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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 7 of 13

Materials for a History of the Reign of Henry VII
  • From Original Documents Preserved in the Public Record Office
  • Volume 2
  • Edited by William Campbell
  • Published online:
    05 November 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1877
  • William Campbell (1824–86) compiled this two-volume work for the Rolls Series between 1873 and 1877. It covers the first five years of the reign of Henry VII, following his accession to the throne after the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. The contemporary material is rich in information regarding Henry's governance and character, including his meticulous approach to financial matters and his penchant for splendour. Volume 2 brings together a variety of illustrative documents, presented in English. Covering the period between August 1486 and December 1490, it uses material taken from a number of sources, including the Lancaster Roll and the Roll of the Great Wardrobe. The subject matter is varied, and demonstrates Henry's political and domestic concerns in the opening years of his reign. This is a valuable resource for researchers of the early Tudors, providing insight into Henry's reign in its early, and most anxious, stages of development.

Chronicon Henrici Knighton vel Cnitthon, Monachi Leycestrensis
  • Volume 2
  • Henry Knighton
  • Edited by Joseph Rawson Lumby
  • Published online:
    05 November 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1895
  • This two-volume work was published as part of the Rolls Series between 1889 and 1895. A history of England, it deals principally with the period from 1066 until the death of author Henry Knighton around 1396. An introductory section of material largely drawn from Ranulf Higden adds what Knighton describes as necessary context to the recounting of the Norman Conquest. Volume 2 begins in 1337 at the start of the Hundred Years' War and closes in a time of comparative peace under the rule of Richard II. Included in this volume is Joseph Rawson Lumby's editorial introduction, essentially a précis of the text in which he details expansions upon and divergences from Knighton's sources as well as instances of independent authority. Lumby (1831–95) has been criticised for oversights, errors and omissions. Nevertheless, his detailed contents and marginalia make the Latin text more accessible to the modern reader.

Chronicles of the Reigns of Edward I and Edward II
  • Volume 2
  • Edited by William Stubbs
  • Published online:
    05 November 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1883
  • This second of two volumes of Latin chronicles illustrating the reigns of Edward I (1272–1307) and Edward II (1307–27) was published in 1883. Included here is the Commendatio lamentabilis, a laudatory piece written by John of London very soon after the death of Edward I. This is followed by a Vita of Edward II written by an unknown monk of Malmesbury, a narration of his deeds (Gesta Edwardi de Carnarvan) by a canon of Bridlington, with another on the deeds of Edward III, and a life and death (Vita et mors) of Edward II attributed to Sir Thomas de la Moore. The often corrupt texts were restored, edited and provided with English side-notes by William Stubbs (1825–1901), whose lengthy introduction provides a wealth of detail about the possible writers, the historical context of each chronicle, and the history of the transmission and publication of the manuscripts.

Registra quorundam abbatum monasterii S. Albani, qui saeculo XVmo floruere
  • Volume 2, Registra Johannis Whethamstede, Wilhelmi Albon, et Wilhelmi Wallingforde
  • Edited by Henry Thomas Riley
  • John Whethamstede
  • Published online:
    05 November 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1873
  • 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 two-volume contribution, covering the later fifteenth century, appeared in 1872–3. Volume 2 contains material from MS. Rawlinson B. 332 (some of whose outer leaves were lost) relating to events from 1459 to 1488, beginning with records of church appointments during the final years of the abbacy of John Whethamstede, and covers the abbacies of William Albon (1465–76) and William of Wallingford (from 1476). Volume 2 also includes an introduction, a detailed summary of the content, and English side-notes to the main Latin text. The appendices include documents from the St Albans almoner's office (MS. Lansdowne 375) and letters by Whethamstede (Cotton Claud. D. i), an index to both volumes, and a glossary.

Chronica Monasterii de Melsa, a Fundatione Usque ad Annum 1396
  • Volume 2
  • Thomas de Burton
  • Edited by E. A. Bond
  • Published online:
    05 November 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1867
  • The Cistercian abbey of Meaux in Yorkshire was founded in 1150 as a daughter house of Fountains. Thomas de Burton (d.1437) was bursar in 1394 and abbot from 1396 to 1399. His chronicle survives in two versions: the earlier, finished around 1396, and a revision completed around 1402, to which later additions were made. The work is one of the most important later medieval Cistercian chronicles, providing detailed information about the history and administration of Meaux, as well as local and national historical events. The surviving library catalogue reveals the sources available to Burton, and he drew extensively on the abbey archives. The work is arranged by the rule of each abbot, with subdivisions in each section for local and more general history, arranged by subject matter. Volume 2 covers the period 1235 to 1339, with a greater proportion of non-monastic material included than in the earlier sections.

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.

Chronica Monasterii de Melsa, a Fundatione usque ad Annum 1396
  • Volume 3
  • Thomas de Burton
  • Edited by E. A. Bond
  • Published online:
    05 November 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1868
  • The Cistercian abbey of Meaux in Yorkshire was founded in 1150 as a daughter house of Fountains. Thomas de Burton (d.1437) was bursar in 1394 and abbot from 1396 to 1399. His chronicle survives in two versions: the earlier, finished around 1396, and a revision completed around 1402, to which later additions were made. The work is one of the most important later medieval Cistercian chronicles, providing detailed information about the history and administration of Meaux, as well as local and national historical events. The surviving library catalogue reveals the sources available to Burton, and he drew extensively on the abbey archives. The work is arranged by the rule of each abbot, with subdivisions in each section for local and more general history, arranged by subject matter. Volume 3 covers the years 1339–1406, including Burton's own abbacy, and contains the catalogue of books and other treasures of the abbey, an index and glossary.

The Black Book of the Admiralty
  • With an Appendix
  • Volume 3
  • Edited by Travers Twiss
  • Published online:
    05 November 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1874
  • The Black Book of the Admiralty is a late medieval Old French manuscript containing a variety of documents relating to the administrative and legal responsibilities of the office of the lord high admiral, with later additions relating to the court of chivalry and the laws of war. The edition of this manuscript produced by Sir Travers Twiss (1809–97) between 1871 and 1876 filled only part of one of four volumes. The remaining content ranges from the late thirteenth-century borough custumal of Ipswich and other later medieval general custumals from south-west France, to a variety of different codes of maritime law also from south-west France, Catalonia, southern Italy, the Baltic and the crusader kingdom of Jerusalem. Volume 3 contains a further version of the rules of maritime legal custom associated with Oleron, as well as a much longer text of maritime law from a fourteenth-century manuscript written in Catalan and probably compiled in Barcelona.

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.

Chronica majora
  • Volume 7, Index. Glossary
  • Matthew Paris
  • Edited by Henry Richards Luard
  • Published online:
    05 November 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1883
  • 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. Volume 7 contains a comprehensive index, a glossary, and errata and addenda.

Chronicon Abbatiae Ramesiensis a saec. X usque ad an. circiter 1200
  • Edited by W. Dunn Macray
  • Published online:
    05 November 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1886
  • Ramsey Abbey, Cambridgeshire, was founded in 969 and rapidly became one of the richest and most important Benedictine houses in the country, famous for its school and library. The Chronicon was compiled around 1170, with the addition of some later charters up to 1200. The author is unknown. Parts 1–3 cover the foundation of the abbey, the miracles of St Oswald, and a collection of charters relating to grants to the abbey prior to 1066. Part 4 is a register of legal documents dating from 974 to 1200. The contents are valuable not just for the history of Ramsey, but as illustrations of twelfth-century legal practice. The appendices include a list of abbots to 1471, the catalogue of the monastic library, and a continuation of the history of the abbey from 1285 to 1332. This edition was originally published in 1886, with a glossary, index and English side-notes to the Latin text. The abbey's three-volume cartulary is also reissued in this series.

Matthaei Parisiensis Chronica majora
  • Volume 4, AD 1240 to AD 1247
  • Matthew Paris
  • Edited by Henry Richards Luard
  • Published online:
    05 November 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1877
  • 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 4, covering 1240–7, includes royal letters, exchequer records and papal documents, alongside vibrant and opinionated passages about taxation and royal extortion.

Chronicon Angliæ, ab Anno Domini 1328 usque ad Annum 1388
  • Auctore Monacho quodam Sancti Albani
  • Edited by Edward Maunde Thompson
  • Published online:
    05 November 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1874
  • Thomas of Walsingham (c.1340–c.1422) was a monk of St Alban's abbey whose Latin chronicle of the years 1328–88 was long thought lost. It was rediscovered by chance and edited by Edward Maunde Thompson (1840–1929), whose edition, published in 1874 with English side-notes, is based on a Harleian manuscript he found in the British Museum, supplemented by Bodleian and Cottonian manuscripts. Walsingham's chronicle is notable for its scurrilous attacks on John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster and father of Henry IV. This scandalous material accounts for its suppression by the monks of St Alban's, who would have been fearful of offending the Plantagenet dynasty. Thompson's introduction provides a full history of the discovery and comparison of the manuscript sources, a discussion of the contents of the chronicle, and two later English texts based on it. A portion of Walsingham's Polychronicon, covering the years 1376–7, is provided as an appendix.

The Historical Collections of Walter of Coventry
  • Volume 2
  • Walter of Coventry
  • Edited by William Stubbs
  • Published online:
    05 November 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1873
  • Little is known about Walter of Coventry (fl.1293) beyond the fact that this substantive historical compilation was prepared either by him or under his direction. Published in two volumes as part of the Rolls Series in 1872–3, it covers the kings of Britain from Brutus to Edward I, with its latest datable event being the Anglo-Scottish agreement of 1293. Although the overwhelming part of the Latin text is drawn directly from such sources as Geoffrey of Monmouth, this is no mere transcript. Editor William Stubbs (1825–1901), Bishop of Oxford and perhaps the leading historian of his day, describes the annals of the reign of King John (which are included here in Volume 2) as 'one of the most valuable contributions in existence to the history of that eventful period'. Stubbs's preface to this volume offers a rich and extensive 'sketch' of John's character and reign.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
  • According to the Several Original Authorities
  • Volume 1, Original Texts
  • Edited and translated by Benjamin Thorpe
  • Published online:
    05 November 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1861
  • Benjamin Thorpe (1781/2–1870) was a scholar of Old English and Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Munich. Through his work, he sought to promote the study of the old vernacular, against the trend of scholarly apathy towards Anglo-Saxon literature. One of his greatest contributions was this two-volume edition, published as part of the Rolls Series in 1861, of the oldest and most important chronological accounts of Anglo-Saxon affairs. Covering the period from Julius Caesar's invasion of Britain to around the accession of Henry II in 1154, this volume brings together seven manuscripts in their entirety, arranged in columns to illustrate variation, and given in the original Old English with notes. As none are the original, the authorship is unknown, although Thorpe argues that several elements indicate the influence of King Alfred (848/9–899) upon the chronicle's compilation. The text provides rich insights into Old English language, dialect and history.

Willelmi Rishanger chronica et annales
  • Regnantibus Henrico Tertio et Edwardo Primo, AD 1259–1307
  • Edited by Henry Thomas Riley
  • William Rishanger
  • Published online:
    05 October 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1865
  • 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'. William Rishanger was a monk at the abbey in the second half of the thirteenth century, but the canon of his writings is still not definitively established as the manuscripts were rebound several times, and much of his output was reworked in later medieval texts. Several items attributed to him in this 1865 publication are preserved, uniquely, in MS. Cotton. Claudius D. vi. The texts record events from Henry III's peace treaty with France in 1259 to the coronation of Robert the Bruce and the English invasion of Scotland in 1306. They include fascinating details about political alliances, ecclesiastical promotions, and the Templars. The Latin texts are accompanied by English side-notes, an introduction, a glossary and an index.

Historia Monasterii S. Augustini Cantuariensis, by Thomas of Elmham, Formerly Monk and Treasurer of that Foundation
  • Thomas of Elmham
  • Edited by Charles Hardwick
  • Published online:
    05 October 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1858
  • Thomas of Elmham (1364–1427?) was treasurer of St Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury, when he compiled this work, which he called the Speculum Augustinianum, around 1414. He planned to give a complete history of the Abbey, and the chronological table covers the period from 597 to 1414, but the main text ends in 806, with a collection of documentary sources from the period 1066 to 1191 appended. His failure to complete the work was probably due to his appointment as Prior of the Cluniac House at Lenton in Nottinghamshire. Elmham made great use of documentary sources in the Abbey's famous library, reproducing and editing original charters, as well as using the work of earlier historians of the House, though, unfortunately, many of the sources he uses were forgeries or corrupt transcripts, produced to support the Abbey's claims to royal and ecclesiastical privileges. This edition by Charles Hardwick was published in 1858.

Year Books of the Reign of King Edward the First
  • Volume 3, Years XXX and XXXI
  • Edited and translated by Alfred J. Horwood
  • Published online:
    05 October 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1863
  • 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 1863, contains reports of cases in the jurisdiction of Cornwall and the Court of Common Pleas between 1302 and 1303.

Year Books of the Reign of King Edward the First
  • Volume 1, Years XX and XXI
  • Edited and translated by Alfred J. Horwood
  • Published online:
    05 October 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1866
  • 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 1866, contains reports of cases in the jurisdictions of Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire and the Common Bench in 1292 and 1293.

The Story of England by Robert Manning of Brunne, AD 1338
  • Volume 1
  • Robert Manning
  • Edited by Frederick James Furnivall
  • Published online:
    05 October 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1887
  • Robert Manning (died c.1338) was a Gilbertine monk from Lincolnshire whose early English verse writings make him a notable forerunner of Chaucer. The first part of his Chronicle or Story of England translates into Middle English rhymed couplets Geoffrey of Monmouth's fabulous Latin history, as retold in the Roman de Brut of Wace, with some additions from Bede. Manning's express purpose is to let the people know which of their kings 'were fools and which were wise'. Beginning with the genealogy of the earliest British kings, he traces the arrival of the Trojan Brutus on British soil, tells of the battles of Arthur and concludes with the death of Cadwaladr in 682. Published as part of a two-volume set in 1887, Volume 1 takes the narrative up to Arthur's time and includes an introduction and modern English side-notes by the scholar Frederick James Furnivall (1825–1910).

Page 7 of 13