused by rodents.

Bibliography

    Les manuscrits français de Cambridge. II. Bibliothèque de l'université Romania, Meyer, Paul (15, 237-357, 1886) Les manuscrits français de Cambridge. III. Trinity College Romania, Meyer, Paul (32, 18-120, 1903) William of Kingsmill: A fifteenth-century teacher of French in Oxford Studies in French Language and Mediaeval Literature: Presented to Professor Mildred K. Pope, by pupils, colleagues, and friends, Legge, M. Dominica ([Manchester], 241-246, Manchester University Press, 1939) L'Enseignement du français en Angleterre (XIIIe–XVe): les sources manuscrites Romania, Kristol, Andres Max (111, 289-330, 1990) Un nouveau fragment de Manière de langage: Lincoln, Linc. Arch. Off., Formulary 23 Vox Romanica: Annales helvetici explorandis linguis romanicis destinati, Kristol, Andres Max (49-50, 311-341, 1990) «Que dea! Mettes le chapron, paillard, com tu parles a prodome!» La représentation de l'oralité dans les Manières de langage; du XIVe/XVe siècle Romanistisches Jahrbuch, Kristol, Andres Max (43, 35-64, 1992) Manières de langage: (1396, 1399, 1415) Anglo-Norman texts, Kristol, Andres Max (London, 53, Anglo-Norman Text Society, 1995) A catalogue of English legal manuscripts in Cambridge University Library, with codicological descriptions of the early manuscripts, Baker, John H.Ringrose, J.S. (Woodbridge, Boydell Press, 1996) Anglo-Norman literature: a guide to texts and manuscripts Anglo-Norman Text Society occasional publications series, Dean, Ruth J.Boulton, Maureen Barry McCann (London, Anglo-Norman Text Society, 1999) Continuités et discontinuités, tension et synergie: les rapports du Latin et des langues vernaculaires, reflétés dans la modélisation grammaticographique The dawn of the written vernacular in Western Europe Mediaevalia Lovaniensia Series I, Swiggers, Pierre (Leuven, 71-105, Leuven University Press, 2003) Manuscripts in the University Library, Cambridge (Dd-Oo) Index of Middle English Prose, Connolly, Margaret (Woodbridge, D.S. Brewer, 2009) Practising French conversation in fifteenth-century England The Modern Language Review, Critten, Rory G. (110, 4, 927-945, 2015, http://www.jstor.org/stable/info/10.5699/modelangrevi.110.4.0927)

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