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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

Matthaei Parisiensis Chronica majora
  • Volume 2, AD 1067 to AD 1216
  • Matthew Paris
  • Edited by Henry Richards Luard
  • Published online:
    05 November 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1874
  • 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 2, covering 1067–1216, derives mainly from the work of Roger of Wendover, and is particularly fascinating in its discussion of the background to Magna Carta.

Registrum Palatinum Dunelmense
  • The Register of Richard de Kellawe, Lord Palatine and Bishop of Durham, 1311–1316
  • Volume 2
  • Edited by Thomas Duffus Hardy
  • Published online:
    05 June 2014
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1874
  • This Latin Register of Richard Kellaw, Bishop of Durham (d.1316), is the earliest to survive for this important diocese, where the bishop held quasi-royal authority within his palatinate. He was an active bishop, and the Register, covering the years 1311–16, includes information about ordinations, indulgences, loans, grants and licences to study, as well as about Kellaw's secular administration of his diocese. He also had to deal with constant trouble from the Scots under Robert Bruce. This four-volume work, published between 1873 and 1878, was edited by the historian Sir Thomas Duffus Hardy (1804–78). It is an important source on the civil and ecclesiastical history of the North of England in the early fourteenth century. Volume 2 contains folios 140v to 265. These conclude the sections relating to Kellaw's civil and ecclesiastical administration, and also contain copies of royal writs and legal documents. An index to Volumes 1 and 2 is also provided.

Memorials of Saint Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury
  • Edited by William Stubbs
  • Published online:
    05 June 2014
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1874
  • Dunstan was a prominent ecclesiastical figure in tenth-century England and - following his death and canonisation in 988 - the country's most popular saint for over a century; his fame was eventually eclipsed only by that of Thomas Becket. In life a close friend of King Edgar, he was influential as the king's advisor and became archbishop of Canterbury in 959. Published in 1874 as part of the Rolls Series, this work gathers together the lives, letters and other fragments of historical interest that were written to or about Dunstan. As editor, William Stubbs (1825–1901) provides English side-notes to the Latin text as well as a characteristically extensive introduction, which includes a detailed account of English monastic reform. On the subject of Dunstan, he highlights points of particular interest, ranging from questions of chronology to matters of misrepresentation and the mystery identity of biographer 'B'.

Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden, monachi Cestrensis
  • Together with the English Translations of John Trevisa and of an Unknown Writer of the Fifteenth Century
  • Volume 5
  • Ranulf Higden
  • Edited by Joseph Rawson Lumby
  • Published online:
    05 June 2014
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1874
  • Ranulf Higden (d.1364) was a monk at the abbey of St Werburgh in Chester. His most important literary work is this universal chronicle, which survives in over a hundred Latin manuscripts, testifying to its popularity. The earliest version of it dates from 1327, but Higden continued writing until his death, expanding and updating the text. It was also continued in other monastic houses, most importantly by John Malvern of Worcester. The English translation made by John Trevisa in the 1380s was also widely circulated and is included in this work, published in nine volumes for the Rolls Series between 1865 and 1886. The chronicle shows how fourteenth-century scholars understood world history and geography. Volume 5 concludes Book 4, covering the later Roman Empire and the Saxon invasion of Britain. The first part of Book 5 concentrates on the spread of Christianity in Anglo-Saxon England.

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.

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.

Materials for a History of the Reign of Henry VII
  • From Original Documents Preserved in the Public Record Office
  • Volume 1
  • Edited by William Campbell
  • Published online:
    05 June 2014
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1873
  • 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 1 brings together a variety of illustrative and carefully transcribed documents, presented in English, Latin and French. Covering the year 1485–6, it introduces the people who would come to shape Henry's reign. Revealing Henry's concern to reward his allies, the documents reflect the turbulence of the previous decades and the uneasy character of this period. 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.

The Black Book of the Admiralty
  • With an Appendix
  • Volume 2
  • Edited by Travers Twiss
  • Published online:
    05 August 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1873
  • 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 a 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 2 contains the custumal of the borough of Ipswich and late medieval coutumiers of the town of Royan and the commune of Oleron in south-west France, as well as collections of maritime legal customs also associated with Oleron.

Giraldi Cambrensis opera
  • Volume 4, Speculum ecclesiae. De vita Galfridi Archiepiscopi Eboracensis
  • Giraldus Cambrensis
  • Edited by J. S. Brewer, James F. Dimock, George F. Warner
  • Published online:
    05 May 2014
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1873
  • 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 4, edited by historian J. S. Brewer (1809–79) and published in 1873, contains two texts, one a moral, quasi-pastoral critique of the monastic orders, the other a life of Geoffrey Plantagenet (1151–1212), Archbishop of York, focusing on power struggles at the Angevin court. Noted for his vigorous Latin and anecdotal style, Giraldus gives a vivid portrait of medieval Britain, while the English editorial preface illuminates nineteenth-century interest in the period.

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

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.

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

Registrum Palatinum Dunelmense
  • The Register of Richard de Kellawe, Lord Palatine and Bishop of Durham, 1311–1316
  • Volume 1
  • Edited by Thomas Duffus Hardy
  • Published online:
    05 June 2014
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1873
  • This Latin Register of Richard Kellaw, Bishop of Durham (d.1316), is the earliest to survive for this important diocese, where the bishop held quasi-royal authority within his palatinate. He was an active bishop, and the Register, covering the years 1311–16, includes information about ordinations, indulgences, loans, grants and licences to study, as well as about Kellaw's secular administration of his diocese. During his five-year episcopate, he also had to deal with constant trouble from the Scots under Robert Bruce. This four-volume work, published as part of the Rolls Series between 1873 and 1878, was edited by the historian Sir Thomas Duffus Hardy (1804–78). It is an important source on the civil and ecclesiastical history of the North of England in the early fourteenth century. Volume 1 contains the first 140 folios (of 366), which comprise documents from the years 1311–14.

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.

Matthaei Parisiensis Chronica majora
  • Volume 1, The Creation to AD 1066
  • Matthew Paris
  • Edited by Henry Richards Luard
  • Published online:
    05 November 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1872
  • 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 1, covering the Creation to 1066, derives mainly from the work of Paris's predecessor, Roger of Wendover.

Official Correspondence of Thomas Bekynton
  • Secretary to King Henry VI, and Bishop of Bath and Wells
  • Volume 2
  • Thomas Beckington
  • Edited by George Williams
  • Published online:
    05 August 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1872
  • Thomas Beckington (c.1390–1465), Bishop of Bath and Wells, was hugely influential in Church affairs and government during the reign of Henry VI. He had become the king's secretary by 1438 and played an important role in an embassy appointed to negotiate peace with France in 1443. His intimacy with the king undoubtedly aided his compiling of the vast array of documents and letters - many from Beckington himself - presented in this two-volume work. It was edited for the Rolls Series in 1872 by George Williams (1814–78), a Church of England clergyman and Fellow of King's College, Cambridge, who, like Beckington, had close links to Eton College. The collection as a whole, presented in the original Latin, illuminates the foreign, diplomatic and domestic affairs of fifteenth-century England. Volume 2 also contains an appendix of illustrative documents, a glossary of rare words and a biographical index.

Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden, monachi Cestrensis
  • Together with the English Translations of John Trevisa and of an Unknown Writer of the Fifteenth Century
  • Volume 4
  • Ranulf Higden
  • Edited by Joseph Rawson Lumby
  • Published online:
    05 November 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1872
  • Ranulf Higden (d.1364) was a monk at the abbey of St Werburgh in Chester. His most important literary work is this universal chronicle, which survives in over a hundred Latin manuscripts, testifying to its popularity. The earliest version of it dates from 1327, but Higden continued writing until his death, expanding and updating the text. It was also continued in other monastic houses, most importantly by John Malvern of Worcester. The English translation made by John Trevisa in the 1380s was also widely circulated and is included in this work, published in nine volumes for the Rolls Series between 1865 and 1886. The chronicle shows how fourteenth-century scholars understood world history and geography. Volume 4 contains the rest of Book 3, on the Hellenistic period up to the birth of Christ, and the start of Book 4, up to the end of the first century CE.

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.

The Anglo-Latin Satirical Poets and Epigrammatists of the Twelfth Century
  • Volume 1, The Anglo-Latin Satirical Poets of the Twelfth Century
  • 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 1 contains Nigel Witeker's two most important satirical works: his beast epic Speculum stultorum and his Contra curiales. Also included are John of Salisbury's Entheticus ad policraticum and John of Hauville's Architrenius, which describes the sorrowful journey of a fictitious mourner through the twelfth-century church, court and schools.

Registra quorundam abbatum monasterii S. Albani, qui saeculo XVmo floruere
  • Volume 1, Registrum abbatiae Johannis Whethamstede
  • Edited by Henry Thomas Riley
  • John Whethamstede
  • Published online:
    05 August 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1872
  • 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 1 focuses on a text from MS. Arundel Coll. Arm. III, recording events from 1451 to 1461, the first ten years of the second abbacy of John Whethamstede. It is important for its references to early battles in the Wars of the Roses. Riley argues that this version of Whethamstede's records was prepared by a compiler with a strong political agenda against one of Whethamstede's senior monks, who had been a candidate for the office of abbot and was eventually elected in 1476. The volume includes an introduction, a detailed summary of the content, and English side-notes to the main Latin text.

Page 7 of 13