Les Reports des Cases Argue and Adjudge in le Temps del'Roy: Edward I - Henrie VIII

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Yearbooks
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Title page from Les Reports des Cases Argue and Adjudge in le Temps del'Roy: Edward I - Henrie VIII, volume nine, George Wythe Collection, Wolf Law Library, College of William & Mary.

Author {{{author}}}
Editor John Maynard and Richard de Winchedon
Translator {{{trans}}}
Published London: s.n.
Date 1678-1680
Edition Serjeant Maynard's edition
Language Law French
Volumes 11 volume set
Pages {{{pages}}}
Desc. Folio (39 cm.)
Location [[Shelf {{{shelf}}}]]
  [[Shelf {{{shelf2}}}]]
Initial capital, first page of text, volume four.
The Reports des Cases Argue and Adjudge in le temps del’Roy: Edward I-Henry VIII is a 1679 compilation of the early legal yearbooks.[1] The yearbooks were early reporters written in Law French that scholars believe were first authored in the late thirteenth century.[2] Thereafter, various, often anonymous authors created the books until 1535.[3] A popular, incorrect belief, held by Bacon, Blackstone, Coke, and Plowden, was that the works were the product of several regally-appointed reporters.[4] However, there is no evidence for this assertion.[5] Moreover, scholar Percy Winfield asserts that official reporters would not commit the mistakes found in the yearbooks.[6] Of these errors Winfield remarks, "They make astonishing blunders in names, they write down scandal, they report conversations with their friends, they make remarks on the weather, and they tell us how the judges swore and snubbed counsel."[7] In addition, the books do not “impart an elementary education” and they "assume a complete familiarity with procedure on the part of the men likely to use them."[8] However, the books represent an important evolutionary step in the creation of the modern reporter and these errors, irreconcilable to the modern scholar, are simply early experiments in expressing the law on paper.[9]

Instead of being produced by an official authority, it is likely that the yearbooks were the work of numerous entrepreneurs.[10] The fact that the yearbooks vary so greatly in style and content suggests different, unofficial authors.[11] Scholar William Holdsworth contends that the yearbooks evolved from the work of students.[12] Because there was no official report on the proceedings of court, their notes became a source of knowledge for those not in attendance.[13]As the yearbook period progressed, the reporting became more standardized and the extraneous details that characterized the early reports gradually faded.[14]The case itself became the main concern.[15]

Gradually, the yearbook form began to fall out of use and in 1535, the last one was published.[16] By 1678, the books were so scarce that a full set sold for £40.[17] Bemoaning this scarcity as a "detriment to the study of law," judges demanded that the books be republished.[18] In 1679, the Yearbooks experienced a brief revival when they were reissued.[19] However, this was short-lived, as they had ceased to be of any use to practicing lawyers.[20] Few lawyers could read the archaic language and newer books served their needs more thoroughly.[21] In addition, most of the useful information from the yearbooks could be found in the Abridgements.[22] In the twentieth century, the books experienced another revival, however scholars generally limited their use to historical research.[23] They remain a useful tool for understanding the features of life in medieval England and the evolution of legal thought.[24]

Headpiece, first page of text, volume one.

Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library

Wythe cited volume eight of the Yearbooks, Les Reports des Cases en Ley que Furent Argues en Temps du Roy Edward le Quart, in his arguments in Bolling v. Bolling: "yet his action is gone for ever, which is agreed to by all the justices according to the report 21 E.4...."[25] Brown's Bibliography[26] includes the entire set of Yearbooks compiled by John Maynard and Richard de Winchedon (1678-1680). Brown does acknowledge the possibility that Wythe used a copy owned by the Council Library or someone else. The Wolf Law Library agreed with Brown that Wythe likely owned his own copy and purchased the 1678-1680 set.

Description of the Wolf Law Library's copy

Bound in modern quarter calf over marbled boards. Each volume includes the signature "Nic. Starkie" on the title page.

View this book in William & Mary's online catalog.

References

  1. ↑ Percy H. Winfield, The Chief Sources of English Legal History (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1925), 171.
  2. ↑ Ibid, 158-59.
  3. ↑ Ibid, 159.
  4. ↑ Ibid.
  5. ↑ Ibid.
  6. ↑ Ibid.
  7. ↑ Ibid.
  8. ↑ Ibid, 161.
  9. ↑ Ibid, 161-62.
  10. ↑ Ibid, 160.
  11. ↑ W. S. Holdsworth, A History of English Law (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1924), 2:535.
  12. ↑ Ibid, 536-37.
  13. ↑ Ibid.
  14. ↑ Ibid, 541.
  15. ↑ Ibid.
  16. ↑ Winfield, The Chief Sources of English Legal History, 171.
  17. ↑ Holdsworth, A History of English Law, 529.
  18. ↑ Winfield, The Chief Sources of English Legal History, 171.
  19. ↑ Ibid.
  20. ↑ Ibid, 171-72.
  21. ↑ Ibid.
  22. ↑ Ibid, 171.
  23. ↑ Ibid.
  24. ↑ Ibid.
  25. ↑ Thomas Jefferson and Bolling v. Bolling: Law and the Legal Profession in Pres-Revolutionary America ed. Bernard Schwartz, Barbara Wilcie Kern, R. B. Bernstein (San Marino, CA: The Huntingdon Library; New York: New York University School of Law, 1997), 266.
  26. ↑ Bennie Brown, "The Library of George Wythe of Williamsburg and Richmond," (unpublished manuscript, May, 2012) Microsoft Word file. Earlier edition available at: https://digitalarchive.wm.edu/handle/10288/13433.
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