Fleta is a treatise on the common law of England. It was written in Latin with the sub-title seu Commentarius juris Anglicani. The anonymous author of the book is sometimes referred to as "Fleta", although this is not in fact a person's name. The book acquired its common title because its preface contains a remark that it could be called "Fleta" as it was written in "Fleta": however, the meaning of this comment is unclear (see Authorship below). From internal evidence, the work appears to have been written in the reign of Edward I, and to have been completed shortly after the year 1290. Authority This book is one of those listed by Blackstone as being authoritative statements of the law at the time at which they were written. Edward Coke cites Fleta as authority in his Institutes in a number of places. The article on Fleta in the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition says that it "is for the most part a poor imitation of" De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliae by Henry de Bracton. O. Hood Phillips described it as an "epitome of" that book. G. O. Sayles was able to show that the author of Fleta had a copy of Bracton to hand, but that (like other copies) it was defective in places, and that he was obliged to make many additions and improvements of his own. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography describes Fleta as "updating and abridging" Bracton. Manuscript copies One complete manuscript copy of this book survives from the fourteenth century. It is held by the British Library where its reference is BL, Cotton MS Julius B.viii. A few passages of this book also survive in another manuscript. This is also held by the British Library, where its reference is BL, Cotton MS Nero D.vi. Circulation Because few copies survive, it is thought that this book was "not widely read by medieval lawyers." Authorship It has often been assumed that the statement that the book was "written in Fleta" means that it was written during the author's confinement in the Fleet prison. It has been conjectured that the author was one of those judges who were imprisoned for malpractices by Edward I. Noël Denholm-Young and Paul Brand have proposed as an alternative candidate one Matthew of the Exchequer, a yeoman of the royal household and lawyer, who was convicted of forgery in 1290 and committed to