Publisher's Synopsis
From the PREFACE to Part II.
THE objects and plan of this work, together with the methods of investigation pursued by the transcribers and Editor, have been sufficiently explained in the Preface to Part I, and the nature of - the documents selected for the purpose of the present volume is briefly stated in the introductions to the several sections. It is only necessary therefore to make a few general observations here on either subject.
In the first place, it should be remembered that the ministerial and judicial Records which now occupy our attention instead of Charters, Writs and Letters, have not usually been considered worthy of a "diplomatic" examination. When, however, such an examination is applied, even in the slight degree that has been attempted here, the familiar Record assumes in many cases a very different character from that in which it has hitherto been regarded by the historical student. But it was not enough to have merely indicated a method of investigation. Some attempt to carry it out on a connected plan had to be made, although the undertaking was known to be beset with many difficulties. The unrecognized character of this branch of diplomatic study must furnish some excuse for the obvious artificiality of the design of this compilation. Its limitations also are considerable owing to the fact that the evolution of judicial procedure is a subject that still occupies the anxious attention of legal scholars and scarcely permits of trivial discussion for the information of lay students, especially as numerous formulas are given in classical editions as well as in recent histories of English Law.
Under these circumstances it has seemed desirable to leave this professional subject to be dealt with on some later occasion. In the meantime, however, students of constitutional history and law will find many interesting formulas amongst the documents included in the present volume. They will also find, in an Appendix, three documents which have been carefully selected to illustrate the course of the actual procedure in certain forms of action and which are, in point of arrangement, of a novel and instructive character.
It must once more be clearly pointed out that the personal or local interest of the documents themselves is not material to the objects of the compilation. At the same time considerable pains have been taken to present specimens of historical and constitutional value, with what success must be ascertained from the Table of Contents.
Efforts have also been made to facilitate the perusal of the texts by means of modern punctuation, whilst certain combinations of Old French words have been indicated by apostrophes. It must be admitted, however, that the difficulties in the way of securing uniformity in respect of conventional extensions and mediaeval ortho- graphy have proved almost insuperable, whilst the practice of the mediaeval scribes themselves herein is notoriously irregular. This circumstance has prevented any consistent rendering of such letters as c and t; but it will be noticed that in the present volume the accented e (in imitation of the "tagged" of a more conscientious generation of mediaeval scribes) has been abandoned in deference to friendly criticism, whilst purely conventional forms like "Oxonia" have been tolerated for the same reason.
The same students of the Seminar, promoted by the Committee of the Advanced Historical Teaching (London) Fund, have taken part in the transcription of the texts of the Second Part of the Formula Book. They join with the Editor in expressing their sincere appreciation of the kind interest and assistance in their labours that they have experienced at the hands of the authorities of the Archives and of the London School of Economics with which the Committee for Advanced Historical Teaching has cooperated....
