Madox, Thomas: Formulare Anglicanum: or, a Collection of Ancient Charters abd Instruments of Divers Kinds, Taken from the Originals, Placed under several Heads, and Deduced (in a Series according to the order of Time) from the Norman Conquest, to the End of the Reign of King Henry the VIII. London, printed for Jacob Tonson and R. Knaplock 1702
Book, Folio. First edition. pp. [xii], 441, [xi] + 2 double-page plates (old hands and seals, engraved by Moll and Savage respectively). Title printed in red and black. Contemporary panelled calf, minor wear to joints and extremities. Early ownership signature of Charles Grymes on the title; book labels of the John Evelyn sale and Eric Poole on the front paste-down.
Madox (1666-1727, legal antiquary and historiographer royal) made critical studies of mediaeval English documents that established him as the virtual founder of British administrative history and a precursor of modern scholarship. Dedicated to Madox’s patron, Lord Somers, Formulare Anglicanum was “the first attempt to base the study of the post-Conquest charters upon a scientific base”; furthermore Madox’s “primary object was to demonstrate how this technical study could be made to subserve the larger ends of history” (Douglas, English Scholars, pp. 235-7). He was no mere dry-as-dust antiquary.
£400
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