Appendix D — Documents
I
(Statute to prevent the removal of valuable books from Oxford, A.D. 1373: from Munimenta Academica, ed. by F. Anstey (Rolls Series) 1868, i. 233: with æ altered to ae.)
A.D. 1373. There are a great many booksellers in Oxford, who are not sworn to the University; the consequence of which is, that books of great value are sold and carried away from Oxford, the owners of them are cheated, and the sworn stationers are deprived of their lawful business; it is therefore hereby enacted , that no bookseller, except the sworn stationers or their deputies, shall sell any book, being either his own property or that of another, exceeding half a mark in value, under pain of, for the first offence, imprisonment, for the second, a fine of half a mark, for the third, abjuring his trade within the precincts of the University.
Quia, propter excessivam multitudinem vendentium libros, Oxoniae Universitati minime juratorum, plerique codices magni valoris ad partes exteras deferuntur, veri domini librorum eorumdem exquisitis coloribus seducuntur, a stationariis Universitatis praedictae lucrum consuetum subtrahitur, in Universitatis dedecus non modicum, gravamen et jacturam, habita primitus de praemissis deliberatione sufficienti, per congregationem Regentium antiquam consuetudinem in hac parte renovare volentium extitit ordinatum, quod de caetero nullus librorum venditor, publicis stationariis duntaxat exceptis, seu ab eis legitime deputatis, aliquem librum alienum seu proprium vendat excedentem pretium dimidiae marcae, infra jurisdictionem domini Cancellarii Universitatis praefatae, sub poenis inferius annotatis; videlicet quod, si quis legitime convictus fuerit super transgressione hujus ordinationis, prima vice incarceretur, et, in secunda vice et transgressione, solvat dimidiam marcam Universitatis usibus applicandam, tertia vero convictus abjuret officium sive artem venditionis hujusmodi infra limites superius expressatos.
Facta est autem haec ordinatio vicesimo septimo die mensis Januarii, anno Domini millesimo trecentesimo septuagesimo tertio.