Volume 1

Munimenta Academica, or, Documents illustrative of academical life and studies at Oxford / by Henry Anstey ; published by the authority of the lords commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury, under the direction of the master of the rolls.

  • Anstey, Henry, 1827-
Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Munimenta Academica, or, Documents illustrative of academical life and studies at Oxford / by Henry Anstey ; published by the authority of the lords commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury, under the direction of the master of the rolls. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    C. chronologically. The tlu'ee MSS. are in fact one work, or rather three copies of one work. The main interest attaching to their contents is to be derived from the time at which they were respectively written. It is greatly to be regretted that so little certainty is attainable as to the real date of a large proportion of the contents. The aim, however, of the present work has been to arrange the several statutes in order of time. This has been attempted by taking those, which have dates contained either in their preamble or at their conclusion, and using them as examples by which to judge of the date of the others. This wiU be thought not a very sure guide, and it is readily admitted that it is not, but more accuracy was attainable, it is hoped, by this plan than may be supposed. For, as we have already noticed, the statutes in A. are written in various hands, and these of veiy distinct character in many cases. Here, therefore, there has often been found a tolerably fair ground for assuming the contemporaneity of other statutes without date which appear in the same hand. Other criteria have been also used in endeavouring to approximate to the real dates, indications which would probably seem trifling to the ordinary reader, but which have a real value in the eye of one who studies the same MSS. for months or even years; gradually one acquires a power of discerning objects where at first all seemed impenetrable night; traces of agreement and resemblance become more and more distinct by comparison, and parts, which at first appeared utterly incongruous, bear marks which fairly entitle them to be considered as a whole. The editor is, however, as conscious at least as any of his readers can be that probably very many en'ors are to be found in his attempt at chronological arrange- ment. He is not the first who has attempted to aiTange has been before the matter of these MSS. One such attempt in MS. iJc^ssMl^ [E.] has already been alluded to, which still exists in b 2