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This series includes pioneering editions of medieval historical accounts by eye-witnesses and contemporaries, collections of source materials such as charters and letters and works that applied new historiographical methods to the interpretation of the European middle ages. The nineteenth century saw an upsurge of interest in medieval manuscripts, texts and artefacts, and the enthusiastic efforts of scholars and antiquaries made a large body of material available in print for the first time. Although many of the analyses have been superseded, they provide fascinating evidence of the academic practices of their time, while a considerable number of texts have still not been re-edited and are still widely consulted.

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211 results in Cambridge Library Collection - Medieval History

Page 1 of 11

Cartulaire de l'Abbaye de Saint-Bertin
  • Edited by Benjamin Edme Charles Guérard
  • Published online:
    05 December 2015
    Print publication:
    16 September 2010
    First published in:
    1841
  • The Cartulary of the Abbey of Saint-Bertin, St-Omer, represents one of the earliest and most important resources for Carolingian monastic life and the era of Benedictine reform. Begun by the monk Folquin around 962, the collection of charters, arranged chronologically, extends from the seventh century until 1178. It remains an invaluable witness to the political, economic, and diplomatic history of this powerful abbey, as well as to the historiographic impulses of its compilers. One of the first cartularies to arrange legal and administrative documents in chronicle form, the Cartulary of the Abbey of Saint-Bertin makes a powerful claim for the antiquity and coherence of its institutional origins. The text was first published in 1841 with the Cartulary of the Abbey of the Holy Trinity, Rouen; this reissue makes both, together with an 1867 appendix of addenda and corrections published by François Morand, available again to scholars.

The Paston Letters, A.D. 1422–1509
  • Volume 4
  • Edited by James Gairdner
  • Published online:
    05 November 2015
    Print publication:
    02 September 2010
    First published in:
    1904
  • Archivist and historian James Gairdner, C.B. (1828–1912) began his career in the Public Record Office at 18 and retired as assistant keeper forty-seven years later. The author of numerous historical works, Gairdner is best-known for his archival and editorial work, which forms his most significant contributions to historical scholarship. He oversaw almost entirely the publication of Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII. The Paston Letters represent a similarly important work. The Letters reveal the fortunes of the Norfolk Paston family and of their tumultuous time. Beginning in the reign of Henry V and continuing through the reigns of Edward IV, Richard III, and Henry VII, the Letters are of great interest to early modern historians and literary critics. Volume 4 (1461–1468) continues with the reign of Edward IV and the War of the Roses.

The Paston Letters, A.D. 1422–1509
  • Volume 6
  • Edited by James Gairdner
  • Published online:
    05 November 2015
    Print publication:
    02 September 2010
    First published in:
    1904
  • Archivist and historian James Gairdner, C.B. (1828–1912) began his career in the Public Record Office at 18 and retired as assistant keeper forty-seven years later. The author of numerous historical works, Gairdner is best-known for his archival and editorial work, which forms his most significant contributions to historical scholarship. He oversaw almost entirely the publication of Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII The Paston Letters represent a similarly important work. The Letters reveal the fortunes of the Norfolk Paston family and of their tumultuous time. Beginning in the reign of Henry V and continuing through the reigns of Edward IV, Richard III, and Henry VII, the Letters are of great interest to early modern historians and literary critics. Volume 6 (1478–1506) covers the reigns of Edward IV, Edward V, Richard III, and Henry VII, concluding with an Appendix of the family's wills.

Bracton’s Note Book
  • A Collection of Cases Decided in the King’s Courts during the Reign of Henry the Third
  • Volume 3, Text
  • Henry de Bracton
  • Edited by Frederic William Maitland
  • Published online:
    05 November 2015
    Print publication:
    31 October 2010
    First published in:
    1887
  • Henry of Bracton (or Bratton) (c. 1210–1268) was a jurist who worked as a Justice of Assize in the south-west of England, and was the author of the first systematic discussion of English common law. The manuscripts which form Bracton's Note Book were discovered in the British Museum in 1884 by Vinogradoff, and were edited in three volumes in 1887 by Maitland. These volumes contain a collection of over 2,000 lawsuits from the thirteenth century, each with a description of how the law should be applied to the particular circumstances of each case. This is the first example of case law in English legal writing, and its usefulness as a record of legal precedent probably led to the creation of Year Rolls (official records of court cases) from 1268. Volume 3 contains the texts of Pleas in the Bench and before the King from 1224 to 1240.

The Paston Letters, A.D. 1422–1509
  • Volume 2
  • Edited by James Gairdner
  • Published online:
    05 November 2015
    Print publication:
    02 September 2010
    First published in:
    1904
  • Archivist and historian James Gairdner, C.B. (1828–1912) began his career in the Public Record Office at 18 and retired as assistant keeper forty-seven years later. The author of numerous historical works, Gairdner is best-known for his archival and editorial work, which forms his most significant contributions to historical scholarship. He oversaw almost entirely the publication of Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII. The Paston Letters represent a similarly important work. The Letters reveal the fortunes of the Norfolk Paston family and of their tumultuous time. Beginning in the reign of Henry V and continuing through the reigns of Edward IV, Richard III, and Henry VII, the Letters are of great interest to early modern historians and literary critics. In Volume 2 (1424–1454), Gairdner includes some documents from the reign of Henry V before turning to letters written during Henry VI's reign.

Cartulaire de l'Abbaye de Savigny
  • Suivi du Petit Cartulaire de l’Abbaye d’Ainay
  • Volume 1, Cartulaire de Savigny
  • Edited by Auguste Bernard
  • Published online:
    05 November 2015
    Print publication:
    23 September 2010
    First published in:
    1853
  • The son of a printer and bookshop owner, Auguste Bernard (1811–1868) quit his studies at the age of seventeen to become a typographer at the Parisian printing house of Firmin Didot, before becoming an editor with the royal printer. Bernard spent his leisure time collecting documents on the history of the people and customs of the ancient province of Forez (roughly, the area of the Loire valley). He is best known for his histories of typography and printing in France and Europe, his most celebrated work being his biography of Geoffroy Tory, the first French royal printer. He published in 1853 this collection in two volumes, containing the first printed transcriptions of the medieval charters of the Abbey of Savigny in northern France and the Abbey of Ainay in Lyon. Volume 1 contains the charters of the Abbey of Savigny, founded in the twelfth century.

The Paston Letters, A.D. 1422–1509
  • Volume 5
  • Edited by James Gairdner
  • Published online:
    05 November 2015
    Print publication:
    02 September 2010
    First published in:
    1904
  • Archivist and historian James Gairdner, C.B. (1828–1912) began his career in the Public Record Office at 18 and retired as assistant keeper forty-seven years later. The author of numerous historical works, Gairdner is best-known for his archival and editorial work, which forms his most significant contributions to historical scholarship. He oversaw almost entirely the publication of Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII. The Paston Letters represent a similarly important work. The Letters reveal the fortunes of the Norfolk Paston family and of their tumultuous time. Beginning in the reign of Henry V and continuing through the reigns of Edward IV, Richard III, and Henry VII, the Letters are of great interest to early modern historians and literary critics. Volume 5 (1469–1478) continues to cover the War of the Roses, with letters from Edward's reign, Henry VI's restoration, and Edward IV's own restoration.

Bracton’s Note Book
  • A Collection of Cases Decided in the King’s Courts during the Reign of Henry the Third
  • Volume 2, Text
  • Henry de Bracton
  • Edited by Frederic William Maitland
  • Published online:
    05 November 2015
    Print publication:
    31 October 2010
    First published in:
    1887
  • Henry of Bracton (or Bratton) (c. 1210–1268) was a jurist who worked as a Justice of Assize in the south-west of England, and was the author of the first systematic discussion of English common law. The manuscripts which form Bracton's Note Book were discovered in the British Museum in 1884 by Vinogradoff, and were edited in three volumes in 1887 by Maitland. These volumes contain a collection of over 2,000 law cases from the thirteenth century, each with a description of how the law should be applied to the particular circumstances of each case. This is the first example of case law in English legal writing, and its usefulness as a record of legal precedent probably led to the creation of Year Rolls (official records of court cases) from 1268. Volume 2 contains the texts of Pleas in the Bench from 1218 to 1234.

The Laws of the Earliest English Kings
  • Edited and translated by F. L. Attenborough
  • Published online:
    05 November 2015
    Print publication:
    30 April 2015
    First published in:
    1922
  • Frederick Levi Attenborough (1887–1973) studied at Cambridge and was a Fellow of Emmanuel College between 1920 and 1925. He later became the Principal of University College, Leicester. In 1922 Cambridge University Press published his edition of the early Anglo-Saxon laws, with a facing-page modern English translation. A few years earlier, Felix Lieberman had published his monumental three-volume Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, which is still the definitive specialist edition of the laws (as Attenborough rightly predicted), and which is also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection. Attenborough explains that his work is for social and legal historians who do not read German, or do not require the full critical apparatus and contextual material provided by Lieberman. Attenborough's book covers the laws from Aethelbert to Aethelstan; in 1925 Cambridge published a continuation by Agnes Robertson, The Laws of the Kings of England from Edmund to Henry I, which is also available.

The Paston Letters, A.D. 1422–1509
  • Volume 3
  • Edited by James Gairdner
  • Published online:
    05 November 2015
    Print publication:
    02 September 2010
    First published in:
    1904
  • Archivist and historian James Gairdner, C.B. (1828–1912) began his career in the Public Record Office at 18 and retired as assistant keeper forty-seven years later. The author of numerous historical works, Gairdner is best-known for his archival and editorial work, which forms his most significant contributions to historical scholarship. He oversaw almost entirely the publication of Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII. The Paston Letters represent a similarly important work. The Letters reveal the fortunes of the Norfolk Paston family and of their tumultuous time. Beginning in the reign of Henry V and continuing through the reigns of Edward IV, Richard III, and Henry VII, the Letters are of great interest to early modern historians and literary critics. Volume 3 (1454–1461) contains letters from Henry VI's reign and the War of the Roses, closing with the accession of Edward IV.

Bracton’s Note Book
  • A Collection of Cases Decided in the King’s Courts during the Reign of Henry the Third
  • Volume 1, Apparatus
  • Henry de Bracton
  • Edited by Frederic William Maitland
  • Published online:
    05 October 2015
    Print publication:
    31 October 2010
    First published in:
    1887
  • Henry of Bracton (or Bratton) (c. 1210–1268) was a jurist who worked as a Justice of Assize in the south-west of England, and was the author of the first systematic discussion of English common law. The manuscripts which form Bracton's Note Book were discovered in the British Museum in 1884 by Vinogradoff, and were edited in three volumes in 1887 by Maitland. These volumes contain a collection of over 2,000 lawsuits from the thirteenth century, each with a description of how the law should be applied to the particular circumstances of each case. This is the first example of case law in English legal writing, and its usefulness as a record of legal precedent probably led to the creation of Year Rolls (official records of court cases) from 1268. Volume 1, 'Apparatus', introduces the texts and gives an account of Bracton's life.

Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen
  • Herausgegeben im Auftrage der Savigny-Stiftung
  • Volume 2, Wörterbuch, Rechts- und Sachglossar
  • Edited and translated by Felix Lieberman
  • Published online:
    05 September 2015
    Print publication:
    30 April 2015
    First published in:
    1906
  • This edition of the laws promulgated by successive Anglo-Saxon rulers over a period of five centuries was published in three volumes between 1903 and 1916 by the German historian Felix Lieberman (1851–1925), and is still regarded as authoritative. This unique body of early medieval legal writing, unparalleled in other Germanic languages, provides valuable source material for scholars of Old English and of legal history, and Lieberman's thorough engagement with the manuscripts has never been surpassed. Volume 2 contains a dictionary of the Old English, Latin and French words found in the texts in Volume 1. The dictionary is presented in one alphabetical sequence, and is followed by a German glossary of legal terms listing references in the texts, other medieval works and later scholarship. Frederick Attenborough's The Laws of the Early English Kings (1922), providing a modern English translation of early Anglo-Saxon laws, is also reissued in this series.

Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen
  • Herausgegeben im Auftrage der Savigny-Stiftung
  • Volume 3, Einleitung zu jedem Stück; Erklärungen zu einzelnen Stellen
  • Edited and translated by Felix Lieberman
  • Published online:
    05 September 2015
    Print publication:
    30 April 2015
    First published in:
    1916
  • This edition of the laws promulgated by successive Anglo-Saxon rulers over a period of five centuries was published in three volumes between 1903 and 1916 by the German historian Felix Lieberman (1851–1925), and is still regarded as authoritative. This unique body of early medieval legal writing, unparalleled in other Germanic languages, provides valuable source material for scholars of Old English and of legal history, and Lieberman's thorough engagement with the manuscripts has never been surpassed. Volume 3 provides introductions to each set of laws presented in Volume 1, and detailed line-by-line explanatory notes that complement the dictionary and glossary of terms found in Volume 2. Frederick Attenborough's The Laws of the Early English Kings (1922), providing a modern English translation of early Anglo-Saxon laws, is also reissued in this series.

Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen
  • Herausgegeben im Auftrage der Savigny-Stiftung
  • Volume 1, Text und Übersetzung
  • Edited and translated by Felix Lieberman
  • Published online:
    05 September 2015
    Print publication:
    30 April 2015
    First published in:
    1903
  • This edition of the laws promulgated by successive Anglo-Saxon rulers over a period of five centuries was published in three volumes between 1903 and 1916 by the German historian Felix Lieberman (1851–1925), and is still regarded as authoritative. This unique body of early medieval legal writing, unparalleled in other Germanic languages, provides valuable source material for scholars of Old English and of legal history, and Lieberman's thorough engagement with the manuscripts has never been surpassed. His preface explains that owing to factors such as the extreme variability of Old English orthography, and the existence of both Latin and Old English versions of the same material, a traditional edition using just one base manuscript with a critical apparatus would have been too unwieldy. Volume 1 introduces the manuscripts, and gives several parallel versions of each text in Old English and Latin with a facing translation into modern German. Frederick Attenborough's The Laws of the Early English Kings (1922) is also reissued in this series.

I libri commemoriali della Republica di Venezia
  • Regestri
  • Volume 8
  • Edited by Riccardo Predelli
  • Published online:
    05 August 2015
    Print publication:
    08 March 2012
    First published in:
    1914
  • This eight-volume set of summaries of state documents (commemoriali) of the Republic of Venice, compiled and edited by Riccardo Predelli (1842–1909), appeared between 1876 and 1914 as part of a wider series, 'Monumenti Storici', devoted to publishing the content of the nine-hundred-year-old archives of Venice at a time when the original documents seemed in danger of being lost through decay. Predelli notes in his preface that a similar concern was expressed by Doge Iacopo Tiepolo, who in 1248 ordered a commission to sort and codify the legal statutes of the city, which were in complete confusion. The works, arranged roughly in chronological order, provide summaries (and sometimes complete documents) of the political, diplomatic, commercial and legal activities of the Republic. Volume 8, completed after Predelli's death by Pietro Bosmin and published in 1914, contains books 29–33 of the Commemoriali, covering the period from the 1570s to 1787.

The Imperial Administrative System in the Ninth Century
  • With a Revised Text of the Kletorologion of Philotheos
  • J. B. Bury
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    05 March 2015
    First published in:
    1911
  • The classical historian J. B. Bury (1861–1927) was the author of a history of Greece (also reissued in this series) which served as a standard textbook for over a century. He also wrote on the later history of the Roman empire, and, in this 1911 work, examines the text (of which he provides an edition) of the 'Kletorologion' of Philotheos, an otherwise unknown official at the court of Byzantine Emperor Leo VI in the late ninth century. The work is a guide to precedence and court hierarchy, which at this time were of great political and social importance. Bury uses it to throw light on an administrative process in a period from which few other administrative documents have survived, but also works backwards from it to the far better recorded period of the reign of Justinian, demonstrating the likely developments of the imperial system in the intervening three centuries.

A History of the Eastern Roman Empire
  • From the Fall of Irene to the Accession of Basil I (A.D. 802–867)
  • J. B. Bury
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    05 March 2015
    First published in:
    1912
  • The classical historian J. B. Bury (1861–1927) was the author of a history of Greece which was a standard textbook for over a century. He also wrote on the later history of the Roman empire, and, in this 1912 work, examines the Byzantine empire in the ninth century. The book is a continuation of his two-volume History of the Later Roman Empire of 1889, which covers the period from 395 to 800 (and is also reissued in this series), and reflects Bury's belief that the century-long so-called Amorian epoch 'is not a mere epilogue, and is much more than a prologue' between the better-known periods of Byzantine history that preceded and followed it. In this period, iconoclasm again became a cause of civil strife, and wars on the eastern frontier were a strain on the military resources of the empire, while at least two of the emperors were murdered.

The Forme of Cury, a Roll of Ancient English Cookery
  • Compiled, about AD 1390, by the Master-Cooks of King Richard II
  • Edited by Samuel Pegge
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    11 December 2014
    First published in:
    1780
  • One of the oldest surviving English-language cookbooks, this fascinating work was originally compiled in the late fourteenth century by the master cooks at the court of Richard II. It contains nearly 200 recipes for the preparation of everyday dishes as well as elaborate banquets. Here we find roasts, stews, jellies and custards alongside dishes that call for highly prized spices or animals such as curlews and porpoises. This 1780 transcription, from the manuscript then belonging to Gustavus Brander and now in the British Library, was made by the Anglican clergyman and antiquary Samuel Pegge (1704–96). Ordained in 1730 and elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1751, Pegge briefly discusses in his preface the history of cooking since antiquity, while his annotations to the text elucidate the medieval vocabulary. Among related items forming an intriguing appendix are rolls of provisions from the time of Henry VIII.

Voyages d'Ibn Batoutah
  • Texte Arabe, accompagné d'une traduction
  • Volume 3
  • Ibn Batuta
  • Edited and translated by Charles Defrémery, Beniamino Raffaello Sanguinetti
  • Published online:
    05 March 2015
    Print publication:
    02 February 2012
    First published in:
    1855
  • This four-volume edition of the Arabic text of the Journey of the Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta (1304–68/9), with a French translation, was published in 1853–8. In 1325, Ibn Battuta, who came from a family of Islamic jurists in Tangier, set out to make the pilgrimage to Mecca - the beginning of a journey that would last for twenty-four years and take him as far as China. In Volume 3, having decided to visit the court of the Turkic sultan Muhammad bin Tughluq at Delhi, he travels via Bukhara and Samarkand to Afghanistan and then across the Hindu Kush into India. At Delhi, he was given the post of Judge by the sultan, and he stayed at the court for six years. He provides a history of the kingdom of Delhi and an account of Tughluq's reign, describing both his wisdom and generosity and his 'acts of violence and criminal deeds'.

The Verses Formerly Inscribed on Twelve Windows in the Choir of Canterbury Cathedral
  • Reprinted, from the Manuscript, with Introduction and Notes
  • Edited by Montague Rhodes James
  • Published online:
    05 March 2015
    Print publication:
    31 October 2010
    First published in:
    1901
  • M. R. James (1862–1936) is probably best remembered as a writer of chilling ghost stories, but he was an outstanding scholar of medieval literature and palaeography, who served both as Provost of King's College, Cambridge, and as Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum. His short book from 1901 on the texts inscribed in the famous stained-glass windows of Canterbury Cathedral is paired here with an anonymous guide to the windows published in 1897. Its author is believed to have been Emily Williams, whose aim was 'to give some account of the changes which have taken place in the arrangement of the old painted glass' during the major restoration which was taking place throughout the nineteenth century. The preface is by Dean Farrar, the author of the popular morality tale for children, Eric, or Little by Little, and all proceeds were to go to the Cathedral Restoration Fund.

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