Fleta

Fleta is a treatise, written in Latin, with the sub-title seu Commentarius juris Anglicani, on the common law of England. 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.

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.

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.

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