Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 476: Prophecies of Merlin. Annales Anglici a morte Edwardi confessoris ad annum 1274. 14 charters and laws

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Title:
Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 476: Prophecies of Merlin. Annales Anglici a morte Edwardi confessoris ad annum 1274. 14 charters and laws
Alternate Title:
Chronica etc. Londinensia
Language:
Latin and French, Middle (ca. 1400-1600)
Extent:
ff. 3 + 182
Dimensions:
140 Height (mm) and 92 Width (mm)
Approximate Date:
[ca. 1300 - 1325]
Provenance:
From London. An entry in Bale's Index (Poole and Bateson, p. 490) throws a little light on the history of the volume: Chronicon incerti autoris ab a. d. 1064 usque ad ann. 1275. lib. I. Sanctus rex Edwardus migrauit. Iter iusticiariorum lib. I. Prosecutio facta tempore domini Ioannis. Ex domo Gerbrandi Oxoniensis. Also on p. 29 is a notice of the prophecy of Merlin with its comment ex officina Gerbrandi bibliopole, clearly from our MS.
Table of contents:
  • Prophecies of Merlin
  • Annales Sancti Pauli Londoniensis (1064-1274)
  • Case of Hugh de Waltham, clerk, in the Exchequer, for pardon of £200 owed to the crown in the purpresive of Leo the Jew (temp John)
  • Rules for the royal justices sitting at the Tower of London
  • Magna Carta, re-issue of 1225
  • Sentence of excommunication for those violating the 1225 re-issue of Magna Carta
  • Charter of Henry III to the citizens of London, 17th July 1217
  • Confirmation of John's charter to the sheriffs of London and Middlesex, 5th July 1199
  • Charter of John regarding fish weirs in the Thames and Medway, 27th June 1199
  • Charter of Richard I to London, 23rd April 1194
  • Charter of Henry III pardoning the barons of London feudal aids at the marriage of Richard of Cornwall
  • Royal charter granting the right to farm Middlesex to the citizens of London
  • Royal charter of the liberties of London
  • Questions of the royal justices concerning places in the city of London and the answers of the citizens
  • Edward I's ordinance against felons, 1300
  • William I's confirmation of the laws of Edward the Confessor
Description:
CCCC MS 476 contains a mixture of chronicle and legal material with an emphasis on London. Among the more general material is the Prophetia Ambrosii Merlini (book 7 of Geoffrey of Monmouth (d. 1154), Historia regum Britanniae), and a chronicle from the death of Edward the Confessor to the crowning of Edward I (1274). The London material is a collection of copies of charters temp. William I to Henry III, a brief account of how judicial eyres ought to be carried out in London and notes on proceedings at the London eyre of 1226. Most interesting is what appears to be a transcript that also appears in the London Guildhall Liber Custumarum of an attempt by the citizens of London to be absolved of a debt of £200 to the Crown. This must date the copying of this portion of the codex to after October 1313 (the date of the royal writ ordering an inquiry into the matter), and possibly before July 1314 when the writ absolving the sheriffs of the debt was issued but which does not appear in this manuscript.
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