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Rerum Britannicarum Medii Aevi Scriptores, or The Chronicles and Memorials of Great Britain and Ireland during the Middle Ages, usually referred to as the 'Rolls Series', was an ambitious project first proposed to the British Treasury in 1857 by Sir John Romilly, the Master of the Rolls, and quickly approved for public funding. Its purpose was to publish historical source material covering the period from the arrival of the Romans to the reign of Henry VIII, 'without mutilation or abridgement', starting with the 'most scarce and valuable' texts. A 'correct text' of each work would be established by collating 'the best manuscripts', and information was to be included in every case about the manuscripts used, the life and times of the author, and the work's 'historical credibility', but there would be no additional annotation. The first books were published in 1858, and by the time it was completed in 1896 the series contained 105 titles and 253 volumes. Although many of the works have since been re-edited by modern scholars, the enterprise as a whole stands as a testament to the Victorian revival of interest in the middle ages.

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253 results in Cambridge Library Collection - Rolls

Page 4 of 13

Giraldi Cambrensis opera
  • Volume 1, De rebus a se gestis, libri iii. Invectionum libellus. Symbolum electorum
  • Giraldus Cambrensis, George F. Warner
  • Edited by J. S. Brewer, James F. Dimock
  • Published online:
    05 May 2014
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1861
  • Despite a frustrated ecclesiastical career - his ongoing failure to secure the See of St David's embittered him - Giraldus Cambrensis (Gerald of Wales, Gerald de Barry, c.1146–1220/3) composed many remarkable literary works, initially while employed as a royal clerk for Henry II and, subsequently, in semi-retirement in Lincoln. Eight volumes of his works were compiled as part of the Rolls Series of British medieval material. Volume 1, edited by historian J. S. Brewer (1809–79) and published in 1861, with an introduction in English to the Latin texts, consists of Giraldus' polemical-apologetic account of his life and the St David's case, and a collection of his letters, poems, and prefaces. Giraldus is noted for his vigorous Latin and anecdotal style, and this volume gives a vivid portrait of medieval Britain and the power struggles of the Angevin court, while illuminating nineteenth-century interest in the period.

De gestis regum anglorum libri quinque: Historiae novellae libri tres
  • Volume 1
  • William of Malmesbury
  • Edited by William Stubbs
  • Published online:
    05 May 2014
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1887
  • Consciously modelling himself on the Venerable Bede, William of Malmesbury (c.1090–c.1142) was one of the most learned of all the medieval chroniclers. His monumental Gesta regum anglorum ('Deeds of the English Kings') is a model of historical scholarship, written in engaging, fluid Latin. It was first completed around 1125, but was later revised and extended. The first two books of the Gesta are an impressive demonstration of William's extensive bibliographic and antiquarian knowledge. In this first volume of a two-volume set, originally published between 1887 and 1889, editor William Stubbs (1825–1901) presents these first two books, which narrate events from the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons to the Battle of Hastings. Stubbs' own lengthy preface is a detailed examination of William's life and work, which sets his historical writings in the context of his time and credits him as the first truly systematic historian since Bede.

Descriptive Catalogue of Materials Relating to the History of Great Britain and Ireland to the End of the Reign of Henry VII
  • Volume 1, From the Roman Period to the Norman Invasion, Part 2
  • Edited by Thomas Duffus Hardy
  • Published online:
    05 May 2014
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1862
  • Sir Thomas Duffus Hardy (1804–78) was Deputy Keeper of the Public Record Office and an experienced medieval manuscript scholar, having edited the Monumenta historica Britannica after his mentor Henry Petrie's death. Hardy was closely involved with the Rolls Series of publications of medieval manuscripts in public ownership, a government-backed project, of which this catalogue (consisting of three volumes in four parts) forms part. His stated aim was to list 'all the known sources, printed or unprinted, of English history' in a handbook for historical researchers. Each item is located and described, and, where Hardy has examined the original, the first and last lines are given. Where known, the author's life is briefly outlined. Part 2 of Volume 1, published in 1862, covers materials relating to the Anglo-Saxon period, 751–1066. The appendix provides bibliographical details of those manuscripts listed in the catalogue that had by that point been printed.

Year Books of the Reign of King Edward the Third
  • Volume 9, Year XVII
  • Edited and translated by Luke Owen Pike
  • Published online:
    05 May 2014
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1901
  • The records of the medieval English courts were compiled into manuscript 'year books', organised by regnal year of the monarch, and further subdivided into the four law terms. The year books of the reign of Edward III (1312–77), beginning at the eleventh year (1337) and continuing to the twentieth (1346), were to have been edited for the Rolls Series by Alfred Horwood (1821–81), who had previously edited the year books of Edward I, but he died while the first volume was in proof. The work was taken over by L. O. Pike (1835–1915), the set of fifteen books being published between 1883 and 1911. (Horwood chose his start date because the year books of Edward II and the first part of the reign of Edward III already existed in modern editions.) This volume contains reports from Hilary Term, 17 Edward III, to Trinity Term, 17 Edward III.

Descriptive Catalogue of Materials Relating to the History of Great Britain and Ireland to the End of the Reign of Henry VII
  • Volume 3, From AD 1200 to AD 1327
  • Edited by Thomas Duffus Hardy
  • Published online:
    05 May 2014
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1871
  • Sir Thomas Duffus Hardy (1804–78) was Deputy Keeper of the Public Record Office. He was closely involved with the Rolls Series of publications of medieval manuscripts in public ownership, of which this catalogue (consisting of three volumes in four parts) forms part. His stated aim was to list 'all the known sources, printed or unprinted, of English history'. Each item is located and described and where Hardy has examined the original, the first and last lines are given. Where known, the author's life is briefly outlined. The third volume, published in 1871, provides historical sources ranging from 1200 (the first full year of King John's reign) to the death of Edward II in 1327. This volume features 20 plates illustrating some of the types of manuscripts catalogued. A fourth volume, left uncompleted at Hardy's death, was to have continued the catalogue to the end of Henry VII's reign (1509).

Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early England
  • Being a Collection of Documents Illustrating the History of Science in this Country before the Norman Conquest
  • Volume 3
  • Edited by Thomas Oswald Cockayne
  • Published online:
    05 March 2014
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1866
  • This three-volume work, published in 1864–6, was edited by Thomas Oswald Cockayne (1807–73), a Cambridge graduate, much-published early member of the London Philological Society, and teacher of the philologists Walter Skeat and Henry Sweet. It is a collection of writings from pre-Conquest Britain on plants, medicine and the heavens, mostly in Old English with accompanying modern English translations. The preface of Volume 3 discusses questions including the identity of the Anglo-Saxon translator of Bede's De Temporibus and the similarities between Classical and medieval dream-interpretation and divination, and the Victorian penchant for spiritualism and astrology. The texts in this volume include remedies, charms and prayers for the sick, in Latin and Old English, lists of plant names, works on solar and lunar calendars and horoscopes, and explanations of the prophetic meaning of dreams. The volume ends with some historical fragments in Old English relating to monastic foundations.

Cartularium Monasterii de Rameseia
  • Volume 3
  • Edited by William Henry Hart, Ponsonby A. Lyons
  • Published online:
    05 November 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1893
  • Ramsey Abbey, Cambridgeshire, was founded in 969 and rapidly became of one the richest and most important Benedictine houses in the country. It was famous for its school and library, and a thriving market town grew up around it, despite its isolated position in the Fens. The cartulary contains a range of legal, financial and ecclesiastical documents dating from 974 to 1436, although the greater part was compiled in the fourteenth century. It is particularly important for the study of manorial and economic history (and the abbey's twelfth-century chronicle is also reissued in this series). This three-volume edition was published between 1884 and 1893. Volume 3 contains documents 510–688. It includes material relating to the abbey's possessions in St Ives and throughout East Anglia, from the Pipe Rolls and other inquisitions as well as the cartulary. English side-notes to the Latin text and a comprehensive index to all three volumes are also provided.

De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliae
  • Libri Quinque in Varios Tractatus Distincti
  • Volume 3
  • Henry de Bracton
  • Edited by Travers Twiss
  • Published online:
    05 November 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1880
  • The thirteenth-century Latin legal treatise best known as Bracton is now thought to be the work of several hands, and Henry de Bracton (d.1268) to have been only the last of these. Work began on it in the 1230s and largely ceased in the early 1250s, but the treatise - an ambitious survey of English law - was never finished. Between 1878 and 1883, the scholar and jurist Sir Travers Twiss (1809–97) edited and published this work in six volumes for the Rolls Series. His text was mainly based on the first printed edition of 1569. Although he provided the first English translation of Bracton, Twiss's work has been criticised and since superseded. Volume 3 contains the first part of Book 4. This covers the assize of novel disseisin, and related actions and litigation about rights of common.

Year Books of the Reign of King Edward the Third
  • Volume 3, Years XIII and XIV
  • Edited and translated by Luke Owen Pike
  • Published online:
    05 November 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1886
  • The records of the medieval English courts were compiled into manuscript 'year books', organised by regnal year of the monarch, and further subdivided into the four law terms. The year books of the reign of Edward III (1312–77), beginning at the eleventh year (1337) and continuing to the twentieth (1346), were to have been edited for the Rolls Series by Alfred Horwood (1821–81), who had previously edited the year books of Edward I, but he died while the first volume was in proof. The work was taken over by L. O. Pike (1835–1915), the set of fifteen books being published between 1883 and 1911. (Horwood chose his start date because the year books of Edward II and the first part of the reign of Edward III already existed in modern editions.) This volume contains reports from Michaelmas Term, 13 Edward III, to Hilary Term, 14 Edward III.

Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden, monachi Cestrensis
  • Together with the English Translations of John Trevisa and of an Unknown Writer of the Fifteenth Century
  • Volume 6
  • Ranulf Higden
  • Edited by Joseph Rawson Lumby
  • Published online:
    05 November 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1876
  • Ranulf Higden (d.1364) was a monk at the Abbey of St Werburgh in Chester. His most important literary work is this universal chronicle, which survives in over a hundred Latin manuscripts, testifying to its popularity. The earliest version of it dates from 1327, but Higden continued writing until his death, expanding and updating the text. It was also continued in other monastic houses, most importantly by John Malvern of Worcester. The English translation made by John Trevisa in the 1380s was also widely circulated and is included in this work, published in nine volumes for the Rolls Series between 1865 and 1886. The chronicle shows how fourteenth-century scholars understood world history and geography. Volume 6 concludes Book 5, mostly on Anglo-Saxon England, and contains the beginning of Book 6, from King Alfred to the mid-tenth century.

Memorials of St Edmund's Abbey
  • Volume 2
  • Edited by Thomas Arnold
  • Published online:
    05 November 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1892
  • Bury St Edmunds possessed one of the wealthiest abbeys in England. This three-volume collection of Latin documents relating to the abbey was edited by Thomas Arnold (1823–1900) and published between 1890 and 1896. Volume 2 contains a chronicle terminating in 1212, accounts of building works, narratives of abbatial elections in 1215, 1257 and 1302, and an early thirteenth-century Anglo-Norman metrical biography of St Edmund by Denis Pyramus, a monk of the abbey. There is also an account of the expulsion of the Franciscans from Bury by the Benedictines in 1257 and 1263. More serious were the ongoing disputes between the abbey and town that led to the Great Riot of 1327, in which the abbey was sacked, the abbot deported, and monks and civilians killed in a succession of attacks throughout the year. The settlement of 1331 is included in the appendix, and English side-notes are provided throughout.

Matthaei Parisiensis Chronica majora
  • Volume 3, AD 1216 to AD 1239
  • Matthew Paris
  • Edited by Henry Richards Luard
  • Published online:
    05 November 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1876
  • A Church of England clergyman and fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, Henry Richards Luard (1825–91) edited a number of works in the Rolls Series, for which he was noted for the quality of his indexing and the depth of his commentary. This seven-volume work, first published between 1872 and 1883, has been hailed as one of the best editions in the series. It is a rich source for English history from the Creation to 1259, written by England's greatest medieval historian. Matthew Paris (c.1200–59) became a monk at St Albans in 1217 and had access to a wide variety of documents as an acquaintance of such men as Bishop Robert Grosseteste and King Henry III, whom he knew well. The Latin text of Volume 3, covering 1216–39, derives from the work of Roger of Wendover up to around 1235, where scholars have suggested Paris's own chronicle began.

Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden, monachi Cestrensis
  • Together with the English Translations of John Trevisa and of an Unknown Writer of the Fifteenth Century
  • Volume 3
  • Ranulf Higden
  • Edited by Joseph Rawson Lumby
  • Published online:
    05 November 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1871
  • Ranulf Higden (d.1364) was a monk at the abbey of St Werburgh in Chester. His most important literary work is this universal chronicle, which survives in over a hundred Latin manuscripts, testifying to its popularity. The earliest version of it dates from 1327, but Higden continued writing until his death, expanding and updating the text. It was also continued in other monastic houses, the most important being by John Malvern of Worcester. The English translation made by John Trevisa in the 1380s was also widely circulated and is included in this work, published in nine volumes for the Rolls Series between 1865 and 1886. The chronicle shows how fourteenth-century scholars understood world history and geography. Volume 3 contains the remainder of Book 2, and Book 3 covers the ancient world up to the age of Alexander the Great.

Matthaei Parisiensis Chronica majora
  • Volume 1, The Creation to AD 1066
  • Matthew Paris
  • Edited by Henry Richards Luard
  • Published online:
    05 November 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1872
  • A Church of England clergyman and fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, Henry Richards Luard (1825–91) edited a number of works in the Rolls Series, for which he was noted for the quality of his indexing and the depth of his commentary. This seven-volume work, first published between 1872 and 1883, has been hailed as one of the best editions in the series. It is a rich source for English history from the Creation to 1259, written by England's greatest medieval historian. Matthew Paris (c.1200–59) became a monk at St Albans in 1217 and had access to a wide variety of documents as an acquaintance of such men as Bishop Robert Grosseteste and King Henry III, whom he knew well. The Latin text of Volume 1, covering the Creation to 1066, derives mainly from the work of Paris's predecessor, Roger of Wendover.

The Metrical Chronicle of Robert of Gloucester
  • Volume 2
  • Robert of Gloucester
  • Edited by William Aldis Wright
  • Published online:
    05 November 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1887
  • This ballad chronicle, published in two volumes in 1887, is attributed to Robert of Gloucester (fl. c.1260–c.1300), both because it is written in Gloucestershire dialect, which makes it a valuable source for students of Middle English, and because the writer was probably an eyewitness to the contemporary events he mentions in the text, such as the siege of Gloucester Castle and the Battle of Evesham during the so-called Second Barons' War (1264–7). These are by far the most interesting portions of the poem, since much of the preceding historical narrative is derived second-hand from earlier Latin chroniclers. Volume 2, edited by the scholar William Aldis Wright (1831–1914), contains the second half of the chronicle and includes, as appendices, additions to the text and variations found in the various manuscript sources, as well as a glossary and index to both volumes.

De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliae
  • Libri Quinque in Varios Tractatus Distincti
  • Volume 5
  • Henry de Bracton
  • Edited by Travers Twiss
  • Published online:
    05 November 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1882
  • The thirteenth-century Latin legal treatise best known as Bracton is now thought to be the work of several hands, and Henry de Bracton (d.1268) to have been only the last of these. Work began on it in the 1230s and largely ceased in the early 1250s, but the treatise - an ambitious survey of English law - was never finished. Between 1878 and 1883, the scholar and jurist Sir Travers Twiss (1809–97) edited and published this work in six volumes for the Rolls Series. His text was mainly based on the first printed edition of 1569. Although he provided the first English translation of Bracton, Twiss's work has been criticised and since superseded. Volume 5 contains the final part of Book 4 and the first part of Book 5. These discuss writs of entry and writs of right, and procedural issues relating to essoins, defaults and the view.

Cartularium Monasterii de Rameseia
  • Volume 1
  • Edited by William Henry Hart, Ponsonby A. Lyons
  • Published online:
    05 November 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1884
  • Ramsey Abbey, Cambridgeshire, was founded in 969 and rapidly became of one the richest and most important Benedictine houses in the country. It was famous for its school and library, and a thriving market town grew up around it, despite its isolated position in the Fens. The cartulary contains a range of legal, financial and ecclesiastical documents dating from 974 to 1436, although the greater part was compiled in the fourteenth century. It is particularly important for the study of manorial and economic history (and the abbey's twelfth-century chronicle is also reissued in this series). This three-volume edition was published between 1884 and 1893. Volume 1 contains the first 229 documents, although they are not arranged chronologically. The editors have also included material from other sources where relevant. Most items are in Latin, although there are some in Norman French and Anglo-Saxon. English side-notes to the text are provided throughout.

De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliae
  • Libri Quinque in Varios Tractatus Distincti
  • Volume 4
  • Henry de Bracton
  • Edited by Travers Twiss
  • Published online:
    05 November 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1881
  • The thirteenth-century Latin legal treatise best known as Bracton is now thought to be the work of several hands, and Henry de Bracton (d.1268) to have been only the last of these. Work began on it in the 1230s and largely ceased in the early 1250s, but the treatise - an ambitious survey of English law - was never finished. Between 1878 and 1883, the scholar and jurist Sir Travers Twiss (1809–97) edited and published this work in six volumes for the Rolls Series. His text was mainly based on the first printed edition of 1569. Although he provided the first English translation of Bracton, Twiss's work has been criticised and since superseded. Volume 4 contains the second part of Book 4. It covers the assizes of darrein presentment, mort d'ancestor and utrum, and related actions and litigation about dower.

Chronicon Anglicanum
  • De expugnatione Terrae Sanctae libellus. Thomas Agnellus de morte et sepultura Henrici Regis Angliae Junioris. Gesta Fulconis Filii Warini. Excerpta ex otiis Imperialibus Gervasii Tileburiensis
  • Ralph of Coggeshall
  • Edited by Joseph Stevenson
  • Published online:
    05 November 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1875
  • Edited by the scholar Joseph Stevenson (1806–95) and published in 1875, this collection of medieval historical narratives, written by a variety of thirteenth-century English authors, is presented in the original Latin and French. Ralph of Coggeshall's chronicle relates events from the Norman Conquest to the early years of Henry III's reign, encompassing a number of eyewitness accounts, while Thomas Agnellus recounts in detail the short life of King Henry Junior, the rebellious eldest son of Henry II, who died before fully coming into his inheritance. The work also contains extracts from Gervase of Tilbury's eclectic universal history, an anonymous narrative of Christian exploits in the Holy Land from 1186 to 1188, and a literary account of the adventures of the infamous rebel Fulk FitzWarin. Together they illuminate many interesting aspects of medieval life, through tales of wonders, outlaws and crusading, offering rich insight into the reigns of the Angevins.

Chronicles of the Reigns of Stephen, Henry II, and Richard I
  • Volume 4, The Chronicle of Robert of Torigni, Abbot of the Monastery of St Michael-in-Peril-of-the-Sea
  • Edited by Richard Howlett
  • Published online:
    05 November 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1889
  • The fourth volume of this four-volume set of Latin chronicles, edited by Richard Howlett (1841–1917) and published between 1884 and 1889, contains the work of Robert of Torigni (c.1110–86), abbot of Mont Saint-Michel, whose chronicle is a continuation of the Gesta Normannorum ducum ('Deeds of the Norman dukes') up to the time of Henry II. Despite problems with the chronology of the work, Robert's chronicle remains a valuable source for the early years of Henry II's reign. Howlett's introduction provides historical background as well as an exhaustive survey of both Robert's sources and the various versions of his manuscript. However, he finds fault with the 'reticence' of a chronicler who hardly mentions the murder of Beckett or Henry's role in it. Also included is the Continuatio Beccensis, a chronicle from Bec Abbey of the years 1157–60, in addition to an appendix of items relating to Robert's abbacy. Helpful English side-notes to the Latin texts are provided throughout.

Page 4 of 13