This manuscript is a composite, with most of the material dating from the thirteenth century but also containing some from later centuries. Among the early material are John of Salisbury’s letters and the Gesta Regis Henrici Secundi attributed to Roger of Howden. The legal texts reproduced here are all contained within the latter work, which dates from the early part of the thirteenth century. The manuscript once belonged to Sir Robert Cotton and was damaged in the fire of 1731. It was bequeathed to the British Museum in 1753, incorporated as the British Library in 1973.