Lot 2517: BRITTON, JOHN,

BISHOP OF HEREFORD.
C: BRITTON [TREATISE ON THE LAWS OF ENGLAND]. (LONDON: R. REDMAN), [1533?]

8vo (152 x 100mm.), ff. [6], [292], signed A-X⁸ AA-PP⁸ QQ⁴, Black Letter, binding: contemporary English blind-stamped calf, centre-panel with two medallion heads surrounded by a roll probably by Martin Dature [Oldham HM 11 & HM 12; Weale R218], printed pastedowns etc. from a legal text, binding very worn

LITERATURE

STC 3803

NOTE

first edition. This work, written in Norman French, and largely based on Bracton, is, as Selden tells us, 'popularly attributed to John Bretoun, or Bretun or (wrongly) Becton, Bishop of Hereford, a man skilled in English law and contemporary with our Henry [III]. This is expressly stated in the 1570 London edition of the Chronicle of Matthew of Westminster etc.' (Selden, Dissertatio ed. D. Ogg (1925), p. 13).

This copy is heavily annotated in a contemporary hand and after the preliminaries, 6 leaves (12pp.) of notes have been added. The binder Martin Dature is deduced to have worked in London in the years 1527-c. 1535, as these panels appear on London books from this period.