Bücher der Reihe Cambridge Library Collection - Rolls

This two-volume publication (1872-3) brings together records from the abbey of St Albans in the later fifteenth century, when the Wars of the Roses directly affected the local population. Volume 1 focuses on 1451-61 and testifies to the abbey's internal politics as well as national concerns.

The records of the medieval English courts were compiled into manuscript 'year books'. Those for the regnal years 20-2 and 30-5 of Edward I (1239-1307) were edited for the Rolls Series, and published in five volumes between 1863 and 1879, with translations provided for the Anglo-Norman text.

The year books (records of the courts) of part of the reign of Edward III (1312-77), covering the period from 1337 to 1346, were published in the Rolls Series between 1883 and 1911. This volume contains reports from Easter Term, 14 Edward III, to Trinity Term, 14 Edward III.

This two-volume work, published in 1864-5, chronicles foreign diplomacy and church affairs during the reign of Richard I. Volume 2 comprises a collection of letters relating to a dispute between the Archbishops Baldwin and Hubert, and the monks of Canterbury, covering the years 1187 to 1199.

This register, compiled in the thirteenth century, was considered one of the most important early documents from Salisbury and contains texts relating to, or used by, St Osmund. This two-volume edition was published between 1883 and 1884. Volume 1 contains, in particular, the consuetudinary of St Osmund.

John Thomas Gilbert (1829-98), historian and antiquary, was for thirty-four years librarian of the Royal Irish Academy. His two-volume edition of chartularies, registers and annals was first published in 1884. With documents dating from across the medieval period, it represents an important source for Ireland's ecclesiastical history.

Christ Church, Canterbury, was the seat of the archbishop and an important pilgrimage site. This three-volume collection, published between 1887 and 1889, contains over a thousand letters and other documents written between the thirteenth century and the Reformation, illustrating the history and wealth of the priory.

This important Latin chronicle covering the period from the Creation to 1326 was compiled at St Albans and Westminster. It was edited for the Rolls Series by Henry Richards Luard (1825-91) and published in three volumes in 1890. Volume 1 contains the annals to 1066.

The abbey of St Peter, Gloucester, was a wealthy establishment with royal connections. The medieval chronicle and charters, published in three volumes between 1863 and 1867, contain valuable information on the economic and ecclesiastical history of the West Country. The charters are organised thematically, and include information on estate management.

Published 1859-60, this selection from London's medieval records provides much information of all aspects of civic life - social, economic, political, ecclesiastical, legal and military. Volume 1 contains the fifteenth-century Liber Albus, in Latin and Anglo-Norman, which documents the laws and other regulations relating to the City of London.

Published 1859-60, this selection from London's medieval records provides much information of all aspects of civic life - social, economic, political, ecclesiastical, legal and military. Volume 2, in two parts, contains the fourteenth-century Liber Custumarum, a collection of charters relating to the City of London, in Latin and Anglo-Norman.

Written in the 1360s, with later additions, the Eulogium provides an insight into the attitudes and opinions of the period, and also into the historical sources available to a member of a large English religious house. This three-volume edition of the monastic chronicle was published between 1858 and 1863.

The year books (records of the courts) of part of the reign of Edward III (1312-77), covering the period from 1337 to 1346, were published in the Rolls Series between 1883 and 1911. This volume contains reports from Michaelmas Term, 14 Edward III, to Hilary Term, 15 Edward III.

The year books (records of the courts) of part of the reign of Edward III (1312-77), covering the period from 1337 to 1346, were published in the Rolls Series between 1883 and 1911. This volume contains reports from Easter Term, 19 Edward III, to Michaelmas Term, 19 Edward III.

Published in 1868, this is a two-volume collection of transcribed Latin documents relating to academic life in medieval Oxford. Their contents do not constitute a history of the university; rather, they give a fascinating insight into its provisions and requirements, and the private life of its members.

Published in 1873-77, this two-volume work brings together a rich variety of contemporary documents illustrating the reign of Henry VII. Volume 1 covers the year immediately following Henry's victory at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, with material presented in a combination of English, Latin and French.

Ramsey Abbey was one of the wealthiest monasteries in the country. Its cartulary is particularly important for the study of economic history. It contains material dating from the tenth to fifteenth centuries, dealing with properties throughout East Anglia. This three-volume edition was published between 1884 and 1893, augmented from additional manuscript sources.

This four-volume set of Latin chronicles was edited by Richard Howlett (1841-1917) and published between 1884 and 1889. Volume 2 contains the fifth book of William of Newburgh's Historia rerum Anglicarum, and its continuation by another hand up to 1298, plus the Draco Normannicus of Etienne de Rouen.

This four-volume set of Old Norse texts with English translation (1887-94) includes the saga of the Orkney jarls, written in Iceland about 1230, and the saga of King Hakon Hakonarson of Norway. Volume 1 contains Gudbrand Vigfusson's edition of Orkneyinga saga and the related Magnuss saga.

Bury St Edmunds possessed an extremely important Benedictine abbey. This three-volume collection of documents, edited and published between 1890 and 1896, includes accounts of the life and miracles of St Edmund (d.869), the history of the abbey, and its often fraught relations with the burgesses of the town.

This important Latin chronicle covering the period from the Creation to 1326 was compiled at St Albans and Westminster. It was edited for the Rolls Series by Henry Richards Luard (1825-91) and published in three volumes in 1890. Volume 2 contains the annals from 1067 to 1264.

Thomas Walsingham (c.1340-c.1422) dedicated this history of England from the ninth to the fifteenth century to Henry V, shortly after his reconquest of Normandy ('Neustria') in 1419. This edition by Henry Thomas Riley (1816-78), with an English introduction and side-notes, appeared in 1876.

This seven-volume work, published 1875-85, brings together all Latin materials concerning the life and fall of Thomas Becket (c.1120-70). Volume 7 comprises a valuable collection of letters sent by or to the archbishop, gathered together by Alan of Tewkesbury.

Published in two volumes between 1875 and 1883 by the Icelandic scholar Eirikr Magnusson (1833-1913), this Old Norse text with English translation remains the standard edition of the saga of Thomas Becket, composed in Iceland in the early fourteenth century and based on earlier Latin and Old French traditions.

This four-volume set of Old Norse texts with English translation (1887-94) includes the saga of the Orkney jarls, written in Iceland about 1230, and the saga of King Hakon Hakonarson of Norway by the Icelander Sturla THordarson. Volume 3 contains George Dasent's translation, The Orkneyingers' Saga.

The Franciscan Roger Bacon (c.1214-92?) was one of the most significant intellectuals of the thirteenth century. His most important work was the Opus Majus of 1267 (also available in this series). The works included in this volume, edited by J. S. Brewer, had not previously been published, and only one volume of the unpublished works ever appeared, because of Brewer's other commitments. The Opus Minus was a precis of the larger work, written at the same time. The Opus Tertium, written the following year, was Bacon's attempt to cover topics which he felt had been omitted, or inadequately explained, in the previous versions; it also includes autobiographical information. Neither the Opus Minus or Opus Tertium survive in their entirety, but Brewer includes all the parts known in 1859. The Compendium Philosophiae deals with Bacon's wide-ranging intellectual interests in all aspects of medieval scholarship.

Written c.1290, this chronicle follows the pattern of similar texts in recording historical events through using earlier sources; but, by adapting and editing what he chose to include, the author produced a unique work. He is able to provide greater depth and detail to the descriptions of events closer to his own time, yet the text finishes abruptly in a passage concerning the contemporary theologian Robert of Winchelsea. Published in the Rolls Series in 1859, the work was edited by Henry Ellis (1777-1869), the librarian of the British Museum. Topics covered in the chronicle include Henry II's crowning of his eldest son as 'Henry III', and their joint rule until the latter rebelled against his father; the 'extreme cruelty with which the Jews were treated in England'; and 'an occurrence which continued ... to our own time, namely, the inundation of Westminster Hall by the River Thames'.

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

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.

Published as part of the Rolls Series in 1861, these collected letters date mainly from 1235-53, when, as bishop of Lincoln, their author presided over the largest diocese in England. Both a scientist and a theologian, Robert Grosseteste (c.1170-1253) boasts what the medieval historian R. W. Southern describes as 'a rarely paralleled breadth of intellectual interests'. His letters are invaluably illustrative of the social conditions of the time. He writes heatedly and earnestly on such topics as the laws concerning illegitimacy, the condition of the Jews and the liberties of the Church, with a violence of opinion that was 'balanced, indeed prompted, by a deep concern for the souls of ordinary people'. Henry Richards Luard (1825-91) puts Grosseteste's writing into context in his preface, while useful summaries of each letter in the contents list, and commentary provided in the side-notes, make the Latin text accessible to modern readers.