Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
  1. Home
  2. Series
  3. Cambridge Library Collection - Medieval History

This series includes pioneering editions of medieval historical accounts by eye-witnesses and contemporaries, collections of source materials such as charters and letters and works that applied new historiographical methods to the interpretation of the European middle ages. The nineteenth century saw an upsurge of interest in medieval manuscripts, texts and artefacts, and the enthusiastic efforts of scholars and antiquaries made a large body of material available in print for the first time. Although many of the analyses have been superseded, they provide fascinating evidence of the academic practices of their time, while a considerable number of texts have still not been re-edited and are still widely consulted.

Refine search

Refine search

Content type:
Publication date:
Subject: Show more
Journals Show more
Publishers: Show more
Series: Show more
Collections: Show more

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

211 results in Cambridge Library Collection - Medieval History

Page 8 of 11

Some New Sources for the Life of Blessed Agnes of Bohemia
  • Including a Fourteenth-Century Latin Version (Bamberg, Misc. Hist. 146, E. VII, 19): and a Fifteenth-Century German Version (Berlin, Germ. Oct. 484)
  • Walter W. Seton
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    26 August 2010
    First published in:
    1915
  • Walter Seton's 1915 book focuses on one of the key, understudied figures of the early Franciscan movement. Abbess of the Convent of Prague, Blessed Agnes was central to the establishment of the Order of Saint Clare. She presented persuasive arguments to convince the Holy See to permit female Franciscans to live according to their Rule and practise voluntary poverty. Seton's edition, drawn from manuscripts in German libraries, includes the oldest extant Latin version of Agnes' Life together with a fifteenth-century German version and German copies of four letters she received from Saint Clare. Praised in 1916 for its 'admirable thoroughness', this edition sheds new light on Blessed Agnes, whose importance was long overshadowed by her more prominent contemporaries, Saint Clare and Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, her cousin. This reissue makes this valuable primary material accessible again to scholars working on Franciscan history and medieval women's spirituality.

Cartulaire de l'Abbaye de Savigny
  • Suivi du Petit Cartulaire de l’Abbaye d’Ainay
  • Volume 2, Cartulaire d’Ainay, Tables, etc.
  • Edited by Auguste Bernard
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    23 September 2010
    First published in:
    1853
  • The son of a printer and bookshop owner, Auguste Bernard (1811–1868) quit his studies at the age of seventeen to become a typographer at the Parisian printing house of Firmin Didot, before becoming an editor with the royal printer. Bernard spent his leisure time collecting documents on the history of the people and customs of the ancient province of Forez (roughly, the area of the Loire valley). He is best known for his histories of typography and printing in France and Europe, his most celebrated work being his biography of Geoffroy Tory, the first French royal printer. He published in 1853 this collection in two volumes, containing the first printed transcriptions of the medieval charters of the Abbey of Savigny in northern France and the Abbey of Ainay in Lyon. Volume 2 contains the charters of the Abbey of Ainay, and significant appendices, including transcriptions of inventories of the diocese of Lyon from the thirteenth until the seventeenth centuries.

History of the Conquest of England by the Normans
  • Its Causes, and Its Consequences, in England, Scotland, Ireland, and on the Continent
  • Volume 2
  • Augustin Thierry
  • Translated by William Hazlitt
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    07 July 2011
    First published in:
    1847
  • This work by Augustin Thierry (1795–1856) on the Norman conquest of England was first published in French in 1825, the two-volume translation into English following in 1847. Thierry employed a relatively new technique in historiography, as he consulted only original texts and documents, and insisted upon interpreting the sources in as much detail as possible. He was adamant that the events, ideas and political positions he chronicled should be interpreted in their own terms and not subjected to a limited nineteenth-century perspective. In Volume 2, Thierry widens his scope, and while his main focus continues to be on England in the period 1137 to 1196, he also considers the consequences of the Norman Conquest on Scotland, Wales, Ireland and France. The volume contains a number of fascinating appendices, ranging from the correspondence of Thomas Becket to a popular ballad telling of the birth of Robin Hood.

The Ancient Libraries of Canterbury and Dover
  • The Catalogues of the Libraries of Christ Church Priory and St. Augustine's Abbey at Canterbury and of St. Martin's Priory at Dover
  • Montague Rhodes James
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    19 May 2011
    First published in:
    1903
  • M. R. James (1862–1936) is probably best remembered as a writer of chilling ghost stories, but he was an outstanding scholar of medieval literature and palaeography, who served both as Provost of King's College, Cambridge and as Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum. His detailed descriptive catalogues of manuscripts owned by colleges, cathedrals and museums are still of value to scholars today. This volume, first published in 1903, contains James' study of medieval catalogues relating to three monastic libraries in Kent which were among the largest book collections in pre-Reformation England. James gives a fascinating account of the books listed, their provenance and their donors. The libraries were dispersed at the Dissolution, and James' major contribution was to identify many of the surviving manuscripts, now preserved in London, Oxford, Cambridge and elsewhere. This reissue of James's monumental research project will be welcomed by librarians and researchers alike.

Cartulaire de l'Abbaye de Saint-Père de Chartres
  • Volume 1
  • Edited by Benjamin Edme Charles Guérard
  • Published online:
    05 February 2012
    Print publication:
    16 September 2010
    First published in:
    1840
  • A French historian and curator of the manuscript department at the Bibliothèque Nationale, Benjamin Guérard (1797–1854) made a considerable contribution to the study of medieval French cathedrals and monasteries. Having studied at Dijon, Guérard became a banker in Paris, before studying at the École royales des chartes where he trained as an archivist. He was a founding member of the Société de l'histoire de France, and this publication was part of the society's first series of documents inédits. Guérard was elected to the Academie des inscriptions et belles-lettres and became the director of the École des chartes in 1848. This collection of the medieval charters of the Abbey of Saint-Père at Chartres was published in Paris in 1840. Volume 1 contains the Prolegomena describing the founding of the abbey, the size of its demesne, its feudal rights, and official structure.

Byzantine Constantinople
  • The Walls of the City and Adjoining Historical Sites
  • Alexander Van Millingen
  • Published online:
    05 November 2011
    Print publication:
    31 October 2010
    First published in:
    1899
  • One of the most detailed works describing the walls of this renowned city, Alexander Van Milligen's Byzantine Constantinople: The Walls of the City and Adjoining Historical Sites (1899) is of use to anyone interested in Byzantine architecture, the Byzantine Empire, and medieval history more generally. Van Milligen uses his expertise as a historian who had lived and taught in Constantinople to provide a detailed account of the Byzantine capital before it fell in 1453. Complete with meticulous verbal descriptions, illustrations, maps and plans, Van Milligen combines historical accounts with physical surveys, tracing Constantinople's expansion. He describes how the city spread and how the walls adapted, pausing to outline the importance of certain structures within the city, and of the hierarchy of gates within the walls. He also includes a table of emperors to assist the general reader, while his painstaking detail makes the book useful to professional scholars as well.

The History of the English Electoral Law in the Middle Ages
  • Ludwig Riess
  • Translated by K. L. Wood-Legh
  • Published online:
    05 November 2011
    Print publication:
    07 July 2011
    First published in:
    1940
  • The introduction, during the Middle Ages, of a representative system into English political life, was an event of great historical significance, and has since been central to academic debate. Written by Ludwig Riess (1861–1928), an eminent twentieth-century historian, this pioneering account of the medieval English electorate profoundly influenced the study of English constitutional history, as it questioned the fundamental assumptions of the scholarship that preceded it. First published in German in 1885, it critically evaluated the aims of the elected representatives, and re-assessed the general electoral regulations of the period. In so doing, it provided new solutions to some problems encountered by previous scholars, such as defining parliamentary boroughs, and accounting for the rise of a national representative assembly. First translated into English in 1940 by K. L. Wood-Legh, this controversial and seminal work remains highly relevant to legal scholars and historians today.

The History of the Norman Conquest of England
  • Its Causes and Its Results
  • Volume 4, The Reign of William the Conqueror
  • Edward Augustus Freeman
  • Published online:
    25 October 2011
    Print publication:
    07 July 2011
    First published in:
    1871
  • Edward Augustus Freeman (1823–1892) was Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford, and one of the pre-eminent historians of his generation. Politics was a constant interest for Freeman, who was also a regular contributor to the Saturday Review. While he wrote on a variety of historical topics, from ancient Greece to the German Federation, and had a great interest in architecture, this six-volume work, published between 1867 and 1879, was his magnum opus. Freeman reconsiders how the history of the Conquest is understood and examines its causes and results. Volume 4, dedicated to the reign of William (1066–1087), describes his rule, examining it in micro-periods in terms of the political and religious aspects of the conquest of England. William's relationships with his foreign and domestic neighbours are analysed and the realm's stability during this time is assessed.

The History of the Norman Conquest of England
  • Its Causes and Its Results
  • Volume 2, The Reign of Eadward the Confessor
  • Edward Augustus Freeman
  • Published online:
    25 October 2011
    Print publication:
    07 July 2011
    First published in:
    1868
  • Edward Augustus Freeman (1823–1892) was Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford, and one of the pre-eminent historians of his generation. Politics was a constant interest for Freeman, who was also a regular contributor to the Saturday Review. While he wrote on a variety of historical topics, from ancient Greece to the German Federation, and had a great interest in architecture, this six-volume work, published between 1867 and 1879, was his magnum opus. Freeman reconsiders how the history of the Conquest is understood and examines its causes and results. Volume 2 examines the reign of Edward the Confessor (1042–1066), which Freeman identifies as the first stage in the Anglo-Norman political struggle. Encompassing an analysis of military events and political characters, this volume also provides a thorough account of William the Conqueror's early years in Normandy.

The History of the Norman Conquest of England
  • Its Causes and Its Results
  • Volume 1, The Preliminary History to the Election of Eadward the Confessor
  • Edward Augustus Freeman
  • Published online:
    25 October 2011
    Print publication:
    07 July 2011
    First published in:
    1867
  • Edward Augustus Freeman (1823–1892) was Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford, and one of the pre-eminent historians of his generation. Politics was a constant interest for Freeman, who was also a regular contributor to the Saturday Review. While he wrote on a variety of historical topics, from ancient Greece to the German Federation, and had a great interest in architecture, this six-volume work, published between 1867 and 1879, was his magnum opus. Freeman reconsiders how the history of the Conquest is understood and examines its causes and results. Volume 1 provides a preliminary history, and examination of life in England up to the time of the accession of Edward the Confessor, and its preface outlines the differences of approach between Freeman's volumes and preceding histories of the Conquest.

The History of the Norman Conquest of England
  • Its Causes and Its Results
  • Volume 3, The Reign of Harold and the Interregnum
  • Edward Augustus Freeman
  • Published online:
    25 October 2011
    Print publication:
    07 July 2011
    First published in:
    1869
  • Edward Augustus Freeman (1823–1892) was Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford, and one of the pre-eminent historians of his generation. Politics was a constant interest for Freeman, who was also a regular contributor to the Saturday Review. While he wrote on a variety of historical topics, from ancient Greece to the German Federation, and had a great interest in architecture, this six-volume work, published between 1867 and 1879, was his magnum opus. Freeman reconsiders how the history of the Conquest is understood and examines its causes and results. Volume 3 focuses almost exclusively on the tumultuous events of 1066. Freeman analyses Harold's reign, the interregnum, and the later reign of William in Normandy. Additionally, he provides a thorough account of military events in Normandy and England, and detailed descriptions of battles.

Liber Memorandorum Ecclesie de Bernewelle
  • Edited by John Willis Clark
  • Introduction by F. W. Maitland
  • Published online:
    07 October 2011
    Print publication:
    23 June 2011
    First published in:
    1907
  • The Priory of St Giles and St Andrew, Barnwell, was among the earliest English communities of Augustinian Canons, founded by the Sheriff of Cambridge in 1092. Although little survives of its physical remains, the Liber Memorandorum, edited in 1907 by J. W. Clark, is a significant source for both Cambridge and Augustinian history. Although often referred to as a cartulary, its contents are more wide ranging than just a collection of legal documents. It includes a history of the foundation, and many items concerning the relations between Barnwell and the surrounding area, including disputes with the University. The text was compiled around 1296 from earlier records, although the calendar contains later obituaries. The edition includes a valuable explanation of the documents' legal content by the leading legal historian F. W. Maitland, and is an important resource for researchers in medieval legal or church history, as well as that of the Cambridge area.

The History of the Norman Conquest of England
  • Its Causes and Its Results
  • Volume 5, The Effects of the Norman Conquest
  • Edward Augustus Freeman
  • Published online:
    07 October 2011
    Print publication:
    07 July 2011
    First published in:
    1876
  • Edward Augustus Freeman (1823–1892) was Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford, and one of the pre-eminent historians of his generation. Politics was a constant interest for Freeman, who was also a regular contributor to the Saturday Review. While he wrote on a variety of historical topics, from ancient Greece to the German Federation, and had a great interest in architecture, this six-volume work, published between 1867 and 1879, was his magnum opus. Freeman reconsiders how the history of the Conquest is understood and examines its causes and results. Volume 5 considers the effects of the Conquest, examining the reigns of William Rufus, Henry I, and Stephen in the light of those effects, rather than providing a narrative history of these reigns. Language and architecture also come under analysis in this volume.

History of the Conquest of England by the Normans
  • Its Causes, and Its Consequences, in England, Scotland, Ireland, and on the Continent
  • Volume 1
  • Augustin Thierry
  • Translated by William Hazlitt
  • Published online:
    07 October 2011
    Print publication:
    07 July 2011
    First published in:
    1847
  • This work by Augustin Thierry (1795–1856) on the Norman conquest of England was first published in French in 1825, the two-volume translation into English following in 1847. Thierry employed a relatively new technique in historiography, as he consulted only original texts and documents, and insisted upon interpreting the sources in as much detail as possible. He was adamant that the events, ideas and political positions he chronicled should be interpreted in their own terms and not subjected to a limited nineteenth-century perspective. Volume 1 is divided into seven parts and traces the aboriginal populations of Britain from the period 55 BCE, closing with the death of William the Conqueror and an account of the last efforts of the English to overthrow the Norman yoke in 1137. The author also shares some of his reflections on the challenges of writing history with his readers.

Archives d'Anjou
  • Recueil de Documents et Mémoires Inédits sur Cette Province
  • Volume 2
  • Edited by Paul Marchegay
  • Published online:
    07 October 2011
    Print publication:
    18 November 2010
    First published in:
    1853
  • Using archival materials and church charters from the province of Anjou, archivist Paul Marchegay draws a broad and comprehensive picture of the history of this province in western France. Volume 2, published in 1853, comprises charters from the abbey of Marmoutiers, near Tours, that give an insight into local life through centuries. There is a document listing the names of the nobility of Angers in 1310 and another that counts the number of fishmongers registered as trading in Angers between 1408 and 1449. The most curious piece among the documents dates from around 1060 and tells of the burial place of a knight who fell in battle; his mother and brother then brought the body to the priory at Daumeray near Angers. The documents in this work give vivid and authentic images of medieval life, faith and traditions.

Formulae Merowingici et Karolini Aevi
  • Accedunt Ordines Iudiciorum Dei
  • Edited by Karl Zeumer
  • Published online:
    07 October 2011
    Print publication:
    04 November 2010
    First published in:
    1886
  • This critical edition of Merovingian and Carolingian charters was edited by the German philologist Karl Zeumer, and published in 1886. Zeumer built on the work of previous editors, most notably the French archivist, Eugène de Rozière, who published an edition in 1854. The charters are grouped by editor, beginning with the Formulae Andecavenses, a collection of sixth- and seventh-century charters first edited in the seventeenth century by the French Benedictine monk, Mabillon. A former student of classical philology at the universities of Göttingen and Leipzig, Zeumer joined the Monumenta Germaniae Historica project in 1875. This series of published primary sources, which continues to this day, used historical scholarship to buttress the growing Romantic nationalism of the nineteenth century. Zeumer received his Ph.D. from Göttingen in 1877, and in 1886 he received an honorary degree from the University of Heidelberg, where he began teaching as a lecturer the following year.

The History of the Norman Conquest of England
  • Its Causes and Its Results
  • Volume 6, Index Volume
  • Edward Augustus Freeman
  • Published online:
    07 September 2011
    Print publication:
    07 July 2011
    First published in:
    1879
  • Edward Augustus Freeman (1823–1892) was Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford, and one of the pre-eminent historians of his generation. Politics was a constant interest for Freeman, who was also a regular contributor to the Saturday Review. While he wrote on a variety of historical topics, from ancient Greece to the German Federation, and had a great interest in architecture, this six-volume work, published between 1867 and 1879, was his magnum opus. Freeman reconsiders how the history of the Conquest is understood and examines its causes and results, examining the history of medieval England from the fifth until the twelfth centuries. Volume 6 provides a comprehensive index for the set. These volumes will interest both scholars of early England and the Conquest and modern historiographers.

Cartulaire de l'Abbaye de Saint-Père de Chartres
  • Volume 2
  • Edited by Benjamin Edme Charles Guérard
  • Published online:
    07 September 2011
    Print publication:
    16 September 2010
    First published in:
    1840
  • A French historian and curator of the manuscript department at the Bibliothèque Nationale, Benjamin Guérard (1797–1854) made a considerable contribution to the study of medieval French cathedrals and monasteries. Having studied at Dijon, Guérard became a banker in Paris, before studying at the École royales des chartes where he trained as an archivist. He was a founding member of the Société de l'histoire de France, and this publication was part of the society's first series of documents inédits. Guérard was elected to the Academie des inscriptions et belles-lettres and became the director of the École des chartes in 1848. This collection of the medieval charters of the Abbey of Saint-Père at Chartres was published in Paris in 1840. Volume 2 contains Guérard's transcriptions of the charters, dating from the twelfth to the mid-fifteenth centuries.

Gilbert Crispin Abbot of Westminster
  • A Study of the Abbey under Norman Rule
  • J. Armitage Robinson
  • Published online:
    07 September 2011
    Print publication:
    26 August 2010
    First published in:
    1911
  • Gilbert Crispin (c. 1045–1117/18), fourth abbot of Westminster Abbey, was a scion of an important Norman family. Trained at Bec under St Anselm, later archbishop of Canterbury, he was a noted scholar and theologian. Under his rule, Westminster Abbey began to expand physically and grow in importance, making full play of its position as the chosen burial site of Edward the Confessor. The necessity to raise funds for the building work probably led to Crispin's association with the London Jewish community, and this was to inspire his most important theological work, Disputation with a Jew. In this 1911 book, J. Robinson Armitage, then dean of Westminster, mines the abbey archives to write both a biography and a discussion of Crispin's thirty-year administration of Westminster. He also includes the texts of all Crispin's known writings, together with a selection of charters. A significant work on a hitherto neglected Anglo-Norman churchman.

Archives d'Anjou
  • Recueil de Documents et Mémoires Inédits sur Cette Province
  • Volume 1
  • Edited by Paul Marchegay
  • Published online:
    07 September 2011
    Print publication:
    18 November 2010
    First published in:
    1843
  • Using archival materials and church charters from the province of Anjou, Paul Marchegay provides a broad and comprehensive picture of the history of this province of western France. In Volume 1, published in 1853, the Anjou native and archivist of the province makes use of three primary sources: the papers of the eighteenth-century politician Armand-Thomas Hue, seigneur de Miroménil, a report on the land ownership, economic resources and social conditions of the province made by the diplomat Charles Colbert de Croissy (younger brother of Loius XIV's minister of finance), and finally the medieval charters of Anjou. Marchegay ends this compilation of historical documents on a curious note by transcribing the records of various medieval court cases which were settled by the ordeal of boiling water.

Page 8 of 11