St John's College H.12 (James 279)

Acts and Statutes of St David's Cathedral, 1224-1489. Latin, seventeenth century

 

'Haec sunt Acta et Statuta in Ecclesia Menevensis per Dominum Gervasium Menevensis Episcopum et ejusdem Ecclesiae Capitulum Anno Gratiae Millesimo CCmo xxiiijto' (p. 1). The final statute in a subsequent chronological sequence is dated 1489. At p. 255 is added a copy of letters patent dated 19 Jan. 32 Henry VIII, transferring the College of Abergwilly to Christ's College, Brecon. Thomas Baker prefixes this inscription to the latter: 'Subsequentes Literae Patentes aliunde desumuntur, non occurrunt in Libro Statutorum meneven:' On p. iii are the following inscriptions, in Baker's hand and signed by him twice: 'This Booke of Statutes, transcrib'd from the originall, was given to St John's Coll: by Thomas Watson D:D: some time Fellow of the sd College, and consecrated Bp of St David an: 1687. The same Revd Person gave the College the Patronage of his Livings, Brinkley and Fulborn St Vigor's, both in the Diocess of Ely, together with some Coins and Medalls of good value. He has since given the Patronage of Brands Burton [nr Beverley] Com: Ebor:'; 'I have compar'd this Copy with the originall Statutes, in severall particular Chapters, and finde it to be exactly taken'; 'This MS is very valuable, for the originall or most antient authentic copy, from whence it was taken, tho' it were wrote on Parchment, yet was so eaten with moisture, or wasted with age, when I saw it, that it cannot be preserved long, and can hardly ever be copied again with equall certainty and exactness.'

Manuscript extra information

365x235 mm. iv+265+xxiii pp. (contemporary pagination). Presented by Thomas Watson, Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge and Bishop of St David's (1637-1717), see above. Watson lived at Wilbraham after being deprived of his see. He and Baker were close friends (see DNB). College bookplate (eighteenth century) inside front cover. On final flyleaf: 'Ann Snowd[on?] Printer in Carter Lane to Mr Redpath' (early eighteenth century). The Snowdon family were printers in London throughout the seventeenth century.

A single hand. Paper, ruled, 40/41 lines to a page, the text measuring c. 315x170 mm. Original (?) binding, leather on boards, repaired and the vol. re-backed by J. P. Gray, May 1972 (inscription inside back cover). Label on spine: 'Statuta Eccl: Menev:'