Fleta

The title of an ancient treatise on English law, written in the reign of Edward I. 2 Reeves' Hist. of Law, 280.

Crabb's Hist. 198.

Its full title is Fleta, seu Commentarius Juris Anglicani; the name of Fleta being given to it, according to the author's explanation, because it was written during his confinement in the Fleet prison, from which circumstance it has been conjectured that he was one of those judges who fell under the displeasure of the king. Id. ibid. It is a general treatise on the law, in six books, written in Latin in the method of Bracton, from whom and Glanville the author copies largely. Mr. Reeves indeed calls him a mere imitator, and his work is obviously a compendium of Bracton, with considerable additions, however, showing what alterations had taken place in the law since Bracton's time. Mr. Selden has written a learned Dissertation on Fleta, which is annexed to most of the editions of this work.