BRACTON & GLANVILL

Henrici de Bracton de legibus & consuetudinibus Angliæ libri quinq[ue] in varios tractatus distincti, ad diuersorum et vetustissimorum codicum collationem, ingenti cura, nunc primu[m] typis vulgati: quorum quid cuiq[ue] insit, proxima pagina demonstrabit, 1569.

English Short Title Catalogue Record

Codex membranaceus, circa temp. Edw. I. [between 1272-1307] exaratus. Folio. [11,353.] MS 11353 from the British Library

Henry de Bracton (also Bratton, d. 1268) is traditionally credited as the author of this work commonly known as On the Laws and Customs of England. Little is known about his early life, but by 1238 he was serving as clerk to Justice William de Raleigh (d. 1250)  who is thought to be at least one of the actual authors of the book. The book was one of the dominant English law texts of the Middle Ages and covers topics such as the acquisition and transmission of property rights, criminal law, and rights and actions associated with land and other forms of real property. It circulated widely in manuscript and more than fifty manuscript copies survive today including this early copy from the British Library.

Tottel’s 1569 edition was the first printed edition of the text and played a major role in accrediting the authorship to Bracton.  The unknown editor (T. N.) who wrote the preface not only  ascribed authorship to ‘Bratton’, but also adopted a reading of one passage near the beginning of the treatise (found only in a minority of surviving manuscripts) in which the authorial ‘I’ was extended to ‘I Henry of Bratton’.  T. N. claims to have compared twelve manuscripts when he prepared the text. 

The Harvard Law School Library has a site Bracton Online which exhibits Latin and English versions of the text simultaneously.  The copy pictured below is from the Royal Courts of Justice Library.

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Tractatus de legibus et consuetudinibus regni Anglie, tempore Regis Henrici secundi compositus, Iusticie gubernacula tenente illustri viro Ranulpho de Glanuilla iuris regni & antiquarum consuetudinu[m] eo tempore peritissimo. Et illas solu[m] leges continet et consuetudine secundum quas placitatur in Curia Regis ad scaccarium et coram Iusticiis vbicunque fuerint. Huic adiectæ sunt a quodam legum studioso adnotationes aliquot marginales non inutiles. 

Pages from a copy of Glanvill held in the George Wythe Collection, Wolf Law Library, College of William & Mary

English Short Title Catalogue record

Tottel was also the first to print another notable medieval legal text,  Treatise on the Laws and Customs of the Kingdom of England, often referred to as Glanvill, which is considered the earliest treatise on English law.  This text is attributed to Ranulf de Glanvill [Glanville]  (d. 1190), the Chief Justiciar of England during the reign of King Henry II and dated from 1187–1189.  It was written for Henry II and remained the primary source of English law until Bracton’s On the Laws and Customs of England.  Tottel printed this very early in his career in 1554.  Although his name did not appear in Tottel’s edition, the judge William Staunford is the likely editor.