Expliciunt tenores novelli.

Accession number: 
PML 33723.3
Author: 
Littleton, Thomas, Sir, -1481.
Published: 
Rothomagensi : Impressi per me vvilhelm[e]n le tailleur...ad instantiam Richardi pynson, [approximately 1490]
Description: 
[42] leaves ; 29 cm. (fol)
Credit Line: 
Purchased in 1937.
Notes: 

Title and imprint from colophon (leaf G3v): 'Expliciunt tenores novelli Impressi per me vvilhelm[e]n le tailleur in opulentissima ciuitate rothomagensi iuxta prioratum sancti laudi ad instantiam Richardi pynson.'
Printed in La Talleur's types 4:80Ga, 6:85G, and 7:81B.
Signatures: A⁸ B-F⁶ G⁴: 42 leaves, leaf G4 blank. Leaves A2-8 signed A1-7.
Paper format: Chancery folio.
Suggested date of publication from Rhodes (1095).
La Talleur's woodcut device on leaf A1r (the first leaf).
'Incipit tabula huius libri.' (leaf A1v, the first leaf).
Text begins on second leaf (leaf A"1"r): '[T]enannt en fee simple est celuy qui ad terres ou tenementes a tener a luy et a se[e]s heires a tout[e]s iours et est appelle en laten ... '
Dibdin Typographical Antiquities vol. ii. p.5. note refers to this very rare edition which some consider the Editio Princeps, as against that by J. Lettou & W. de Machlinia.
A full page of text has 47 lines.
Spaces left for initials (no guide letters).
Some copies could have Pynson's device rather than La Talleur's on A1r (BMC).
The earliest known book with a Pynson imprint. See BMC XI 343.
PML copy leaf dimensions: 27.5 x 19.5 cm.

Binding: 
18th-century(?) English blind-tooled brown pigskin over paper boards (29 x 21 cm.), sewn on 5 supports. Marbled paper pastedowns and fly leaves, with plain paper fly leaves.
Variant Title: 

Tenores novelli

Inscriptions/Markings: 

Hand decoration: Rubricated, initials added by amateruish hand. Annotations: Heavily annotated in several 16th-century hands (Sakevyle, Boorde, and Griffith) and Roman numeral foliation starting on leaf A2r. Annotations partially inked out (leaf G4v).

Provenance: 
John Sackville (d. 1557); George Boorde (active 1547-1556), ownership inscriptions on first leaves of Old Tenures and Natura brevium, including: "George Boorde. Thys Booke was geven to George Boorde by his [??] Johan Sakevyle the fyrst yere of kynge Edward ye sixt [i.e. 1547]" (leaf a1r of Old Tenures)," "George Boorde berythe name to be owner of thys Booke 1556" (leaf a1r of Natura brevium), and initial cyphers (leaf A1r of Tenores novelli); Thomas Griffith, signatures at colophons of each work, 16th century; G.R. Corner, FSA (d. 1863), notes referencing Stow's Survey; his sale ("Library of a Gentleman"), Sotheby's, 11 May 1863, lot 870; Pierpont Morgan Library, purchased from Bernard Quaritch, March 1937.
Classification: 
Department: