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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 11 of 13

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 1
  • Edited by William Stubbs
  • Published online:
    05 August 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.

Year Books of the Reign of King Edward the Third
  • Volume 11, Year XVIII
  • Edited and translated by Luke Owen Pike
  • Published online:
    05 August 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1904
  • 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 Easter Term, 18 Edward III, to Trinity Term, 18 Edward III.

Icelandic Sagas and Other Historical Documents Relating to the Settlements and Descents of the Northmen of the British Isles
  • Volume 1, Orkneyinga Saga and Magnus Saga, with Appendices
  • Edited by Gudbrand Vigfusson
  • Published online:
    05 August 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1887
  • This four-volume set of Icelandic sagas with English translations was prepared between 1887 and 1894 by the celebrated Icelandic scholar Gudbrand Vigfusson (1827–89) and the foremost translator of the day, Sir George Webbe Dasent (1817–96). It includes Orkneyinga saga, a history of the jarls of Orkney from the late ninth century to about 1200, composed in Iceland around 1230 but preserved complete only in the fourteenth-century Flateyjarbók; and Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar, the life of the king of Norway from 1217 to 1263 and the principal source for Norwegian history over this period, in which Hákon's reign put an end to a long civil war. It was written soon after his death by the Icelandic chieftain and historian Sturla Þórðarson at the instigation of the king's son. Volume 1 contains Vigfusson's edition of Orkneyinga saga and two variants of Magnúss saga, the life of St Magnus of Orkney.

Recueil des chroniques et anchiennes istories de la Grant Bretaigne, à present nommé Engleterre
  • Volume 2, From AD 1399 to AD 1422
  • Jean de Wavrin
  • Edited by William Hardy
  • Published online:
    05 August 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1868
  • Part of the Rolls Series of publications 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 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 2, published in 1868, covers the reigns of Henry IV and Henry V.

Monumenta Franciscana
  • Volume 2
  • Edited by Richard Howlett
  • Published online:
    05 August 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1882
  • This two-volume work forms part of a series of scholarly editions of chronicles and other original documents relating to British history from the Roman invasion to the reign of Henry VIII, commissioned by the Master of the Rolls in the mid-nineteenth century. The documents are reprinted in Latin or Middle English, with summaries of their content. Each volume contains a thorough and invaluable preface, placing the documents in historical context and describing the location and condition of the original manuscripts. Volume 2, edited by Richard Howlett and published in 1882, is concerned with the 'decadence and fall of the Franciscans'. The documents relate to the emerging conflict of English Minorites with other monastic orders, such as the Benedictines of Westminster in 1290; divisions within the Order itself; and the impact of the religious persecutions of the Reformation. The book also includes an appendix of related original documents.

The Repressor of Over Much Blaming of the Clergy
  • Volume 2
  • Reginald Pecock
  • Edited by Churchill Babington
  • Published online:
    05 August 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1860
  • This two-volume work, published in the Rolls Series in 1860, is valuable for both religious and linguistic history. A vernacular text written in a period of division within the Church and widespread popular religious discontent, it provides a record of the arguments that fuelled this division. Reginald Pecock (c.1392–c.1459) recounts the attacks made by Lollard reformers and provides well-composed answers to them. A firm believer in papal supremacy, Pecock insisted on proving doctrine by reason, a position which laid him open to the charges of heresy that dogged his career and eventually led to his disgrace. Volume 2 deals with ranks and degrees of clergy, papal statutes and authority, and religious orders. It also contains related contemporary texts in Latin both attacking and vindicating Pecock and his position. These include John Bury's answer to The Repressor, Gladius Salomonis, and a report of Pecock's eventual downfall and abjuration.

Liber de Illustribus Henricis
  • John Capgrave
  • Edited by Francis Charles Hingeston
  • Published online:
    05 August 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1858
  • John Capgrave (1393–1464) was the Prior of Bishop's Lynn, and the most learned Augustinian friar of his time. Although he was the author of forty-one scholarly works, only twelve survive. This work was dedicated to King Henry VI and chronicles the lives of other great Henries, including six emperors of Germany and six kings of England (including the dedicatee himself). Largely compilations of other sources, his extensive accounts demonstrate the breadth of the scholarship for which he was known. This annotated edition was commissioned as part of the Rolls Series, a project designed, in an early campaign for ease of access to scholarly material, to put more historical sources into print. Edited by F. C. Hingeston and first published in 1858, it includes Capgrave's full Latin text and a glossary, thorough biographical notes, and chapter-by-chapter summaries, offering a useful resource for students of medieval history.

A Roll of the Proceedings of the King's Council in Ireland
  • For a Portion of the Sixteenth Year of the Reign of Richard the Second, AD 1392–93
  • Edited by James Graves
  • Published online:
    05 August 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1877
  • James Butler, Third Earl of Ormond and Lord Justice of Ireland, headed Richard II's Council in Ireland in the late fourteenth century. These records of the Council are a particularly important source for Irish administrative history, owing to the destruction of a considerable portion of Irish public records over the centuries. The 214 items primarily consist of petitions to the Council and council replies. The roll was calendared, edited and translated from the original French by James Graves (1815–86), a founding father of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, and first published in the Rolls Series in 1877. An appendix of twelve further items (in Latin, French and English) is included, while an appendix to the introduction includes a translation of ordinances of a later great council held by Thomas Fitzgerald, Seventh Earl of Kildare, in 1455.

The Anglo-Latin Satirical Poets and Epigrammatists of the Twelfth Century
  • Volume 2, The Minor Anglo-Latin Satirists and Epigrammatists
  • Edited by Thomas Wright
  • Published online:
    05 August 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1872
  • The nineteenth-century antiquarian Thomas Wright (1810–77) was a prolific scholar, editor and bibliographer. His two-volume anthology of twelfth-century Latin poetry, first published in 1872, is the fullest available and this reissue will be especially useful to scholars of medieval schools, religious life and satire, and those interested in medieval literature's relationship with the Latin classics. It remains the only published edition of important poems by Geoffrey of Winchester, Hugh the Chanter, Reginald of Canterbury, Serlo of Bayeux and Gualo Britto. Volume 2 contains several hundred short epigrams and poems, including works by Marbod of Rennes, Roger of Caen, Serlo of Wilton and Henry of Huntingdon, along with a number of longer works, including Alain of Lille's influential Anticlaudianus and De planctu naturae. An appendix presents the eighth-century riddles of Tatwine and Aldhelm.

Matthaei Parisiensis Chronica majora
  • Volume 5, AD 1248 to AD 1259
  • Matthew Paris
  • Edited by Henry Richards Luard
  • Published online:
    05 August 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1880
  • 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 5 covers the period 1248–59. Given the belief that time would end in 1250, apocalyptic verses conclude the Chronica in that year.

Magna Vita S. Hugonis, Episcopi Lincolniensis
  • From Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, and the Imperial Library, Paris
  • Adam of Eynsham
  • Edited by James Francis Dimock
  • Published online:
    05 August 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1864
  • Edited by the clergyman and historian James Francis Dimock (1810–76) and published in 1864, this life of the twelfth-century St Hugh, bishop of Lincoln, by his chaplain Adam of Eynsham, is presented in the original Latin. Completed before 1220, after Hugh's death in 1200, this is a detailed portrait of the Carthusian monk, scholar and bishop, by a trusted companion, resulting in an unusually personal and lifelike depiction of Hugh's character. It is one of the last and fullest examples of hagiography from the high middle ages, and is of great interest to historians as Hugh lived through the reigns of three English kings and was personally involved in many important events. As well as reporting the day-to-day activities of a medieval bishop, the text also contains original material on the foundation of the Carthusian house at Witham, tales of marvels and miracles, and notices of public affairs.

The Historians of the Church of York and its Archbishops
  • Volume 1
  • Edited by James Raine
  • Published online:
    05 August 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1879
  • James Raine (1830–96), canon of York, edited in three volumes these Latin works relating to the diocese, covering the period from 650 to 1522. Volume 1, published in 1879, contains four lives of St Wilfrid (c.634–c.710) as well as lives of other early bishops. The most important life is that by Aeddi, a Northumbrian who travelled with Wilfrid and wrote his account soon after the saint's death. It contains material not found elsewhere, is too early to have been influenced by Bede, and was closely modelled on the life of St Cuthbert of Lindisfarne. Also included are lives of bishops John (d.721) and Oswald (d.992), and Alcuin's verse account of the saints and bishops of York. Raine's preface gives an account of the ecclesiastical history of York and of the manuscript sources he used. English side-notes to the Latin text are also provided.

Chronicles of the Reigns of Edward I and Edward II
  • Volume 1, Annales Londonienses and Annales Paulini
  • Edited by William Stubbs
  • Published online:
    05 August 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1882
  • This first of two volumes of Latin chronicles illustrating the reigns of Edward I (1272–1307) and Edward II (1307–27) was published in 1882. These works contain material not found in any other source for the period. The first text included here is a collection of the surviving fragments of the Annales Londonienses, much of which was destroyed by fire in 1731, but which originally provided a year-by-year narration of the events from 1194 to 1330. Despite a complete break between 1293 and 1301, it remains especially valuable for the years 1289–1316. The Annales Paulini, from the hand of a chronicler associated with St Paul's, features closely related and sometimes overlapping material dealing with the years 1307–41. The often corrupt texts were restored, edited and provided with English side-notes by William Stubbs (1825–1901), whose lengthy introduction specifies the contents of each chronicle and details the history of the transmission and publication of the manuscripts.

Giraldi Cambrensis opera
  • Volume 6, Itinerarium Kambriae et descriptio Kambriae
  • Giraldus Cambrensis
  • Edited by J. S. Brewer, James F. Dimock, George F. Warner
  • Published online:
    05 August 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1868
  • Despite a frustrated ecclesiastical career - his ongoing failure to secure the See of St David's embittered him - Giraldus Cambrensis (Gerald of Wales, Gerald de Barry, c.1146–1220/23) composed many remarkable literary works, initially while employed as a royal clerk for Henry II and, subsequently, in semi-retirement in Lincoln. Eight volumes of his works were compiled as part of the Rolls Series of British medieval material. Noted for his vigorous Latin and anecdotal style, Giraldus gives a vivid portrait of medieval Britain - he revived the ethnographic monograph, lapsed since antiquity - and of the intrigues of the Angevin court. Volume 6, edited by clergyman and historian James F. Dimock (1810–76) and first published in 1868, contains Giraldus' treatises on his native Wales, one of his earliest works. The Latin texts provide an outstanding contemporary source, while the English editorial preface illuminates nineteenth-century interest in the period.

Records of the Parliament Holden at Westminster on the Twenty-Eighth Day of February, in the Thirty-Third Year of the Reign of King Edward the First (AD 1305)
  • Edited by Frederic William Maitland
  • Published online:
    05 August 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1893
  • Following the accidental rediscovery of the parliamentary roll for 1305, the thirty-third year of Edward I's reign, Frederic William Maitland (1850–1906) was able to publish this unique and invaluable historical record in full in 1893. Parliament in this period provided an opportunity for the king's subjects to present petitions and for the king's councillors to dispense justice. In his substantial introduction, Maitland, an eminent legal historian, sets the petitions and the transactions of the privy council in the context of medieval jurisprudence. The work is divided into English, Scottish and Irish petitions, followed by the Placita ('Pleadings'). There are four appendices: thirteen Gascon petitions; excerpts from the Gascon roll of 1305 concerning the government of Aquitaine; details of a diplomatic mission by a representative of the court of Flanders; and an analysis of the Vetus Codex, previously the most valuable primary source for Parliament of this period.

Giraldi Cambrensis opera
  • Volume 7, Vita S. Remigii, et vita S. Hugonis
  • Giraldus Cambrensis
  • Edited by J. S. Brewer, James F. Dimock, George F. Warner
  • Published online:
    05 August 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1877
  • Despite a frustrated ecclesiastical career - his ongoing failure to secure the See of St David's embittered him - Giraldus Cambrensis (Gerald of Wales, Gerald de Barry, c.1146–1220/23) composed many remarkable literary works, initially while employed as a royal clerk for Henry II and, subsequently, in semi-retirement in Lincoln. Eight volumes of his works were compiled as part of the Rolls Series of British medieval material. Volume 7, edited by clergyman and historian James F. Dimock (1810–76) and published in 1877, contains Giraldus' lives of Saint Remigius, the first Bishop of Lincoln, and his later successor Saint Hugh, a contemporary of Giraldus himself. The Latin text, in Giraldus' vigorous and anecdotal style, gives a vivid picture of the ecclesiastical world of medieval Britain and its historical background, while the English editorial preface illuminates nineteenth-century interest in the period.

Historia et cartularium Monasterii Sancti Petri Gloucestriae
  • Volume 1
  • Edited by William Henry Hart
  • Published online:
    05 August 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1863
  • 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 1 of the abbey's records, edited by W. H. Hart and published in 1863, begins with a chronicle of the abbey's history from its foundation to the late fourteenth century. It also includes a comprehensive list of the lands held by the abbey. It is followed by the first 423 charters, arranged by location rather than date. The cartulary was compiled in the late thirteenth century, with some later insertions.

Bartholomaei de Cotton, Monachi Norwicensis, Historia Anglicana (AD 449–1298)
  • Necnon Ejusdem Liber de Archiepiscopis et Episcopis Angliae
  • Bartholomaeus de Cotton
  • Edited by H. R. Luard
  • Published online:
    05 August 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1859
  • Bartholomaeus de Cotton, the Cellarer of Norwich Cathedral Priory, died in 1321/2. His most important work is the Historia Anglicana, written in 1292, with a few later additions. Book I, the history of Britain, taken from Geoffrey of Monmouth, was omitted by H. R. Luard from this 1859 edition. Book II, the history of England, is divided into two sections, from 455 to 1066, and from 1066 to the end of the thirteenth century. The work is most valuable for the period after 1264, as one of Cotton's sources, an anonymous Norwich chronicle, contains material not found elsewhere, and he also quotes from ecclesiastical and royal documents. Book III gives the history of the bishops and archbishops of England, mostly taken from other sources but with some useful material relating to the Diocese of Norwich. A glossary is provided.

Year Books of the Reign of King Edward the Third
  • Volume 14, Year XX (First Part)
  • Edited and translated by Luke Owen Pike
  • Published online:
    05 August 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1908
  • 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, 20 Edward III, to Trinity Term, 20 Edward III.

The Black Book of the Admiralty
  • With an Appendix
  • Volume 4
  • Edited by Travers Twiss
  • Published online:
    05 August 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1876
  • 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 4 contains a fourteenth-century procedural code relating to the maritime court of Valencia and late medieval codes of maritime law from the Mediterranean and the Baltic, as well as a Flemish version of the laws of Oleron.

Page 11 of 13