Definition
Quadragesms (also encountered as Quadragesima in related ecclesiastical and legal contexts) is a historical bibliographic term referring to the third volume of the Year Books of the reign of Edward III of England. The name derives from the fact that this volume begins with the fortieth year of that sovereign's reign — quadragesimus being the Latin ordinal for "fortieth." The term has no operative legal meaning; it is a designation used by legal historians and bibliographers to identify a specific portion of the Year Book series within the medieval English common law tradition.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Not recorded as an English word in standard modern dictionaries. The related term Quadragesima refers to the forty days of Lent in ecclesiastical usage.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Not listed. The Latin root quadragesimus (fortieth) was familiar to educated readers through its ecclesiastical and classical applications.
The gap here is one of register rather than conflicting meaning: a reader encountering this term in a historical legal text might recognize the Latin numeral root without grasping that it functions as a bibliographic label for a specific legal volume, not a substantive legal concept.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers working in medieval English legal history or tracing the development of common law doctrine will occasionally encounter citations to the Year Books organized by regnal period and volume designation. Quadragesms signals a specific location within that corpus — the third volume, covering the fortieth year and beyond of Edward III's reign (i.e., post-1366). Misidentifying it as a substantive legal term rather than a bibliographic locator could derail research.
The Year Books as a whole present significant navigational challenges. They were not organized by subject matter but by term and year of reign, were produced in law French, and survive in manuscript and early print editions of varying reliability. Quadragesms sits within a series where the first volume (Liber Assisarum or Statham's abridgment references) and second volume cover earlier regnal years; knowing which volume is meant matters when locating a specific Year Book report.
Researchers should also be aware that early printed editions of the Year Books, including those available in the Law Mind corpus, vary in how they label and organize the volumes. The term may appear in its Latin form, in abbreviated form, or not at all depending on the edition. Cross-referencing Reeves's History of English Law and Crabb's English Law — both cited in the historical dictionary sources — will help orient researchers unfamiliar with Year Book structure.
Historical Dictionary Support
All four source dictionaries are in close agreement: Quadragesms designates the third volume of the Year Books of Edward III's reign, so named because it begins with the fortieth regnal year. Black's (both editions) and Burrill's cite Crabb's English Law at page 327 as authority. Bouvier's adds a reference to Reeves's History of English Law, chapter xvi at page 148, and is the only source to note the connection to the broader Year Book series explicitly as "the third part of the year-books."
Notably, Bouvier's entry transitions immediately into a separate entry for Quadrans (the Latin term for a fourth part, used in civil law inheritance contexts), a reminder that proximity in the dictionary does not imply conceptual relationship. Researchers should not conflate these two entries.
None of the historical dictionaries elaborate on the content of this volume or its significance to any particular area of doctrine, which accurately reflects its status as a bibliographic rather than substantive term. The sources are consistent and add nothing beyond the core identification.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Year Books of England; Edward III and the Development of Common Law Procedure.