Textus Roffensis


Book Description

Textus Roffensis, a Rochester Cathedral book of the early twelfth century, holds some of the most significant texts issued in early medieval England, ranging from the oldest English-language law code of King Aethelberht of Kent (c. 600) to a copy of Henry I's Coronation Charter (5 August 1100). Textus Roffensis also holds abundant charters (including some forgeries), narratives concerning disputed property, and one of the earliest library catalogues compiled in medieval England. While it is a familiar and important manuscript to scholars, however, up to now it has never been the object of a monograph or collection of wide-ranging studies. The seventeen contributors to this book have subjected Textus Roffensis to close scrutiny and offer new conclusions on the process of its creation, its purposes and uses, and the interpretation of its laws and property records, as well as exploring significant events in which Rochester played a role and some of the more important people associated with the See. The work of the contributors takes readers into the mind of the scribes and compiler (or patron) behind the Textus Roffensis, as well as into the origins and meaning of the texts that the monks of early twelfth-century Rochester chose to preserve. The essays contained here not only set the study of the manuscript on a firm foundation, but also point to new directions for future work.




Middle English Texts in Transition


Book Description

Chaucer, Gower and Langland -- Lyrics and romances -- Devotional writings -- Owners and users of medieval books -- A tribute to Professor Takamiya




The political writings of Archbishop Wulfstan of York


Book Description

Archbishop Wulfstan of York (d. 1023) is among the most important legal and political thinkers of the early Middle Ages. A leading ecclesiastic, innovative legislator, and influential royal councilor, Wulfstan witnessed firsthand the violence and social unrest that culminated in the fall of the English monarchy before the invading armies of Cnut in 1016. In his homilies and legal tracts, Wulfstan offered a searing indictment of the moral failings that led to England’s collapse and formulated a vision of an ideal Christian community that would influence English political thought long after the Anglo-Saxon period had ended. These works, many of which have never before been available in modern English, are collected here for the first time in new, extensively annotated translations that will help readers reassess one of the most turbulent periods in English history and re-evaluate the career of Anglo-Saxon England’s most important political visionary.




The Laws of Alfred


Book Description

The first critical edition of Alfred the Great's domboc ('book of laws') in over a century.










The Beginnings of English Law


Book Description

The laws of Æthelbert of Kent (ca. 600), Hlohere and Eadric (685x686), and Wihtred (695), are the earliest laws from Anglo-Saxon England, and the first Germanic laws written in the vernacular. They are of unique importance as the only extant early medieval English laws that delineate the progress of law and legal language in the early days of the conversion to Christianity. Æthelbert's laws, the closest existing equivalent to Germanic law as it was transmitted in a pre-literate period, contrast with Hlohere and Eadric's expanded laws, which concentrate on legal procedure and process, and again contrast with the further changed laws of Wihtred which demonstrate how the new religion of Christianity adapted and changed the law to conform to changing social mores. This volume updates previous works with current scholarship in the fields of linguistics and social and legal history to present new editions and translations of these three Kentish pre-Alfredian laws. Each body of law is situated within its historical, literary, and legal context, annotated, and provided with facing-page translation.




Proceedings of the Battle Conference 2002


Book Description

In studies ranging from Norman Sicily to Scandinavia, six focus on aspects of Scottish history. Papers discuss authenticity and forgery, royal and aristocratic values, the history of William the Conqueror and the Marshal earls. Contemporary historians' perceptions of the Jews and Byzantium complete the roll call.




Rochester Cathedral, 604-1540


Book Description

The study also takes into account the extensive body of literature that has developed since Hope's study, on the Anglo-Saxon, Romanesque, and Gothic periods in Britain."--BOOK JACKET.




Traffic and Politics


Book Description

The history of Rochester bridge (identifiable remains date from the Roman occupation of the walled town) and the records of the bridge administration span close on 2000 years of economic and social change. The fortunes of the successive crossings, culminating in the Medway Tunnel project of the 1990s, reflect developments in regional and national affairs; the remarkable surviving archive of the bridge administration gives valuable detail on practical issues such as maintenance and financial management, and on the personalities involved. Each of the six studies that make up this book (written by different scholars) focuses on a distinct period in the history of this ancient and important crossing of the Medway, setting it in a wider national context of economic and social - and inevitably political - history, and including comparative material on other river crossings.