INTRODUCTION.
CHAP. I.
Sect. I.
Former printed Collections, Translations, and Abridgements of the Statutes.
An Historical Enumeration and Description of antecedent Publications of the Statutes, will best contribute to a right Understanding of the Necessity, and Origin of the present Undertaking; and of the Principles upon which it has been planned and executed.
See Appendix A. & B.All the Publications in Print of General Collections, Translations, and Abridgements of the Statutes, and of the Acts of particular Sessions, which have been hitherto discovered, are specified in Two Catalogues subjoined to this Introduction.
The Statute Rolls previous to the beginning of the Reign of Henry VII. being sometimes in Latin and sometimes in French, and from that Time uniformly in English, the Printed Editions, according to their several Periods, contain the Statutes, either 1st. In the Languages in which they were respectively passed, proclaimed, or printed; during various Periods from the Time of Hen. III. to the End of the Reign of Ric. III. without any Translation: Or 2dly, Translated for the whole or some Part of those Periods; and during subsequent Periods, in English: Or 3dly, In Latin and in French respectively to the End of Edward IV. or Ric. III. inclusive, with or without a Translation; and in English from the beginning of Ric. III, or of Hen. VII.
The earliest of the Printed Editions or Collections above referred to, is an Alphabetical Abridgement of Statutes, as well previous as subsequent to Edw. III. in Latin and French, the latest Statute in which is 33 Hen. VI. A. D. 1455. This is supposed to have been published before 1481.
Another very early Edition, but supposed to be later than the preceding, and to have been printed about 1482, is a Collection of the Statutes, not abridged, from 1 Edw. III. to 22 Edw. IV. in Latin and French: This and the preceding Article are attributed to the joint labours of the Printers Lettou and Machlinia.
The Statutes passed in the only Parliament holden by Richard III. were printed, in French, by Caxton or Machlinia, or both, soon after they were passed, this being the first Instance of a Sessional Publication. The like Course was observed in the Reigns of Henry VII. and Henry VIII. from which Time the Statutes appear to have been regularly printed and published at the End of each Session.
The Collection printed by Pynson, probably about the Year 1497, 13 Hen. VII. but certainly before 1504, 19 Hen. VII, contains the Statutes from 1 Edw. III. to 1 Richard III. inclusive, in Latin and in French respectively; and those from 1 to 12 Hen. VII. in English.
The small Edition of the Antiqua Statuta first printed by Pynson in 1508, and afterwards frequently reprinted, contains Magna Carta, Carta de Foresta, the Statutes of Merton, Marlbridge, Westminster 1. and 2., and other Statutes previous to 1 Edward III. in Latin and French respectively. These are the earliest Printed Copies now known of those Statutes.
The Abridgement of the Statutes in English, to 11 Hen. VIII. translated and printed by John Rastall, is preceded by a Preface on the Propriety of the Laws being published in English. This appears to be the first English Abridgement of the Statutes: and it helps to ascertain the Period when the Statutes were first “endited and written” in English; as the Preface ascribes that Measure to Henry VII. Subsequent English Abridgements were published at various Times by Rastall and other Printers.
Various Editions of the Alphabetical Abridgement of the Statutes, above mentioned as published before 1481, were from time to time printed; enlarged by the Abridgement of subsequent Statutes: Of these the Edition by Owen, including the Statutes of 7 Hen. VIII. was printed in 1521. An Appendix, containing the Abridgement of the Acts of the next ensuing Session, 15 Hen. VIII, was printed in 1528, when a Title was added. These Collections form an Exception to the general Description of the Editions of the Statutes; for not only the Statutes previous to and in the Reign of Ric. III. are abridged in Latin or French, but the Abridgement of the Statutes of Hen. VII. and Hen. VIII. is in French, although they were originally passed and printed in English.
