Formulare Anglicanum: An Afterlife in Itself
The Formulare Anglicanum is a compilation of various British charters (referred to as ‘formulas’) and legal instruments from 1066 to 1647, gathered by Thomas Madox from archives such as that in the Office of Augmentations where he worked. This copy of Formulare Anglicanum hardly seems to have entered its afterlife stage. Interestingly, this book has remained in rather good condition. Its binding and spine remain intact with some evidence of the wear it has experienced over the centuries. Its leaves are mostly well-preserved, with the exception of some minuscule brown spots and fading on the words. Some leaves have tears in the borders from repeated creasing in the same area, presumably due to extensive use by its previous owners. Objectively, many modern books have fared worse.
Figure 1: Browning and spots on a leaf
Figure 2: A tear in the border
What is fascinating is that Formulare Anglicanum isn’t just well-preserved; it also seeks to preserve well. It is itself an exhibition of other books, considering that it collects legal instruments and charters from such an extensive period of time in Britain’s history and enables readers to identify original legal documents. Furthermore, it is not simply a compilation, as Madox had to make some additional editorial choices. For instance, he categorised the various charters by types, such as grants and wills, and by dates to document developments in the British legal scene over the years. However, he was also concerned that these headings were inadequate to classify all the documents and that he might have wrongly categorised some of them – given the differences in language used, it was not always clear which category they fell under.
Figure 3: The “Table of the Heads” (table of contents) which lists the categories in which Madox classified the documents, and their page and formula numbers
Formulare Anglicanum implicitly acknowledges the significant effect of time on a book. There are a few leaves that document the various official seals and scripts used over time from the reigns of different British monarchs.
Figure 4 (left): Examples of the official seals over the reigns of different monarchs
Figure 5 (right): Examples of the various scripts used over the reigns of different monarchs
These leaves help users of the book to identify important details of legal documents of the past as well as to verify their authenticity. These notable features take into account how the law is constantly updated and older documents may become unfamiliar to readers of the present. In the margins, Madox also included his own descriptions in English explaining the purpose of each charter, which are particularly helpful given that many of the charters are in Latin or French. Many of these documents also have notes detailing their physical characteristics. These additional descriptions enable easier comprehension of the documents and for documents that have since undergone physical changes, they record their original features.
Figure 6: A document labelled as “A Certificate or Memoire”, with notes by Madox describing its physical details such as the green wax seal once used on it. “O. A.” refers to the Office of Augmentations.
When we think of the afterlife of the book, we should note that it is not just its physical form that can disintegrate; its content can progressively lose its original purpose. By including detailed descriptions of the documents, Madox preserved the knowledge to ensure that the original documents never really enter their afterlives and can continue to be comprehended and identified. However, Madox also worried that he could not accurately capture the original meanings of the documents, which calls into question just how much of the book can be preserved, and how much of it will eventually find its way into its afterlife despite our best efforts.
Prepared by Nana