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Posted:
11 Jan 2018
Language French, (Anglo-Norman or Law French) with Latin
Origin England
Date 13th / 14th c., ca, 1290 - 1320
Material Parchment
Collation 18, 28, 38, 47 (no obvious loss), 58, 68, 76, (wants 1, ?2) 87, (wants 1) 98, 108, 118, 128, 135 (wants 1, 7, 8)
Physical Description ii modern parchment flyleaves + 99 folios (foliated 1 – 98, i) + ii modern parchment flyleaves, 116 x 72 (96 x 45) mm, 33 – 34 long lines, ruled in plummet and brown ink, catchwords, quire marks, (start of quires) running headers (most lost)
Rubric N/A
Incipit [C]eo vous moustre W. de L. (sic) par son attorney qe ci est
2o folio [descen] di le droit
Explicit par R. piere laurant dit N. qui hir il est
Contents Fols. 1r – 98v, Legal precedents for drawing up of counts (ends imperfectly)
Script Gothic bookhand (cursive)
Decoration None
Provenance ‘Ap[ril] 11 1723. Collat. P. (T?) Wright’ (fol. ii verso, previous binding); Alexander Murray, Lord Henderland, (1736 – 1795) ownership inscriptions (fols. 1r, 2r); ‘Dupplin Castle Library S. 184. 24’, early 19th c. (inside upper cover, previous binding; Dupplin Castle, Perth); ‘B. 282’ (inside lower cover, previous binding; auction number?); acquired by the College (details uncertain) by the 1970s
Binding 2007, (Cambridge Conservation Consortium) native-dyed morocco over wooden boards, white endbands, edges mottled red; previous binding 18th c., laced-cased, parchment over paste boards, false blue and pink endbands
Notes More than one scribe? Occasional corrections to text, marginal headers for type of case in hand very similar to main scribe(s). Space for decorated initial at start of text, but left blanks (no guide-letter). Note ‘before Christ 973 yere’, 16th / 17th c. (fol. 70v; no obvious connection to text). Text appears to be an unusual form of the version C text of Novae Narrationes according to exemplars provided in E. Shanks, ed.  Novae Narrationes. Selden Soc. 80 (1963), although this MS is not noted in the edition. Alexander Murray, Lord Henderland, was a prominent Scottish lawyer who published an important legal text. Dupplin Castle burnt down in 1827, although the library, including a fine collection of manuscripts and early printed books, survived remarkably intact.
Bibliography