It ranks as the largest surviving medieval collection of pre-Conquest law and is the second to have been produced during Henry I's reign, after that contained in Cambridge, Corpus Christi College MS 383.
The second volume contains material composed during Henry's reign and refers to a royal council held at London in May (Pentecost) 1108, attended among others by Urse d'Abetôt (d. 1108).
[10] However, Richard Sharpe has argued that the author was proficient in Latin and well at home with classical literature, but shows a preference for rhetorical flourish which often makes his writing difficult to penetrate.
He was not a native English speaker, and often struggled to grasp the sense of his originals,[12] although a learning process can be detected in several manuscript versions, which reveal that he occasionally corrected his translations.
[2] The title, which is found in a 16th-century note on the flyleaf of John Rylands Library Latin MS 420,[14] reflects what the author set out in his Argumentum (clause 32), namely that his original design was to produce four volumes.
[10] The author here deplores the moral decay that has marked the reign of William (II) Rufus and expresses some hope that Henry's rule will bring about changes for the better.
The second, briefer part of the work is devoted to documents of legal interest written (in Latin) at a later date, such as Henry I's Coronation Charter and his writ on Courts.