Liber Gratiarum Alpha, 1454 - 1533
Scope and Contents
Used to record Proctors' annual accounts and receipts, by fees and visum compote, and expenditure and extracts of great variety from the chest, including details of cautions; graces granted; commissions (that is, appointments of syndicates for special purposes); decrees of congregations; and occasionally as a register of documents. Note that entries of fees become admissions with names, 1464-5 (f.31) and that long lists of cautions appear 1466-7 (ff.40-40v).
Includes the following entries:
ff.52-55v: 1533 events during the year, including the Black Assembly;
f.57v: 1469/70 new entry de excrescenciis antiquorum nobilium ie. withdrawals;
f.68: 1471/2 pro una tabula facta 16d, et scriptura eiusdem 16d, et allineacione 4d, et ligatura 12d, et cathenis eiusdem 2d, de origine universitatis. Et pro velamine pro eadem tabula 12d;
f.69v: 1472/3 15s a magistro Stoyle pro correccionibus transgressorum in pertubando pacem (the first of many such entries);
f.72v: memorandum that in 1473 Chancellor Rotherham with the consent of the University acquitted a payment of £88 to the college of St Mary and St Nicholas (King's) ut patet plenius per quandam billam sigillatum sigillo communi cuius copia reservatur in cista communi; memorandum of receipt by Vice-Chancellor of £6 in loan from common chest (the first of many such);
f.79v: payment for writing letters;
f.88: 1477/8 pro expensis unius magistri cum famulo ad dominum cancellarium; pro libro procuratoris; writing agreements concerning library and copies of a royal commission;
f.92: 1478/9 pro ligacione libri senioris procuratoris; a number of payments for writing these; gilt keys pro libro cancellarii;
f.100v: 1479/80 texts of letters of incorporation of Mr John Gigar and others;
f.110v: 1480/1 writing of copies 'of the foundation of chests' [for the Fenne chest];
f.111v: 1480/1 pro scriptura rotularum et pargameno et pixide, 2s 4 1/2d;
f.112: pro registracione litterarum diversis dominis missarum, 4d;
f.115: text of letters to the Chancellor, the Duke of Gloucester;
ff.115v-116: two littere conversacionis, with text;
f.124: 1482/3 pro composicione cuiusdam supplicacionis in angelicis que fuisset missa protectori (presumably that on f.125v);
f.128: memorandum concerning collation to parish of Campsall, with copy from York register; increasing numbers of letters written and sent, eg. ff.136-136v, many by Caius Auberinus, poet;
f.149v: 1487/8 several payments to 'Gayo' for making indentures etc. He seems to receive a retainer or stipend.
The volume has both an integral and separate index by Registrary Romilly, 1858.
Dates
- Creation: 1454 - 1533
Creator
- From the Management Group: University of Cambridge (Organization)
Conditions Governing Access
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).
Extent
1 volume(s)
1 pamphlet(s) (index booklet )
Language of Materials
Latin
Arrangement
Arranged chronologically, 1454-89, apart from ff.52-55v written 1533.
Arrangement
Owing to the tightness of the binding, the incidence of watermarks has been adduced in order to determine the structure of the quires (building on notes made by Henry Bradshaw on 11th December 1865 and now preserved as MS Add. 4548, f. 3r).
The manuscript comprises probably 13 quires, mostly originally of 16 leaves each, made from three paper stocks, as follows:
Quires 1, 3-11, 13: tête humaine, Briquet no. 15632
Quire 2: bouc, no match in Briquet
Quire 12: couronne (with fleur-de-lys in the centre), no match in Briquet.
The original structure of Quires 11 and 13 remains uncertain. The watermarks found within their folio ranges do not exhibit a symmetrical pattern and – even taking into account lost or added leaves – cannot be used to indicate the centre of the quire.
In Quire 11, one leaf is missing/excised before f. 138 and one leaf, without a watermark, from an unidentified paper stock different to those used elsewhere in the volume, has been added before f. 143. One or more other leaves may be singletons.
In Quire 13, two leaves are missing/excised before f. 151. Bradshaw marked f. 156r with a ‘+’ symbol to denote the beginning of the second half of the quire, but the pattern of watermarks does not support this. An alternative structure might be that Quire 13 is in fact two quires each originally comprising eight leaves.
The collation does not include leaves added in the 19th century by Joseph Romilly and others at the beginning, at the end and at various junctures within the manuscript.
Quire 1:16-1 (ff. 1-15; 1st leaf before f. 1 missing)
Quire 2:16-3 (ff. 15x-27; 6th, 7th and 8th leaves before f. 20 excised)
Quire 3:16 (ff. 28-43)
Quire 4:16-3 (ff. 44-56; 9th leaf before f. 52 and 13th and 14th leaves before f. 55 excised)
Quire 5:16-2 (ff. 57-70; 10th leaf before f. 66 excised; 12th leaf, f. 67, mostly missing)
Quire 6:10 (ff. 71-80)
Quire 7:12 (ff. 81-91)
Quire 8:16-3 (ff. 92-105; 4th and 5th leaves before f. 95 excised; 16th leaf, f. 105, partially excised)
Quire 9:16-1 (ff. 106-121; 16th leaf, f. 121, partially missing)
Quire 10:12-1 (ff. 122-132; 10th leaf before f. 131 missing)
Quire 11:eleven (ff. 133-143; original structure uncertain, one leaf excised before f. 138, one leaf added before f. 143)
Quire 12::8-1 (ff. 144-150; 8th leaf after f. 150 excised)
Quire 13twelve (ff. 151-162; original structure uncertain, two leaves excised before f. 151).
OR
Quire 13a:8-2 (ff. 151-156; 1st and 2nd leaves before f. 151 excised)
Quire 13b:8-1 (ff. 157-162; 7th and 8th leaves after f. 162 excised)
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Rebound in the 20th century, stored in modern box with index
Existence and Location of Copies
Digitised as part of Cambridge University Digital Library at https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-UA-GRACE-BOOK-A/1.
Bibliography
Date information
DateText: main sequence of business covers 1454-89.
Finding aid date
1998-06-11 12:11:49+00:00
Repository Details
Part of the Cambridge University Library Repository
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