The states of the manors of Westminster Abbey c.1300-1422 / edited by Barbara F. Harvey and Christopher M. Woolgar.

First edition.

Oxford : Published for the British Academy by Oxford University Press, 2019.

2 volumes (xviii, 701 pages) ; 24 cm.

Text in Latin and English; critical matter in English.

"Westminster Abbey was one of the wealthiest monasteries in late medieval England. The documents included in this two-part edition provide an unparalleled insight into the administration of its lands at a major point of social and economic change either side of the Black Death. The 75 edited documents provide overviews ('states') of the Westminster estate and its revenues, as administered by the abbot and convent separately between c. 1300 and 1422. The states are of two types. The first gives estimates of corn, stock and cash on the manors, made partway through the financial year - this is unusual information to survive across substantial parts of the estate. The second group has little parallel : summarising the manorial accounts across the abbot's or the convent's portion of the lands, the states add information about the management of the estate, its value, areas and so on. In this edition, the Latin text is given of the accounts up to 1375, after which the material is presented in calendared form. The texts are supplemented by a word list and glossary, and an appendix of the abbot's officials. These documents provide rich evidence of the agricultural economy of medieval England and, at the same time, demonstrate the sophisticated financial and administrative systems the monks employed in a transition from the direct management of their lands to systems of leaseholds."-- details from publisher.

English; Latin

February 10, 2021

Includes bibliographical references (pages 617-622) and index.