The states of the manors of Westminster Abbey, c.1300-1422. Part 1 and 2
- Submitting institution
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University of Southampton
- Unit of assessment
- 28 - History
- Output identifier
- 67488673
- Type
- R - Scholarly edition
- DOI
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- Title of edition
- The states of the manors of Westminster Abbey, c.1300-1422. Part 1 and 2
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press for the British Academy
- ISBN
- -
- Open access status
- -
- Month of publication
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- Year of publication
- 2019
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
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- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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1
- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- Yes
- Double-weighted statement
- This longer-form output, 701 pages in two volumes, approximately 290,000 words plus an extensive index – is a scholarly edition of 75 states (overviews of the estate and revenues) of the Abbey’s properties, in the Westminster Abbey archives. It is the culmination of many years of work by Harvey, completed by Woolgar as his main research in 2016-19. The edition presents the Latin text for rolls up to 1375, and calendars the balance. The introduction discusses their function in the management of the late medieval agricultural economy, comparing Westminster’s systems with others, drawing on manuscripts from a further 12 archives.
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- Woolgar took over this edition from Harvey in 2016: she was in her 80s, unable to complete it or to discuss it further – she had been working on it for many years. The project then formed the main part of Woolgar’s research in 2016-19, including a semester’s research leave. The Abbey’s properties were divided between the abbot and the convent, with parallel administrative systems. Harvey had done the initial transcription, annotation and first checking of all material except the convent’s states after 1400; she prepared an appendix on the abbot’s estate officials. Woolgar completed the transcription and annotation, with 10 fifteenth-century states for the convent; he checked the whole edition and described all 75 manuscripts, wrote the introduction, complied the Word List and Glossary (to explain many unusual words and the language of the Westminster clerks), brought the text to its final form, saw it through the press and prepared an extensive index (79 pages) including full subject information.
The research process involved extensive work in the muniment room at Westminster, on the states and related financial documents. The introduction covers the role and development of accounting systems, locates the Westminster material in a wider context and shows its development and change. Westminster was one of the wealthiest monasteries: the states are an extraordinary survival providing details of the planning and management across an entire estate, property by property. Key insights include how the abbey’s estates and their tenants coped with the Black Death – tithes show tenants making malt out of weeds, in desperation at the lack of other possibilities; they show how the abbey used the central audit of its manorial accounts, as well as local views of accounts to make detailed arrangements, for example, for the provision of grain and livestock for Westminster or its sale.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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