The Black Book of the Admiralty
With an Appendix

A four-volume set (1871–6) containing medieval codes of maritime law and related materials from England and northern and southern Europe.

Travers Twiss (Edited by)

9781108048910, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 15 November 2012

628 pages, 1 colour illus.
22.9 x 15.2 x 3.5 cm, 0.91 kg

The Black Book of the Admiralty is a late medieval Old French manuscript containing a variety of documents relating to the administrative and legal responsibilities of the office of the lord high admiral, with later additions relating to the court of chivalry and the laws of war. The edition of this manuscript produced by Sir Travers Twiss (1809–97) between 1871 and 1876 filled only part of one of four volumes. The remaining content ranges from the late thirteenth-century borough custumal of Ipswich and other later medieval general custumals from south-west France, to a variety of different codes of maritime law also from south-west France, Catalonia, southern Italy, the Baltic and the crusader kingdom of Jerusalem. Volume 1 contains the text of the Black Book, along with other materials relating to the office of admiral and to the admiralty court from late medieval France and England, as well as two late medieval English ordinances of war.

Introduction
List of manuscripts
Table of subjects
Old rules for the Lord Admiral
Instructions for the Lord Admiral in time of war
Rules and orders about admiralty matters
Laws of Oleron
Inquisition of Queenborow
Ordo judiciorum
De officio admiralitatis
Admiralty of John Holland, Duke of Exeter
Ordinances of war
Wager of battle
De materia duelli
Appendix: admiralty of Sir Thomas Beaufort, Duke of Exeter
Ordinance of Philippe de Valois for the expedition against England
Ordinance of Charles V on the jurisdiction of the admiral
Rights and privileges of the admirals of France
Ordinances of war.

Subject Areas: British & Irish history [HBJD1]