Catalogue description Chancery: Vetus Codex

This volume, which comes from the Tower of London (it was sometimes known as the Black Book of the Tower), contains an ancient transcript of the Parliament rolls from 1290 to 1307 and 1320-1321.

The earliest reference to the Vetus Codex is usually taken to be in the patent roll of 1382-1383. However, it is likely that the volume was in use by 1357, if not earlier.

The manuscript is incomplete and is written in a number of different Chancery hands, suggesting that the book was not written all at once, but that copies were being taken from the Parliament rolls for insertion in the Vetus Codex almost as soon as the originals were transcribed.

The Parliament rolls transcibed in this volume are now in SC 9

The manuscript is printed with an appendix of illustrative records in William Ryley, Pleadings in Parliament (1661).