Description
Book SynopsisEdited accounts from the estates of Durham Priory provide a rich vein of information for the economic history of the time.This volume provides a closely edited text of all the manorial accounts surviving from Durham Priory estates before 1310. These include twelve accounts for individual manors (the two earliest being from 1277-8), together with enrolled manorial accounts for the years 1296-7, 1299-1306 and 1309-10. The accounts supply detailed evidence of farming activities on the twelve or so manors that were farmed directly by the priory: their number fluctuated during thecourse of the period. A couple of livestock inventories supply additional material relating to the priory's sheep flocks. The editor's introduction supplies a new study of the scale and operations of the priory estate as documented both by the edited accounts and by related material in the priory archive, particularly bursars' accounts and the granators' accounts. It includes a description of the priory's estate management and accounting and an economic analysis of the the monks' arable and pastoral activities.The introduction also calls attention to material in the accounts relating to disturbances that affected the priory in these years as a result of royal campaigns in Scotland and the monk's conflict with Bishop Anthony Bek. The volume is completed with a glossary of the Latin and Middle English words used in the accounts. Richard Britnell, who specialised in the social and economic history of the Middle Ages, was until his retirement professor of History at Durham University.
Trade ReviewA carefully constructed edition, which will be of great interest to economic and agrarian historians of medieval England, this volume will also serve those coming to the study of manorial accounts....In his last major publication, as throughout his fine career as a historian of the medieval economy, Richard Britnell has done his subject and his profession a great service. * NOTTINGHAM MEDIEVAL STUDIES *
An invaluable new source of reference for medieval manorial activity. * NORTHERN HISTORY *
This volume provides a valuable new overview of the local economy of the period, set within its wider context, and should be of interest to many. * COUNTY DURHAM HISTORY AND HERITAGE FORUM newsletter *
This large and impressive volume contains transcriptions of all the accounting material surviving before 1310 from the manors of Durham Cathedral Priory. . . . The editorial work is of the highest order. Richard Britnell was an outstanding scholar, equally adept at producing magisterial surveys of major economic trends, or writing local studies, or, as this volume testifies, editing challenging primary sources with rigor, care, and precision. * SPECULUM *
Table of ContentsIntroduction Original Accounts Enrolled Accounts Glossary Bibliography
