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University statutes, 1390 - 2019

 Sub-Series
Reference Code: GBR/0265/UA/Collect.Admin.1-3 etc

Scope and Contents

In this section are i) the medieval statutes, ii) manuscript transcripts of the medieval and Elizabethan statutes, iii) annotated copies of the published edition of the Elizabethan statutes, iv) successive published editions of the reformed statutes from the mid-nineteenth century onwards and v) Orders in Council amending, rescinding or replacing statutes.

The principle medieval texts of the statutes are in the various Proctors Books (qv): Collect.Admin.1-3. Unofficial compilations are also to be found in Collect Admin.7 and Misc.Collect.4.

Dates

  • Creation: 1390 - 2019

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

From the Management Group:

The University Archives are generally freely available to the holder of a reader's ticket for the Manuscripts Reading Room at Cambridge University Library, West Road, Cambridge CB3 9DR. Restrictions on access are imposed on certain categories of sensitive record: financial, governmental and personal, by order of the originating body or under data protection legislation. Access information, including opening hours and how to obtain a reader's ticket, appears as part of the Library's web site (www.lib.cam.ac.uk).

Biographical / Historical

The statutes of the medieval period were authorised by the University itself and recorded by the Proctors. The earliest collection of statutes in the University Archives formed the Old Proctors' Book (or 'Vetera Fragmenta') which was made about 1390. Some of the folios of this book were later removed and rebound in the Junior Proctor's Book. The early statutes were added to from time to time until 1570 when the great Elizabethan code of statutes became the new foundation of University government. This code, and subsequent ones, derive their authority from the Crown, and in their turn were added to and interpreted until the next complete revisions in 1858 and 1882. The latest wholesale revision of statutes was in 1926. The most notable printed eiditons of the unreformed statutes are those of 1785 and 1852. The statutes produced under the act of 1877 were published in 1882, and since then there have been frequent new editions, with supplements published between editions, of the statutes and ordinances.

Language of Materials

English

Latin

Bibliography

There is a detailed study with a stemma of the gradual development of the text of the Cambridge statutes, from the earliest recension in Ms Angelica 401, thought to have been composed in ca 1236-54, until the appearance in 1785 of the editio princeps, the first printed edition, in M.B. Hackett The original statutes of Cambridge University (Cambridge, 1970) pp. 221-306.

Finding aid date

2002-12-19 15:10:26+00:00

Repository Details

Part of the Cambridge University Library Repository

Contact:
Cambridge University Library
West Road
Cambridge CB3 9DR United Kingdom