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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 6 of 13

Recueil des chroniques et anchiennes istories de la Grant Bretaigne, à present nommé Engleterre
  • Volume 5, From AD 1447 to AD 1471
  • Jean de Wavrin
  • Edited by William Hardy, Edward L. C. P. Hardy
  • Published online:
    05 November 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1891
  • Part of the Rolls Series of historical documents, this five-volume collection, originally compiled in the fifteenth century, is the first history of England of this magnitude, spanning almost two millennia. It is the work of French knight Jean de Wavrin (c.1400–c.1473), a chronicler under Philip the Good and Charles the Bold, Dukes of Burgundy. Wavrin participated in several military expeditions, including some under the English banner, and was keen to keep the kingdom as an ally. The chief editor, archivist and antiquarian Sir William Hardy (1807–87), points out that Wavrin selected the best-known oral and written materials and added his own first-hand observations to tell a fascinating story with a profusion of details. Volume 5, published in 1891, begins with the arrest of the Duke of Gloucester in 1447 and ends with the restoration of Edward IV.

The Red Book of the Exchequer
  • Volume 1
  • Edited by Hubert Hall
  • Published online:
    05 November 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1896
  • A rich resource for medieval historians, the Liber rubeus de Scaccario is a register, or book of remembrance, first compiled in the clerical offices of the Exchequer during the reign of Henry III. It contains documents from the post-Conquest period up to the year 1230. Including deeds and grants, as well as records of serjeanties and material from pipe rolls and various other sources, it has been deemed second only to the Domesday Book in importance for its wealth of genealogical and geographical information. The various records were brought together in order to provide a convenient single source for establishing legal precedents, and it remained in use throughout the middle ages. This three-volume edition was prepared by the archivist Hubert Hall (1857–1944) and published in 1896. Volume 1 contains scutages and barons' charters, as well as a detailed table of contents for the entire work.

Historical Papers and Letters from the Northern Registers
  • Edited by James Raine
  • Published online:
    05 November 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1873
  • James Raine (1830–96) was chancellor and canon of York Minster and secretary of the Surtees Society, established by his father between 1854 and 1895. He edited this work for the Rolls Series in 1873. Covering the period 1265 to 1415, it illustrates the ecclesiastical history of the north of England through a vast collection of Latin documents taken from the episcopal registers of Carlisle, Durham and York. Material from Durham and Carlisle deals largely with England's tumultuous relationship with Scotland. Significant space is devoted to the mostly complete registers of York, a centre for parochial reform and the dissemination of royal instruction throughout the period covered. The registers of Peckham and Thoresby in particular demonstrate their dedication to the Church and diocese. Overall, the documents provide valuable insight into the northern sees, the personal history of bishops and sovereigns, and the general history of medieval England.

Chronicles of the Reigns of Stephen, Henry II, and Richard I
  • Volume 3, The Gesta Stephani regis Anglorum and Other Chronicles
  • Edited by Richard Howlett
  • Published online:
    05 November 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1886
  • The third volume of this four-volume set of Latin chronicles, edited by Richard Howlett (1841–1917) and published between 1884 and 1889, contains five separate works. The Gesta Stephani regis Anglorum ('Deeds of King Stephen') is a primary source for Stephen's reign and especially his wars with his cousin Maude. This is supplemented by the shorter De gestis regis Stephani by Richard, prior of Hexham, covering the years 1135–9. The treatise Relatio de standardo by St Aelred, abbot of Rievaulx, is a partisan account of the Battle of the Standard in 1138. Jordan Fantosme's long poem (in French, with an English translation) describes the rebellion against Henry II of 1173–4. Finally, Richard of Devizes chronicles the deeds of Richard I in De rebus gestis Ricardi Primi, which is 'one of the most amusing products of the middle ages' according to Howlett, whose introduction provides historical background and manuscript details. English side-notes to the Latin texts are provided throughout.

The Annals of Loch Cé
  • A Chronicle of Irish Affairs from AD 1014 to AD 1590
  • Volume 2
  • Edited and translated by W. M. Hennessy
  • Published online:
    05 November 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1871
  • This Irish-language chronicle covers events in Ireland from the beginning of the eleventh to the end of the sixteenth centuries. Edited and translated by the native Irish speaker and acclaimed scholar William Hennessy (c.1829–89), the work was published for the Rolls Series in 1871 and remains an important source for Irish history. Hennessy also supplied an edited and translated excerpt from a closely related chronicle, The Annals of Connacht, to supplement years missing from the edited text (1316–1412). Volume 2, including a substantial index to both volumes, begins with an account of warfare among Gaelic-Irish and Anglo-Irish nobility in the fourteenth century and concludes shortly before the rebellion of Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, in the 1590s.

Year Books of the Reign of King Edward the Third
  • Volume 7, Year XVI (First Part)
  • Edited and translated by Luke Owen Pike
  • Published online:
    05 November 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1896
  • 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, 16 Edward III, to Easter Term, 16 Edward III.

Registrum Malmesburiense
  • The Register of Malmesbury Abbey Preserved in the Public Record Office
  • Volume 2
  • Edited by J. S. Brewer, Charles Trice Martin
  • Published online:
    05 November 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1880
  • Malmesbury abbey was a seventh-century foundation, re-established in the late tenth century and supported by royal patronage for several centuries. It was famous for its enormous library, and especially the work of the twelfth-century historian William of Malmesbury. This register of charters was compiled in the late thirteenth century and, although some are later forgeries, it is an important collection of Anglo-Saxon documents. It provides vital information about Wessex from the seventh century on, as well as material about the later difficulties between the monks and the bishop of Salisbury. This two-volume edition of the Latin texts with English side-notes was prepared by John Sherren Brewer (1809–79) and completed by Charles Trice Martin (1842–1914). Volume 2 (1880) contains charters relating to the abbey's extensive property holdings. The appendices include royal and papal decrees, as well as evidences of disputes between the abbey and the town of Malmesbury over trade.

Johannis de Trokelowe et Henrici de Blaneforde chronica et annales
  • AD 1259–1296, 1307–1324, 1392–1406
  • Edited by Henry Thomas Riley
  • John de Trokelowe, Henry de Blaneforde
  • Published online:
    05 November 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1866
  • Between 1863 and 1876, the Rolls Series published several works from or about the abbey of St Albans, edited by Henry Thomas Riley (1816–78) under the rubric 'Chronica Monasterii S. Albani'. This volume of source material for the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, some of it unique, appeared in 1866. It contains texts from several important manuscripts, recording state and church affairs, warfare and diplomacy, and benefactions to the abbey. Recent research suggests that the author of the 1307–23 annals, attributed to John de Trokelowe, was William Rishanger (who appears elsewhere in the Rolls Series); Trokelowe was probably a scribe, while Henry de Blaneforde is named as the continuator. Evidence also exists that the anonymous account of the period 1392–1406 in this volume is in fact part of Thomas Walsingham's Chronica majora, other sections of which were edited separately by Riley. The Latin texts are accompanied by English side-notes.

Adae Murimuth continuatio chronicarum; Robertus de Avesbury de gestis mirabilibus regis Edwardi Tertii
  • Adam Murimuth, Robert of Avesbury
  • Edited by Edward Maunde Thompson
  • Published online:
    05 November 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1889
  • These two Latin chronicles are principally concerned with the events of the mid-fourteenth century, and are particularly interesting for their accounts of the French campaigns of Edward III in the 1340s and 1350s. The chronicle of Adam Murimuth (c.1275–1347), which the writer designed to be a continuation of earlier works, begins in 1303 and extends to 1347. Although it is meagre at first, its latter parts are much fuller as Murimuth was able to draw on contemporary accounts. The chronicle of the deeds of Edward III by Robert of Avesbury (d.1359) is a military history of his reign up to the year 1356. It makes use of important documents that are not reproduced elsewhere. Published in 1889, this edition by Edward Maunde Thompson (1840–1929) includes an introduction providing historical background and relating what little is known of each chronicler. The Latin texts are accompanied by English side-notes.

Liber Monasterii de Hyda
  • Comprising a Chronicle of the Affairs of England, from the Settlement of the Saxons to the Reign of King Cnut; and a Chartulary of the Abbey of Hyde, in Hampshire AD 455–1023
  • Edited by Edward Edwards
  • Published online:
    05 November 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1866
  • Edward Edwards (1812–86), librarian, writer and utilitarian, has been described as a founder of modern librarianship. Employed to catalogue the Earl of Macclesfield's library in 1861, he came across the large illuminated manuscript of the chronicle and cartulary that comprise this work, first published in 1866. The Latin text moves chronologically from 455 and the 'Legend of Albina' through six centuries of medieval English history, finishing at 1023 and the reign of King Cnut. Edwards, as editor, displays a librarian's zeal for detail: his extensive introduction provides a thorough history of Hyde Abbey, from foundation to dissolution. In the appendix, English translations of Anglo-Saxon charters and testaments (including those of Alfred the Great and King Eadred - the only known wills of Anglo-Saxon kings) provide further insight into England in the Early Middle Ages.

Historia Anglorum sive, ut vulgo dicitur, Historia Minor
  • Item ejusdem abbreviatio chronicorum Angliae
  • Volume 3, AD 1246–1253
  • Matthew Paris
  • Edited by Frederic Madden
  • Published online:
    05 November 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1869
  • Sir Frederick Madden (1801–73) was for thirty years Keeper of Manuscripts at the British Library. His edition of the Latin text of Matthew Paris' Historia Anglorum has never been superseded: as Richard Vaughan wrote in 1958, 'it is one of the finest of all those published in the Rolls Series, and it set a standard of careful accuracy and profound scholarship which has seldom been equalled since'. Matthew Paris, a monk at St Albans Abbey from 1217 to 1259, wrote and illustrated the single complete surviving manuscript of this 'English History', which covers the years 1067–1253. He was an accomplished artist and a racy, indefatigably curious and opinionated narrator of events. Volume 3, prefaced by a biography of the author, contains the conclusion of the work from 1246 to 1253, and an abbreviated version composed by Paris himself.

The Red Book of the Exchequer
  • Volume 2
  • Edited by Hubert Hall
  • Published online:
    05 November 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1896
  • A rich resource for medieval historians, the Liber rubeus de Scaccario is a register, or book of remembrance, first compiled in the clerical offices of the Exchequer during the reign of Henry III. It contains documents from the post-Conquest period up to the year 1230. Including deeds and grants, as well as records of serjeanties and material from pipe rolls and various other sources, it has been deemed second only to the Domesday Book in importance for its wealth of genealogical and geographical information. The various records were brought together in order to provide a convenient single source for establishing legal precedents, and it remained in use throughout the middle ages. This three-volume edition was prepared by the archivist Hubert Hall (1857–1944) and published in 1896. Among the various texts in Volume 2 are serjeanties, knights' fees, abstracts of pipe rolls, genealogies, and precedents.

De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliae
  • Libri Quinque in Varios Tractatus Distincti
  • Volume 2
  • Henry de Bracton
  • Edited by Travers Twiss
  • Published online:
    05 November 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1879
  • 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 2 contains the end of Book 2 and the whole of Book 3. These cover the classification of actions, the general eyre, criminal law and the action of replevin.

De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliae
  • Libri Quinque in Varios Tractatus Distincti
  • Volume 6
  • Henry de Bracton
  • Edited by Travers Twiss
  • Published online:
    05 November 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1883
  • 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 6 contains the remainder of Book 5. It covers warranty, exceptions and writs of prohibition to court christian.

Chartularies of St Mary's Abbey, Dublin
  • With the Register of its House at Dunbrody, and Annals of Ireland
  • Volume 2
  • Edited by John T. Gilbert
  • Published online:
    05 November 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1884
  • John Thomas Gilbert (1829–98), historian and antiquary, was for thirty-four years librarian of the Royal Irish Academy. It was during this time, in 1884, that his two-volume edition of these chartularies, registers and annals was originally published as part of the Rolls Series. Volume 2 contains two collections of excerpts from the abbey's lost sixteenth-century register. Also included is the register of St Mary's Abbey, Dunbrody, and two portions of the annals of St Mary's Abbey, Dublin (which begin with the birth of Christ and end at the start of the thirteenth century, with the period between the third and tenth centuries unaccounted for). A further fragment of the 'Annals of Ireland', declared as 'of high historical importance', furnishes details of the activities of Robert Bruce. Gilbert, throughout, provides English side-notes to the Latin text. These, together with the helpful summary of contents and index to both volumes, make the work easier to navigate.

Chronicles and Memorials of the Reign of Richard I
  • Volume 1, Itinerarium peregrinorum et gesta Regis Ricardi
  • Edited by William Stubbs
  • Published online:
    05 November 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1864
  • William Stubbs (1824–1901) was an important constitutional medievalist and Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford. This two-volume work, published in 1864–5, was the first of his nineteen editorial contributions to the Rolls Series. It chronicles foreign diplomacy and church affairs during the reign of Richard I, whom Stubbs regarded with disdain. Covering the period 1190–2 especially, Volume 1 presents the most comprehensive contemporary account of the Third Crusade. Transcribed from three separate manuscripts of an early thirteenth-century narrative compiled by Richard de Templo, Canon and Prior of Holy Trinity, London, the work is given in the original Latin. It also includes an eyewitness account of the siege and capture of Lisbon in 1147, allowing for comparison across crusades. A substantial introduction provides commentary on the character and governance of Richard I from one of the most influential historians of the nineteenth century.

Historia Anglorum sive, ut vulgo dicitur, Historia Minor
  • Item ejusdem abbreviatio chronicorum Angliae
  • Volume 2, AD 1189–1245
  • Matthew Paris
  • Edited by Frederic Madden
  • Published online:
    05 November 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1866
  • Sir Frederick Madden (1801–73) was for thirty years Keeper of Manuscripts at the British Library. His edition of the Latin text of Matthew Paris' Historia Anglorum has never been superseded: as Richard Vaughan wrote in 1958, 'it is one of the finest of all those published in the Rolls Series, and it set a standard of careful accuracy and profound scholarship which has seldom been equalled since'. Matthew Paris, a monk at St Albans Abbey from 1217 to 1259, wrote and illustrated the single complete surviving manuscript of this 'English History', which covers the years 1067–1253. Volume 2, covering the period 1189–1245, contains much unique information, including transcripts of important documents like the Magna Carta, which reveals Paris' wide range of interests and unlimited curiosity, along with his very English conservatism and suspicion of royal and papal authority.

Year Books of the Reign of King Edward the First
  • Volume 2, Years XXI and XXII
  • Edited and translated by Alfred J. Horwood
  • Published online:
    05 November 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1873
  • The records of the medieval English courts were compiled into manuscript 'year books', organised by regnal year of the monarch. The year books for the regnal years 20–2 and 30–5 of Edward I (1239–1307) were edited for the Rolls Series by Alfred Horwood (1821–81), and published in five volumes between 1863 and 1879, with translations provided for the Anglo-Norman text. Horwood notes that the quantity of cases is surprising given the size of the population. He attributes this to confidence among the people in the king's justice, but also points out that the law's delays during this period were notorious, and that in 1289 the king had effectively purged most of his judges on the grounds of corruption. This volume, published in 1873, contains cases in the Common Bench and the jurisdiction of Middlesex between 1293 and 1294.

Chronicles of the Reigns of Stephen, Henry II, and Richard I
  • Volume 2, The Fifth Book of the Historia rerum Anglicarum of William of Newburgh, A Continuation of William of Newburgh's History to AD 1298, and the Draco Normannicus of Etienne de Rouen
  • Edited by Richard Howlett
  • Published online:
    05 November 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1885
  • The second volume of this four-volume set of Latin chronicles, edited by Richard Howlett (1841–1917) and published between 1884 and 1889, contains the fifth and final book of the Historia rerum Anglicarum by William of Newburgh (c.1136–c.1198). This book deals with the events of the years 1194–8. The work is continued in a supplement up to the year 1298, compiled by a monk of Furness Abbey. Also included is the Draco Normannicus ('The Norman Standard') of Etienne de Rouen, a monk from Bec Abbey in Normandy. Much of this poem is simply the versification of other sources, but it does possess some historical value, and notably presents King Arthur as a Breton rather than a British ruler. A glossary and index to the first two volumes is included, along with helpful English side-notes to the Latin text.

Cartularium Monasterii de Rameseia
  • Volume 2
  • Edited by William Henry Hart, Ponsonby A. Lyons
  • Published online:
    05 November 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1886
  • 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 2 contains documents 230–509, although they are not arranged chronologically. They include extensive Latin rent rolls, as the abbey held property throughout East Anglia and in London, and Anglo-Saxon charters of Edward the Confessor. English side-notes to the text are provided throughout.

Page 6 of 13