Excerpt from A Formula Book of English Official Historical Documents, Vol. 2: Ministerial and Judicial Records, Selected and Transcribed by a Seminar of the London School of Economics It must once more be clearly pointed out that the personal or local interest of the documents themselves is not material to the objects of the compilation. At the same time considerable pains have been taken to present Specimens of historical and constitutional value, with what success must be ascertained from the Table of Contents. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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From the PREFACE to Part II. THE objects and plan of this work, together with the methods of investigation pursued by the transcribers and Editor, have been sufficiently explained in the Preface to Part I, and the nature of - the documents selected for the purpose of the present volume is briefly stated in the introductions to the several sections. It is only necessary therefore to make a few general observations here on either subject. In the first place, it should be remembered that the ministerial and judicial Records which now occupy our attention instead of Charters, Writs and Letters, have not usually been considered worthy of a "diplomatic" examination. When, however, such an examination is applied, even in the slight degree that has been attempted here, the familiar Record assumes in many cases a very different character from that in which it has hitherto been regarded by the historical student. But it was not enough to have merely indicated a method of investigation. Some attempt to carry it out on a connected plan had to be made, although the undertaking was known to be beset with many difficulties. The unrecognized character of this branch of diplomatic study must furnish some excuse for the obvious artificiality of the design of this compilation. Its limitations also are considerable owing to the fact that the evolution of judicial procedure is a subject that still occupies the anxious attention of legal scholars and scarcely permits of trivial discussion for the information of lay students, especially as numerous formulas are given in classical editions as well as in recent histories of English Law. Under these circumstances it has seemed desirable to leave this professional subject to be dealt with on some later occasion. In the meantime, however, students of constitutional history and law will find many interesting formulas amongst the documents included in the present volume. They will also find, in an Appendix, three documents which have been carefully selected to illustrate the course of the actual procedure in certain forms of action and which are, in point of arrangement, of a novel and instructive character. It must once more be clearly pointed out that the personal or local interest of the documents themselves is not material to the objects of the compilation. At the same time considerable pains have been taken to present specimens of historical and constitutional value, with what success must be ascertained from the Table of Contents. Efforts have also been made to facilitate the perusal of the texts by means of modern punctuation, whilst certain combinations of Old French words have been indicated by apostrophes. It must be admitted, however, that the difficulties in the way of securing uniformity in respect of conventional extensions and mediaeval ortho- graphy have proved almost insuperable, whilst the practice of the mediaeval scribes themselves herein is notoriously irregular. This circumstance has prevented any consistent rendering of such letters as c and t; but it will be noticed that in the present volume the accented e (in imitation of the "tagged" of a more conscientious generation of mediaeval scribes) has been abandoned in deference to friendly criticism, whilst purely conventional forms like "Oxonia" have been tolerated for the same reason. The same students of the Seminar, promoted by the Committee of the Advanced Historical Teaching (London) Fund, have taken part in the transcription of the texts of the Second Part of the Formula Book. They join with the Editor in expressing their sincere appreciation of the kind interest and assistance in their labours that they have experienced at the hands of the authorities of the Archives and of the London School of Economics with which the Committee for Advanced Historical Teaching has cooperated....

Excerpt from A Formula Book of English Official Historical Documents, Vol. 1: Diplomatic Documents; Selected and Transcribed by a Seminar of the London School of Economics Diplomatic Studies which have been published by the Editor as a separate work 1. It was suggested, however, that these Formulas might be worthy of publication in an expanded form, and a Seminar of the London School of Economics was prepared to undertake the task of selecting and transcribing the documents required for this purpose. The venture, therefore, was made under conditions which have at least proved interesting and instructive to those who have taken part in it. In one aspect, however, the scope of the work is strictly limited, for it was quite impracticable to Specialize in any one period or to give an exhaustive account of any particular class of instruments in a survey of the whole field of official diplomatic composition from the 7th century to the lgth. The chief claim of this Formula Book upon the attention of historical students and Record workers will be found in its comprehensive design and in the further attempt that it makes, for the first time, to present the several types of official instruments in a connected series. In addition to a serious diplomatic description of the several documents, their provenance has also been broadly indicated, together with their bibliographical relations Thus the student can in most cases ascertain at a glance the position of an original instrument in respect of enrolment or entry, together with its published form as a complete text, abstract, or mere description. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.