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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 8 of 13

Year Books of the Reign of King Edward the Third
  • Volume 15, Year XX (Second Part)
  • Edited and translated by Luke Owen Pike
  • Published online:
    05 October 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1911
  • 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 Trinity Term, 20 Edward III, to Michaelmas Term, 20 Edward III.

Flores historiarum
  • Volume 1, The Creation to AD 1066
  • Edited by Henry Richards Luard
  • Published online:
    05 October 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1890
  • The nineteenth-century academic and university administrator Henry Richards Luard (1825–91) was a major contributor to the Rolls Series. His edition of the Flores historiarum, published in three volumes in 1890, remains the standard work. This Latin chronicle, compiled at St Albans and Westminster, is largely a version of Matthew Paris's Chronica majora to 1259; subsequent annals are independent and serve as a significant primary source for the last years of Henry III and the reigns of Edward I and Edward II. Following an important introduction describing the surviving manuscripts and the evolution of the chronicle, Volume 1 contains the annals from the Creation to 1066. Luard helpfully prints material derived from the Chronica majora in a smaller typeface, enabling the reader to distinguish at a glance what the compiler of the later chronicle has added. English side-notes to the text are provided throughout.

Monumenta Franciscana
  • Volume 1
  • Edited by J. S. Brewer, Richard Howlett
  • Published online:
    05 October 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1858
  • This two-volume work forms part of a series of scholarly editions, commissioned by the Master of the Rolls, of unpublished chronicles and other original documents relating to Early English history. The documents are reprinted in Latin or Middle English, and are summarised by the editors, whose invaluable prefaces places them in historical context and describe the location and condition of the original manuscripts. Volume 1 (1858) contains documents relating to the earliest establishment of the Franciscan Order. The treatise De adventu of Thomas of Eccleston (fl. c.1231–58), is the only eyewitness source of the settlement and progress of the friars in England; and the letters of the renowned Franciscan scholar, Adam de Marisco (or Marsh, c.1200–59), are important examples of early Franciscan organisation. The volume closes with the register of the establishment of the Minorites in London, and an appendix of other original documents.

Letters and Papers Illustrative of the Reigns of Richard III and Henry VII
  • Volume 1
  • Edited by James Gairdner
  • Published online:
    05 October 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1861
  • This collection, published 1861–3 in the Rolls Series, contains documents from the period 1483 to 1509, when the House of York was replaced by the Tudor dynasty. It was one of many selections of source material on the period 1450–1550 compiled by James Gairdner (1828-1912), a long-serving archivist at the Public Record Office, whose work laid the foundations for much subsequent scholarship in British history. Volume 1 includes a contemporary description of the funeral of Edward IV, almost thirty letters from a previously unpublished manuscript assembled by the Chancellor of England during the short reign of Richard III, and sixty-nine items from the reign of Henry VII, together with an editorial introduction and a chronological summary of its contents. The correspondents, from across Europe, write in many different languages, on topics ranging from international peace talks and commercial treaties to the arrangements for Catherine of Aragon's arrival in England.

Royal and Other Historical Letters Illustrative of the Reign of Henry III
  • From the Originals in the Public Record Office
  • Volume 2, 1236–1272
  • Edited by Walter Waddington Shirley
  • Published online:
    05 October 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1866
  • Part of the Rolls Series of publications of historical documents in the public domain, this two-volume collection, published 1862–6, brings together the most interesting and important correspondence of Henry III, his Court, the nobility and bishops. Transcribed from the fragile originals in the Public Record Office, the letters are given in the original Latin. A chronological table provides dates and details of each letter with a short summary of its contents in English. The editor, Walter Waddington Shirley (1828–66), started his academic career as a mathematician, and ended it as Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Canon at Christ Church, Oxford. This volume covers the latter part of Henry's reign, from 1235 to his death in 1272, years marked by Henry's conflict with his barons as well as with the Scots and French.

Thomae Walsingham, quondam monachi S. Albani, historia Anglicana
  • Volume 1, AD 1272–1381
  • Edited by Henry Thomas Riley
  • Thomas Walsingham
  • Published online:
    05 October 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1863
  • 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 edition of the 'History of England' by Thomas Walsingham (c.1340–c.1422), who supervised the scriptorium at St Albans until 1394, appeared in 1863–4. Riley followed a fifteenth-century manuscript, Arundel M.S. VII, but the appendix to Volume 2 supplies additional material from an earlier manuscript, Brit. Mus. Reg. 13. E. IX. Modern scholars argue that this work, with several others previously published separately, belongs to a larger Chronica majora overseen by Walsingham, and that its complicated manuscript tradition reveals Thomas' changing opinions of Richard II and John of Gaunt. For over a century Riley's edition was acknowledged as authoritative for the central period 1377–92. The text appears in Latin, with English side-notes.

Chronicum Scotorum
  • A Chronicle of Irish Affairs, from the Earliest Times to AD 1135
  • Edited and translated by William M. Hennessy
  • Published online:
    05 October 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1866
  • This chronicle, first published in 1866, is a transcription and translation of a manuscript that gives an account of the earliest-known period of Ireland's history until 1135, describing the leaders and tribes of the Scoti, as the Romans called the inhabitants of the island. Forming part of the Rolls Series of publications of manuscripts concerning the history of Great Britain and Ireland during the Middle Ages, this work was edited and translated by William Hennessy (c.1829–89), a linguist who was interested in the preservation of the Irish language. His extensive introduction to the text examines the complicated history of the manuscript's previous versions, and his essay has been considered a valuable source for historians. The text has transcriptions of the manuscript in its original Irish and provides corresponding English translations, as well as a glossary.

Narratives of the Expulsion of the English from Normandy, MCCCXLIX–MCCCL
  • Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green
  • Edited by Joseph Stevenson
  • Published online:
    05 October 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1863
  • Historian, archivist and clergyman, Joseph Stevenson (1806–95) was employed by the Historical Manuscripts Commission and served as an editor of the Rolls Series, for which he produced this work in 1863. The work comprises three mid-fifteenth-century narratives which deal with the re-establishment of an independent French monarchy in the final years of the Hundred Years' War. The first, in Latin but not translated, was written by Robert Blondel (c.1390–1460), a reliable source and influential advocate of Charles VII. It recounts events from the capture of Fougères to the English expulsion following the loss of Cherbourg. The second, by Jacques le Bouvier, in French accompanied by a translation, provides a complementary narrative to Blondel's. Both were printed for the first time here. Finally, Stevenson included a translated record of Anglo-French negotiations, first printed in 1454. Together, these documents offer insight into a pivotal period in diplomatic affairs.

Descriptive Catalogue of Materials Relating to the History of Great Britain and Ireland to the End of the Reign of Henry VII
  • Volume 2, From AD 1066 to AD 1200
  • Edited by Thomas Duffus Hardy
  • Published online:
    05 October 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1865
  • 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 (consists 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. Volume 2, published in 1865, provides historical sources for the period between the Norman Conquest and the first year of the reign of King John. It also includes an index for the first and second volumes.

Historia et cartularium Monasterii Sancti Petri Gloucestriae
  • Volume 3
  • Edited by William Henry Hart
  • Published online:
    05 October 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1867
  • The abbey of St Peter, which later became Gloucester Cathedral, had its origins in the seventh century and was re-established in the eleventh. It benefited considerably from Norman patronage, growing in importance, size and wealth. Henry III was crowned there in 1216, and it is where Edward II was buried. It subsequently became a place of pilgrimage, and received several benefactions from Edward III. Volume 3 of the abbey's records, edited by W. H. Hart and published in 1867, contains charters 909–1029, an appendix and glossary, and an index to the three volumes. There are detailed manorial extents dating from the 1260s, and an undated treatise on the management of manors. The volume ends with an assortment of legal and other documents from a range of dates, including sixteenth-century insertions. The cartulary is a valuable source of information on medieval manorial landholding in the West Country.

Gesta abbatum monasterii Sancti Albani
  • A Thoma Walsingham, regnante Ricardo Secundo, compilata
  • Volume 3, AD 1349–1411
  • Edited by Henry Thomas Riley
  • Thomas Walsingham
  • Published online:
    05 October 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1869
  • Between 1863 and 1876, the Rolls Series published several works about the abbey of St Albans, edited by Henry Thomas Riley (1816–78) under the rubric 'Chronica monasterii S. Albani'. This account of the achievements of its abbots was compiled and enlarged by Thomas Walsingham (c.1340–c.1422), who supervised the scriptorium at St Albans until 1394, and wrote several other historical works. It appeared in three volumes between 1867 and 1869. The early part of the Gesta reworks earlier accounts including that by Matthew Paris (d.1259), but the section covering 1308–93 was composed by Walsingham himself and is an important primary source for fourteenth-century English history. Volume 3 covers Thomas's own lifetime, from 1349 onwards, and includes an anonymous continuation to 1411. The main text is in Latin, with English side-notes. There are several passages in Anglo-Norman, for which a full English translation is provided.

Year Books of the Reign of King Edward the Third
  • Volume 12, Years XVIII and XIX
  • Edited and translated by Luke Owen Pike
  • Published online:
    05 October 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1905
  • 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, 18 Edward III, to Hilary Term, 19 Edward III.

Gesta Regis Henrici Secundi benedicti abbatis. The Chronicle of the Reigns of Henry II and Richard I, AD 1169–1192
  • Known Commonly under the Name of Benedict of Peterborough
  • Volume 2
  • Edited by William Stubbs
  • Published online:
    05 October 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1867
  • This chronicle begins in 1169: it covers the accession of Richard I in 1189 and ends in the Spring of 1192. It is a crucial source of information on the reign of Henry II and consists of annals and a wide variety of documents, presented here in the original Latin. The chronicle was originally attributed to Benedict of Peterborough (c.1135–93), who kept the manuscript in his library. This was disputed by the scholar William Stubbs (1825–1901), who edited this work for the Rolls Series in 1867. It is now widely accepted that the author was Roger of Hoveden (d.1201/2), clerk to Henry II and present during Richard I's journey to take part in the Third Crusade. Volume 1 includes extensive historiographical commentary and appendices. Volume 2 includes extensive commentary on the governance of Henry II.

Annales monasterii S. Albani AD 1421–1440
  • A Johanne Amundesham, monacho, ut videtur, conscripti
  • Volume 1
  • Edited by Henry Thomas Riley
  • John Amundesham
  • Published online:
    05 October 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1870
  • 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. These annals, and a short chronicle, whose attribution to the shadowy John Amundesham seemed doubtful even in Riley's day, appeared in two volumes in 1870–1. They describe events in the first half of the fifteenth century, during the first abbacy of John of Whethamstede, and record fascinating information about the early reign of the boy king Henry VI. Topics covered in Volume 1 include a deputation of respectable women complaining about the behaviour of the Duke of Gloucester, relations between the Pope and Byzantium, visits from dignitaries, the abbot's travels in Europe, disasters, drownings, and the suppression of certain systems of weights. The book also contains occasional verse written by the abbot. The Latin text is accompanied by an English introduction and side-notes.

Thomae Walshingham, quondam monachi S. Albani historia Anglicana
  • Volume 2, AD 1381–1422
  • Edited by Henry Thomas Riley
  • Thomas Walsingham
  • Published online:
    05 October 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1864
  • 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 edition of the 'History of England' by Thomas Walsingham (c.1340–c.1422), who supervised the scriptorium at St Albans until 1394, appeared in 1863–4. Riley followed a fifteenth-century manuscript, Arundel M.S. VII, but the appendix to Volume 2 supplies additional material from an earlier manuscript, Brit. Mus. Reg. 13. E. IX. Modern scholars argue that this work, with several others previously published separately, belongs to a larger Chronica majora overseen by Walsingham, and that its complicated manuscript tradition reveals Thomas' changing opinions of Richard II and John of Gaunt. For over a century Riley's edition was acknowledged as authoritative for the central period 1377–92. The text appears in Latin, with English side-notes.

Ricardi de Cirencestria speculum historiale de gestis regum Angliae
  • Volume 1, AD 447–871
  • Richard of Cirencester
  • Edited by John E. B. Mayor
  • Published online:
    05 October 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1863
  • Richard of Cirencester (c.1335–1400) wrote his Latin history of the deeds of the English kings while he was a Benedictine monk at St Peter's, Westminster. His work is largely unoriginal and derivative of other historians, but it does contain valuable information about Westminster Abbey, as well as a full account of the saints whose tombs were to be seen in the abbey church. The fourth (and last) book concentrates solely on the reign and deeds of Edward the Confessor. Although Richard expresses an intention to continue his story in a fifth book, beginning with William the Conqueror, there is no evidence that he ever did so. This first volume of a two-volume work, edited by the scholar John Eyton Bickersteth Mayor (1825–1910) and published in 1863, covers the period from the legendary accession of Vortigern in 447 up to the death of Ethelred of Wessex in 871.

Royal and Other Historical Letters Illustrative of the Reign of Henry III
  • From the Originals in the Public Record Office
  • Volume 1, 1216–1235
  • Edited by Walter Waddington Shirley
  • Published online:
    05 October 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1862
  • Part of the Rolls Series of publications of historical documents in the public domain, this two-volume collection, published 1862–6, brings together the most interesting and important correspondence of Henry III, his Court, the nobility and bishops. Transcribed from the fragile originals in the Public Record Office, the letters are given in the original Latin. A chronological table provides dates and details of each letter with a short summary of its contents in English. The editor, Walter Waddington Shirley (1828–66), started his academic career as a mathematician, and ended it as Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Canon at Christ Church, Oxford. This volume covers the period of Henry's reign to 1235. The letters offer insights into Henry's foreign and domestic policy and show the boy king coming of age and making his mark on his realm.

Eadmeri historia novorum in Anglia
  • Et, opuscula duo de vita Sancti Anselmi et quibusdam miraculis ejus
  • Eadmer
  • Edited by Martin Rule
  • Published online:
    05 October 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1884
  • A monk of Christ Church, Canterbury, and the closest companion of St Anselm, Eadmer (c.1060–c.1126) witnessed the archbishop's disputes with William II and Henry I and accompanied him twice into exile. This edition of Anselm's biography, which Eadmer began to write during those years of exile, was published by the Rolls Series in 1884. With English side-notes to the main Latin text, it includes the Historia novorum, remarkable for its use of direct speech in relating the life of Anselm and his controversial relations with the monarchy. The Vita is a record of his private conversations, to which Eadmer attached a series of posthumous miracles. Eadmer was ordered to destroy the manuscripts by Anselm around 1100, but fortunately he retained his notes. The work is the best contemporary life of the saint, but also offers a history of Canterbury and a zealous defence of Anglo-Saxon tradition.

Year Books of the Reign of King Edward the First
  • Volume 4, Years XXXII and XXXIII
  • Edited and translated by Alfred J. Horwood
  • Published online:
    05 October 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1864
  • 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 1864, is arranged chronologically by the four law terms, and covers the years 1304–5.

Gesta abbatum monasterii Sancti Albani
  • A Thoma Walsingham, regnante Ricardo Secundo, compilata
  • Volume 2, AD 1290–1349
  • Edited by Henry Thomas Riley
  • Thomas Walsingham
  • Published online:
    05 October 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1867
  • Between 1863 and 1876, the Rolls Series published several works about the abbey of St Albans, edited by Henry Thomas Riley (1816–78) under the rubric 'Chronica monasterii S. Albani'. This account of the achievements of its abbots was compiled and enlarged by Thomas Walsingham (c.1340–c.1422), who supervised the scriptorium at St Albans until 1394, and wrote several other historical works. It appeared in three volumes between 1867 and 1869. The early part of the Gesta reworks earlier accounts including that by Matthew Paris (d.1259), but the section covering 1308–93 was composed by Walsingham himself and is an important primary source for fourteenth-century English history. Volume 2, covering 1290–1349, records events that include a fire in the abbot's chamber and a visit to the papal court. The main text is in Latin, with English side-notes, but a rule for nuns appears in Anglo-Norman.

Page 8 of 13