A Tabula Legum Paedagogicarum (Table of the Laws of the Teachers) is first mentioned in a poem written by Robert Matthew, a pupil in the 1640s, where it is referred to as the ‘requirements of Quintilian’ (an orator, rhetorician and teacher in Rome in the first century AD). The text in its original form may have been composed in the sixteenth century by Christopher Johnson, Headmaster, who was bringing up to date a set of rules drawn up by the Founder. At the end of the eighteenth century it was finally revised and added to by Warden Huntingford, and it is his version which we have today.

There must have been numerous partial or complete re-paintings of the laws (along with the ‘Aut Disce’ board – see Ao130), including in 1808-9, when the Bursars’ accounts record that William Cave was paid a total of £22.1.1½ for the Trusty Servant and the ‘Laws etc. in School’ (presumably a predecessor of Ao131 and probably also Ao130). The most recent re-painting on record was in 1952 when School was fully renovated.

Provenance: Commissioned by Winchester College

Location: School