Details

Subjects:

Writs -- England -- Early works to 1800.
Courts -- England -- Early works to 1800.
Courts.
Writs.
England.

Form/Genre:

Codices.
Writs.
Judicial records.
Menus.
Manuscripts, Latin.
Manuscripts, Medieval.
Manuscripts, Renaissance.

Language:

Latin, Middle French, and some words in Middle English (f. 214v).

Summary:

Register of writs from regnal year 13 of Richard II (1390) to regnal year 8 of Henry IV (1407). Subjects of writs include lands and manors held by various men from the King; instructions to the King's bailiffs; tenancies and inheritances; and ecclesiastical holdings and prebendaries. The register is preceded by an alphabetical index covering more than half the register (f. 1r-151v) and followed by a subject index covering the remainder of the register (f. 152v-204r). 6 writs from the reign of Mary I were added in the 16th century on blank pages before the second index (f. 204v-205v). Following the second index are three menus, written in a mix of Middle French, Middle English, and Latin, for dinners probably given at Oxford and London in 1427 and 1428. One was for the commencement of Robert Nevill, another for Robert or Richard Babthorpe, and the third for unspecified sargeants.

Contents:

1. f.i recto-xiii verso: [Alphabetical index for former first volume (f. 1r-151v)]
2. f.1r-96v: [Writs of the reign of Richard II]
3. f.97r-151v: [Writs of the reign of Henry IV]
4. f.152r-204r: [Writs of the reign of Henry IV, beginning of former second volume]
5. f.204v-205v: [Writs of the reign of Mary I (16th-century additions)]
6. f.207r-214r: [Subject index for former second volume (f. 152r-204r)]
7. f.214v: [Menus for 3 dinners]

Notes:

Ms. codex.
Title supplied by cataloger.
Foliation: Parchment, 231 + i (paper); [i-xvi, 1-4], 5- 27, [i], 28-30, 30-75, 78-151, 151-214; near-contemporary foliation in ink, lower right recto. Contemporary foliation in ink in the upper center margin that starts over again (f. 152) suggests that this manuscript was originally divided into 2 volumes. Modern pagination in pencil, somewhat irregular, lower right recto. References in this record refer to the near-contemporary foliation.
Layout: Written in 37-48 long lines; vertical bounding-lines ruled in faint ink.
Script: Written in Gothic cursive script.
Decoration: Spaces left for initials at beginnings of sections (f. 1r, 97r, 152r); occasional manicules (for example, f. 9r, 126v); small drawing of crown (f. 161r).
Binding: Late 15th-century calf over wooden boards with remains of 2 metal clasps but no catches; blind-tooled.
Origin: Written in London, ca. 1407 (date of latest writ of Henry IV), with menus ca. 1427, when Robert Nevill was made Bishop of Salisbury.

Local notes:

Lawrence J. Schoenberg & Barbara Brizdle Manuscript Initiative.

Penn Provenance:

Possibly first owned by Robert Nevill, Bishop of Salisbury, or William Babthorpe; later owned by Nicolas Fowle (15th-century, effaced inscriptions, f. 151v, 214v), Thomas Thomson (late 15th-/early 16th-century inscriptions, f. 151v, 214r), and Adam Clarke (probably his spine label LXXXVIII).
Probably sold at auction at Sotheby's as part of the Clarke library, 21 May 1838.
Sold by Baynes and Co. to Sir Thomas Phillipps (ms. 10349, f. i recto).
Offered but not sold at auction at Sotheby's, 5 June 1899, lot 32.
Sold at auction at Sotheby's, 1 May 1903, lot 957, and at Christie's, 26 June 1996, lot 16.
Sold by Sam Fogg (London) to Lawrence J. Schoenberg, June 1996.
Gift of Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle, 2010.

Cited in:

Described in Transformation of knowledge: early manuscripts from the collection of Lawrence J. Schoenberg (London: Paul Holberton, 2006), p. 149 (LJS 61).

Publications about:

Jefferson, Lisa. Neville, Babthorpe, and the serjeants: three fifteenth-century feast menus. In Oxoniensia 63 (1999), 241-249.

Cited as:

UPenn LJS 61

Contributor:

Nevill, Robert, 1404-1457, former owner.
Babthorpe, William, former owner.
Fowle, Nicolas, former owner.
Thomson, Thomas, former owner.
Clarke, Adam, approximately 1762-1832, former owner.
Phillipps, Thomas, Sir, 1792-1872, former owner.
Schoenberg, Lawrence J., former owner.
England. Sovereign (1399-1413 : Henry IV)
England and Wales. Sovereign (1553-1558 : Mary I)
Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

OCLC:

705941984

Web link:

The Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle Manuscript Initiative Fund Home Page