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EDITORIAL PRINCIPLES

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 July 2015

Extract

The charters and letters in each section are listed in alphabetical order of beneficiary or addressee. Where a number of acts are addressed to the same beneficiary, they are listed in a putative chronological order. Where a date range is offered for an act wider than one year it is in the format (0000 × 0000) taking the earliest possible and latest date as the terminal points. Where there are specific dating clauses given by the texts, they have to be interpreted within the whole range of the way medieval people defined a year. Thus 1141 could begin as early as what we would call 25 December 1140 and carry on till as late as Easter (19 April) 1142. In general it may be assumed that the predominant Bedan or incarnational dating would be what an English clerk would intend: that is, either beginning the year at Christmas as Bede advocated or at the point of Jesus's conception, the feast of the Annunciation (25 March). So where the charter carries the actual date ‘1141’, the apparatus for the charter will interpret this as ‘25 December 1140 × 24 March 1142’. If a specific day of issue is given between 1 January and 24 March, as for instance ‘11 March 1142’, it will be given in the form of ‘11 March 1142/3’, since either year might be intended.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 2015 

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