Year Book Abridgements

Year Book Abridgements in United Kingdom

Year Book Abridgements (1490-1614)

The fact that Year Book abridgements were printed suggests -according to the book “The Law Emprynted and Englysshed: The Printing Press as an Agent of Change” (David J Harvey – 2015)- that there was a market for such texts and that some form of standard organisational system.

  • Statham to end Abridgement of Henry 6 ; Publisher: Pynson ; Date of Publication: 1490
  • Fitzherbert Abridgement ; Publisher: Rastell/de Worde ; Date of Publication: 1516
  • Fitzherbert Abridgement Copy ; Publisher: de Worde ; Date of Publication: 1515?
  • Fitzherbert Abridgement Copy ; Publisher: Wyer? ; Date of Publication: c.1540
  • Fitzherbert Abridgement Copy ; Publisher: Myddelton ; Date of Publication: c.1545
  • Fitzherbert Abridgement Copy ; Publisher: Tottell ; Date of Publication: c.1553
  • Fitzherbert Abridgement ; Publisher: Rastell ; Date of Publication: 1517
  • Fitzherbert Abridgement 2 vols ; Publisher: Tottell ; Date of Publication: 1565
  • Fitzherbert Abridgement Table ; Publisher: Tottell ; Date of Publication: 1565
  • Fitzherbert Abridgement 2 vols ; Publisher: Tottell ; Date of Publication: 1577/ 1583
  • Liber Assisarum Abridged
  • Liber Assisarum Abridged 1326-1376 ; Publisher: Tottell ; Date of Publication: 1555
  • Liber Assisarum Abridged ; Publisher: Tottell ; Date of Publication: 1565?
  • Brooke Abridgement ; Publisher: Tottell ; Date of Publication: 1573
  • Brooke Abridgement 2 parts ; Publisher: Tottell ; Date of Publication: 1576
  • Brooke Abridgement 2 parts ; Publisher: Tottell ; Date of Publication: 1586/ 1583
  • Brooke Abridgement Henry 7: 1485-1508 ; Publisher: Tottell ; Date of Publication: 1575?
  • Brooke Abridgement Henry 7: 1485-1508 ; Publisher: Islip ; Date of Publication: 1614
  • Ashe Promptuarie Table ; Publisher: Islip ; Date of Publication: 1609
  • Ashe Promptuarie 2 vols ; Publisher: Beale ; Date of Publication: 1614
  • Ashe Promptuarie 2 vols ; Publisher: Co of Statrs. ; Date of Publication: 1614
  • Rolle Abridgement ; Publisher: Crooke ; Date of Publication: 1668

Abridgements of cases in Ms 41

Source:

“(M)ore than four-fifths of HLS Ms 41 is devoted to a unique, and early (i.e., pre-Statham), ‘abridgement’ of Year Book cases. Whether all of the cases in the ‘abridgement’ are, in fact, abridgements of cases that were at the time available in Year Books arranged by year and term is a question that in our present state of knowledge we should not be quick to answer. … Also, some of the abridgements of cases in Ms 41 that are available surviving manuscripts arranged by year and term contain elements (sometimes whole issues) that are not in the manuscripts arranged by year and term. It is separately foliated, in Arabic but of considerable antiquity, with numbers running to 429. …

The ‘abridgement’ reports cases from the reigns of Edward III through the beginning of that of Henry VI. … The manuscript is indeed a combination of two ‘abridgements’, the first containing cases from the early years of the reign of Edward III and the second containing cases from the later years of Edward III through the first year of Henry VI.

2 P. Winfield, The Chief Sources of English Legal History (Cambridge, MA, 1925), pp. 205-6 and n. 1.
3 T. F. T. Plucknett, ed., Year Books of Richard II: 13 Richard II, 1389–90 (Ames Foundation, 1929), pp. xx–xxi. Professor Thorne followed Plucknett’s suggestion in ‘Fitzherbert’s Abridgement’, Law Library Journal, 29 (1936) 62 n. 10.
4 R. Rogers, ‘The Reports of Year Book 10 Henry V (1422) Found in a Manuscript Abridgement of Year Books’, Law Library Journal, 34 (1941) 321–26.


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