Sylvia Marchant examines an epic work on the Library’s shelves British historiography is underpinned by a remarkable sequence of publications called the ‘Rolls Series’. This is the popular name given to the Chronicles and Memorials of Great Britain and Ireland during the Middle Ages—also known in Latin as Rerum Britannicarum medii aevi scriptores. This impressive series comprises 99 separate works, totalling over 250 volumes. It contains the writings of most of the great medieval English chroniclers from 1066 onward, plus some public records, year books, calendars of State papers, patent and close rolls, and lists and indexes of public records. The Chronicles were published in London from 1858 to 1911, and a reprint appeared in the 1960s, published by the American publisher Kraus. The National Library holds a magnificent and complete set of the original series. The ambitious project was undertaken by the ‘Master of the Rolls’, who ordered the ancient records to be transcribed and published—hence the name ‘Rolls Series’. (The curiously named office of ‘Master of the Rolls’ first appeared in the fifteenth century, and the title is still in use for the Chair of the Advisory Council on Public Records, who reports to the Lord Chancellor. It is a judicial office, the second highest in England, the current incumbent being the Rt Hon the Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, a judge of the Appeals Court.) The Master of the Rolls came by his sonorous title from the manner of preserving the early records of State, which were indeed literally in rolls. The method was to make copies of important documents on parchment (sheepskin—cleaned, dried and smoothed in preparation for writing), which were then 'enrolled'—or sewn together and rolled up for easy carriage and storage. Many of these early State records have been transcribed and published in the ‘Calendars of Chancery Rolls’ and form a separate part of the ‘Rolls Series’. The Calendar series includes a great variety of records, such as the Close Rolls, Fine Rolls, Liberate Rolls, Patent Rolls, Scutage Rolls and others—each of which serves a different purpose, though there is some leakage from one series to another, as the researcher will find. The National Library also has a comprehensive collection of these valuable transcriptions, which contain British State records from the twelfth century up to the reign of Elizabeth I. The publication of the Chronicles is a fascinating story in its own right—analysed by David Knowles in a rather acerbic essay in his book Great Historical Enterprises. His account includes sidelights on the characters of some of the editors and makes it clear that the enterprise was not all plain sailing, and in many ways the fact that so much was achieved is quite remarkable. Publicity about disputes with some editors, about their interpretations and procrastinations, tended to obscure and impair the reputation of the series when it was in production, and Knowles comments that ‘It was indeed from the beginning an extraordinarily inexpert affair.’ Nevertheless, the sight of the serried ranks of the 250-plus volumes on the Library’s shelves is testament to what can be done with determination and organisation—and for this Knowles gives due credit to Sir John Romilly, the Master of the Rolls responsible for the planning and implementation of the project.
The whole undertaking was the result of scholarly concern at the possible loss of irreplaceable historical material dating back to the eleventh century and earlier. Transcriptions had been carried out in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in an ad hoc fashion, but the works of early transcribers were considered unscholarly, and historians urged a more comprehensive and controlled approach, supported by Government funds. The first orderly attempt to transcribe the principle works of the chroniclers began in 1823, but came to grief for a variety of reasons (not least the death of the editor)—however the idea was kept alive by enthusiastic supporters, and in 1857 work began again in accordance with a scheme submitted by Sir John Romilly. On 26 January 1857, Sir John submitted to the Treasury a proposal ‘for the publication of materials for the History of this Country from the Invasion of the Romans to the Reign of Henry VIII’. The scope of the undertaking was breathtaking. Editions of all the more significant works of the medieval chroniclers of the affairs of Great Britain and Ireland were to be included, with particular emphasis on those from unique manuscripts, or those which helped to fill blanks in English history. Sir John proposed that the material should be selected for publication under competent editors, ‘without reference to periodical or chronological arrangement, without mutilation or abridgment’, and with ‘preference being given, in the first instance, to such materials as were most scarce and valuable’.
Each chronicle or historical document was to be edited and treated as if the editor were engaged on an Editio Princeps (first edition), and the most correct text should be formed from an accurate collation of the best manuscripts. Romilly further suggested that each editor should give an account of the manuscripts used, their age and peculiarities; and each work should include a brief account of the life and times of the author and any comments necessary to explain the chronology—but with no other note or comment except to establish the correctness of the text. This admonition, taken seriously by the editors, has rendered the volumes doubly rewarding as historical sources. (The introductions to the volumes edited by the illustrious Bishop Stubbs, in particular, are highly regarded historical tracts in their own right; they can be found in a collected edition in Historical Introductions to the Rolls Series, edited by Arthur Hassall.) Each work in the series was published separately, as it was finished, and the individual editors (chosen by the Master of the Rolls with the sanction of the Treasury) took total responsibility for their task. With this proposal gaining approval of the Lords of Her Majesty’s Treasury, the project got under way. By December 1858 more than 11 of the works were published; and 28 were published in the first five years. Publication continued up until 1911, when the ?fifteenth? and final volume of the work appeared—Year Books of the Reign of King Edward III, edited by A.J. Horwood and L.O. Pike; (No. 31b). The final commissioned work was the Red Book of the Exchequer (No. 99) edited by Hubert Hall, which ran to three volumes and was published in ?1896?. This was the year in which the whole incredible project finally came to an end, when the Master of the Rolls ceased to finance new publications in the series, and began to concentrate on printing the calendars of records—thus making accessible another rich source of English history. There is no doubt that, although perhaps having some flaws and inaccuracies, the ‘Roll Series’ is a unique source of British history. Each chronicle or collection of documents is complete in itself, though perhaps in several volumes. The industrious editors were mostly distinguished historians and scholars—perhaps the most important of whom is the aforementioned Bishop William Stubbs (1825–1901), who edited an incredible 19 of the volumes. Generally regarded as the first ‘professional historian’ in England, Stubbs was a churchman who rose from humble beginnings to become Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford (1866), and Bishop of Oxford (1889). He is most famous for his works Select Charters and Other Illustrations of English Constitutional History down to 1307 and a monumental work, The Constitutional History of England.
Frederic William Maitland was another highly distinguished editor. A barrister and reader in English law at Cambridge University, he was one of the creators of English legal history. He wrote A History of English Law before Edward I (1895, with Sir Frederick Pollock), and Domesday Book and Beyond (1897), as well as editing No. 98 of the Rolls Series—Great Britain. Parliament, 1305. Records of the Parliament holden at Westminster 28 Feb., 33 Edw. I (1305); (1893). To give some idea of the scope of the full Rolls Series, the work includes: Chronica Majura by Matthew Paris, edited by H.R. Luard (No. 57); the Chronicles of Roger of Hoveden, edited by W. Stubbs (No. 51); Benedict of Peterborough, edited by W. Stubbs (No. 49); Ralph de Diceto, edited by W. Stubbs (No. 68); and Walter of Coventry, edited by W. Stubbs (No. 58). There is a contemporary study of Edward the Confessor, edited by H.R. Luard (No. 3), and the only contemporary account of the rise of the Lollards in the fourteenth century, in Fasciculi Zizaniorium Magistri Wyelif cum Tritico by Thomas Netter, edited by W.W. Shirley. (The Lollards were early rebels against the Church.) A major work in the series is The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, According to the Several Original Authorities, edited and with a translation by B. Thorpe; (No. 23). This is the oldest historical work written in any Germanic language, and the basis of most of our knowledge of Anglo-Saxon history from the year 732 onward. Another intriguing work is No. 88—the Icelandic Sagas, edited by G. Vigfusson, with translation by G.W. Dasent. But there are more than just the great chronicles in the series. There are also legal records, and records relating to Ireland and Scotland, such as The Tripartite Life of [St] Patrick, edited by Whitley Stokes, and a metrical (poetic and occasionally fictional) version of the history of Scotland by Hector Boece, edited by W.B. Turnbull; (No. 6): The Buik of the Croniclis of Scotland; or, A Metrical Version of the History of Hector Boece. Finally, as an added pleasure, some volumes of the remarkable ‘Rolls Series’ are complemented by a colourful illustration of part of the original manuscripts—beautiful works of art in themselves. SYLVIA MARCHANT is a Canberra-based writer, historian and reviewer
|
| Back to NLA News Index | Back to August Issue | Back to NLA Home Page |
To order a particular issue of
the NLA News e-mail nlasales@nla.gov.au
or join the Friends of the National
Library of Australia and receive a copy each month by mail.