This book contains a compilation of statutes, charters, orders, oaths etc. prepared for the use of the Proctors, the Chancellor’s executive officers. For the earliest material, a date after c.1385-9 is indicated by the inclusion of the obit of Master William Gotham in the Calendar (f.1v), and a date before 1396 suggested by the absence of a statute relating to the commemoration of the Chancellor Michael de Causton. Originally containing all the statutes by which the University was then ruled, the book’s creation may have been a result of the reorganisation of records after the partial destruction of the University’s muniments during the Peasant’s Revolt of 1381. Other portions of the book are now to be found in the Senior Proctor’s Book (classmark: UA Collect.Admin.1 ff.60r-80v) and Junior Proctor’s Book (classmark: UA Collect.Admin.2 ff.107r-110v), first commissioned in the 1490s. Marginal annotations in the form 'Stat. Antiq.' made in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by Dr Parris, Vice-Chancellor 1747-8, and Joseph Romilly refer to the statutes copied into the Senior Proctor’s Book and issued as the editio princeps in 1785.
Additions:
'Registry' is written on the front inner board in the hand of Joseph Romilly. There is also a note by Gilbert Ainslie, Vice-Chancellor 1828-9, on the volume’s identity as 'fragm.vet.' and 'fragment lib. MS' in the editio princeps of the statutes pasted on the inner front board above a late-nineteenth century University Registry bookplate; Two leaves of modern paper, ff.i and ii, have been pasted into the front of the volume. They contain a contents list in the hand of Joseph Romilly, 1851; On the reverse of modern paper f.iii is a note by Joseph Romilly on the value of tournois copied from f.1r.
The contents are as follows:
f.1r: rubbed, signs of attachment to cover: [? Iuramentum] in quacunque facultate incipientibus commune; xii turonenses valent xl.d ... , late fourteenth century hand, with later note 'infra statuto 96'; M.M.M. Scherwood anthys [illegible word]; admission of Richard Nicalson alias Taylor as servant of Thomas Lye, principal of St Nicholas Hospice, 17 Dec. [? 1507]; pen trials; illegible last entry;
f.1v: lists of collects of exequies in winter, lent and summer terms, late fourteenth century, with additions up to temp. Henry VII;
ff.2r-5v are in a variety of hands, mostly fifteenth century;
f.2r: Statutum novum de eleccione procuratorum beginning Cum non debeat ... some phrases erased [marginal annotation, in eighteenth century hand, Stat.Antiq.69]; followed by statute requiring an oath of faithful execution before the admission to any office, beginning Statutuimus quod nulla persona privelegiata ... [marginal annotation Stat.Antiq.27];
f.2v: Statutum de obediencia procuratoris cancellario beginning Si aliquis procuratorum iussus ... ; Statutum legendum in admissione quacunque; Statutum legendum in omne admissione [marginal annotation Stat.Antiq.115]; Statutum de suspensionibus per procuratorem [marginal annotation Stat.Antiq.64];
f.3r: Statutum declaratum de disputacione. Hoc declaratum est septimo die mensis maii [1457] in plena congregacione regencium et non regencium [marginal annotation Stat.Antiq.154];
f.3v: Statutum de exequiis [marginal annotation Stat.Antiq.179]; Statutum pro quilibet admittendus ad gradum baccalaurei [marginal annotation Stat.Antiq.116]; determination by Dr Buckmaster and Dakyns, Myddylton, Longforthe and Powell on appeals from the delegates to the University [marginal note 1537/8, printed Statutes p.117];
ff.4r-4v: list of statutes to be read at all admissions, arranged in groups, late fifteenth century;
f.5r: statute of 1480 concerning the taking of paper books, printed or otherwise, as pledges in the chest, with references to keepers of the chest [marginal annotation Stat.Antiq.182]; statute of 28 May 1488 concerning conditions for granting of graces [marginal annotation Stat.Antiq.21]; statute restricting tenure of Vice-Chancellor to one year and codifying arrangements for election [marginal annotation Stat.Antiq.16]; statute for election of three MAs to read publicly in the schools in humanities, logic and philosophy, a stipend of 26s 8d per custodes seu magistros collegiorum et hospiciorum principales solvendum [marginal annotation Stat.Antiq.87];
f. 5v: decree of 16 Mar. 1483/4 of Chancellor and Heads for celebration of a mass de salus populi for Richard III on 2 May annually, and conversion to an anniversary after his death;
f.6r: full page tinted drawing of St Christopher carrying the Christ Child. This and the image of the Virgin and Child are intended to underline the solemnity of oaths sworn by civic officials.;
ff.6v-7v: statutes relating to Magna Congregacio, early sixteenth century hand [marginal annotation printed Statutes pp.534 etc.];
f.8r: full page tinted drawing of the Virgin and Child enthroned beneath a gothic canopy;
f.8v: list of obits, much rubbed;
f.9r: oath of sheriff and his servants; statue of John Rekynghale, Chancellor 1415-21, concerning wearing of appropriate dress at processions and appearing at all ceremonies [marginal annotation Stat.Antiq.175], also for attendance of gremials at Magna Congregacio;
ff.9v-10r: Gospel according to St John I.1;
f.10v: statute of 24 May 1414, Stephen Lescrop Chancellor, concerning dress of scholars (a sumptuary decree) [marginal annotation Stat.Antiq.176];
ff.11r-16v: calendar showing exequies, signs of zodiac, extra note against St Matthew, additional notes until at least mid-sixteenth century, some notes of College celebrations, exequies of Thomas More (d.1535) and John Preston (d.1436) added;
ff.17r-40v are separately foliated as 1-24 and are an incomplete copy of the statutes with red and blue initials; note by Dr Parris, that leaves missing at end are bound up with old statutes in Junior Proctor's Book (i.e. UA Collect Admin.2 ff.107r-110v); Romilly has written the Stat.Antiq. number of each in the margin;
ff.41r-43r: 'index' (i.e. table of contents) to ff.17r-40v annotated by Romilly;
f.43r: a number of entries in various hands, including memorandum of enrolment of royal charter de cognicione placiti in King's Bench, Hilary Term 5 Henry V (1417/18); memorandum de deposicione inceptorum in artibus; statute de restriccione potestatis regencium [marginal annotation Stat.Antiq.165]; Decretum erat ab universitate ut patet in registerio quod nullum scriptum sigllabitur sigillo communi nisi prius copia eiusdem scripta relinquatur in cista communi; addition to statute for scholars' servants [marginal annotation Stat.Antiq.25];
f.43v: statute concerning cautions of inceptors in theology [marginal annotation Stat.Antiq.123]; statute concerning leasing of schools by canon lawyers [marginal annotation Stat.Antiq.102]; item erased; statute concerning election of Proctors [marginal annotation Stat.Antiq.55];
f.44r: statute concerning elections [marginal annotation Stat.Antiq.88]; statute forbidding election of the Master of Glomery as a Proctor [marginal annotation Stat.Antiq.62]; statute concerning time of lecturing on the Sentences of Peter Lombard [marginal annotation Senior Proctor's Book cap.109]; statute concerning attendance at congregations, much rubbed [marginal annotation Stat.Antiq.17];
f.44v: order of Henry V, 1 Mar. 1415/16, that bachelors and other scholars of canon and civil law observe the statutes;
ff.44v-45r: statute of 20 Nov. 1464 concerning punishment of disobedient scholars [marginal annotation Stat.Antiq.25];
f.45v: statute of 4 Dec. 1466 concerning opponencies in theology [marginal annotation Stat.Antiq.171]; decision of 2 Mar. 1466/7 concerning admission of certain friars and other religious as opponents in theology;
f.46r: form for banishing scholars by E[dwardus] S[tory], Chancellor, and Proctors, 5 July 1474 [marginal annotation Stat.Antiq.23];
f.46v: statute for auditing the common chest, 3 July 1456;
f.47r: statute for seating of Taxors immediately after Proctors, St Denis morrow [10 Oct.] 1482 [marginal annotation Stat.Antiq.68]; statute for examination of Bedells by Proctors [marginal annotation Stat.Antiq.74]; statute setting out qualifications for responding to the question in arts [marginal annotation Stat.Antiq.135]; ordo procendendi in incepcionibus;
f.47v: statute forbidding passing of graces except in Chancellor's presence, c.1400 [marginal annotation Stat.Antiq.63]: statute protecting Bedell's fees from inceptors [marginal annotation Stat.Antiq.73]; statute forbidding bribery for office of Proctor, 15 Dec. 1477;
ff.48r-48v: statute concerning Taxors [marginal annotation Stat.Antiq.26]; statute concerning leasing of schools; statute for the chest, 2 June 1489 [marginal annotation Stat.Antiq.183];
The final leaf has been cut away.