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Posted:
07 Feb 2018
Author:John Cowell (1554-1611)
Language:Latin
Origin:England, Cambridge
Date:17th cent., 1605-1630
Material:Paper. Watermarks; fox with ?rabbit in mouth (ca. 64 mm long) fols. 2 – 108; bunch of grapes. C.f. Briquet 13073 (ca. 30 mm high) fol. 109
Physical Description:120 folios (fols. 1 and 120 flyleaves contemporary with current binding), 272 x 168 (ca. 245 – 250 x 105 – 122) mm, 26 – 38 long lines, ruled in hard point, (vertical lines only) catchwords, quire signatures, (end of quire) running headers
Rubric:None
Incipit:In rege qui recte agit necessaria sunt duo haec arma videlict et leges (fol. 8r)
2o folio:[potest] ius cum ipsum (fol. 9r)
Explicit:quorum emolumento ocia hæc subcisiua destinauimus utiles esse possint. Finis liber quarti.
Contents:Fols. 3r – 4v, Dedicatory letter to Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton (1540 – 1614); fols. 5r – 6r, Preface on legal studies at Trinity Hall; fols. 8r – 113v, Institutiones juris Anglicani; fols. 114r – 114v, Index of subjects; fols. 115r – 119r, Index
Script:Documentary cursive
Decoration:None
Provenance:Fol. 2r inscription states MS compiled after first edition published and contains notes in preparation for the second edition; assumed to have been compiled in Trinity Hall.
Binding:17th c., brown leather over paste boards, blind-tooled open panel design, pink and white endbands; re-backed and spine repair, ?19th c.
Notes:Scribe of fols. 3r – 6r possibly Cowell himself (different from hands in rest of MS, and both finish ‘J.C.’). Four or more scribes, fols. 8r – 113v. Numerous marginal notes and glosses on text. Dedicatory letter and introduction on law at Trinity Hall in different hand from main text hands. Incipit and explicit the same in manuscript and in both 1605 and 1630 editions. John Cowell was Master of Trinity Hall 1598 – 1611.
Bibliography:J. Cowell, Institutiones juris Anglicani (Cambridge, 1605); J. Cowell, Institutiones juris Anglicani (?Frankfurt, 1630)

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