Copies of Liber privilegiorum et libertatum alme universitatis Cantebrigiensis, 1587, several with annotations and additions

This is the Vice-Chancellor's set. The title pages are modestly decorative and incorporate the arms of Hare, which again appear at regular intervals throughout. The text is rubricated in a seemly but modest style. The preliminary matter to volume I includes a letter of donation apparently copied from Hare A and at a later date, in a quasi-print hand. The text hand is professional scribal secretary, very regular. The first two volumes are titled 'Pars prima' and 'Pars secunda'. The third volume is dated on the title page 1588 and has a later note 'This is the Fourth Volume of Hare', attended by contradictory annotations and notes by later Registraries. The fourth volume, dated 1588 on the title page, is similarly called the fifth volume. The fourth volume contains later transcripts of records relating to the borough and material not in Hare B. Legend maintains that a volume of Hare was lost by Vice-Chancellor Henry James in 1684, but, as a note by Vice-Chancellor Ashton points out, only four volumes are recorded in 1639 and it is far from clear what a missing volume might have contained. The binding is elaborately stamped calf incorporating the arms of the University, with gilt titles on the front board.