Year-Books

Books of reports of cases. From Edward I to Richard III, they are almost continuous. During the reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII, they became intermittent, the last being in 27 Hen. VIII. They were compiled by eye-witnesses or from the narration of eye-witnesses. They are contemporary reports of the utmost value. The former belief that some of them were compiled by paid official reporters is now doubted. Holdsworth in 2 Sel. Essays, Anglo-Am. Leg. Hist. 104. See Pollock, First Book of Jur. 284. Charles C. Soule, the eminent legal bibliographer, in a "Preliminary Sketch for a Bibliography of the Year-Books" (14 Harv. L. Rev. 557), gives the following list of the last edition of the Year-Books, "made up of eleven parts, one part printed in 1678, one in 1680, and the other nine in 1679, so that it may be properly called the 1679 (or 'Standard') edition": Part I. Memoranda in Scaccario (only) 1 to 29 Edw. I. Year Books, 1 to 19 Edw. II. II. First Part of Edw. III, years 1 to 10.

Books of reports of cases in a regular series from the reign of the English King Edward I., inclusive, to the time of Henry VIII., which were taken by the prothonotaries or chief scribas of the courts, at the expense of the crown, and published annually; whence their name, "Year Books." Brown.

Defined under Year in Black's Law Dictionary.

The oldest Henry VIII.

Antique English court reports, in a regular series, from King Edward II. to Henry VIII., which were taken by the prothonotaries or chief scribes of the courts, at the expense of