A cartulary is a book into which a member of a religious house entered copies of some or all of the records, including charters, which accumulated in the archives or among the muniments of the house from the time of its foundation or re-foundation, generally in connection with the process of its endowment. It is intended to develop this section of the ‘Kemble’ website with pages on some of these cartularies, using images derived from microfilms acquired from the British Library in the 1970s. We are grateful in this connection to Dr Claire Breay, and to the British Library.
Nothing matches — try a house (Worcester), a shelfmark (Tiberius, Add. 15350), a century, or a MedCart number.
'Tiberius I'
BL Cotton Tiberius A. xiii, fols. 1–118 · early 11th century
Compiled at Worcester in the early eleventh century, apparently at the behest of Wulfstan, bishop of Worcester and archbishop of York. The earliest surviving English cartulary.
'Tiberius II' (Hemming's Cartulary)
BL Cotton Tiberius A. xiii, fols. 119–200 · late 11th century
Also known as 'Hemming's cartulary', compiled at Worcester in the late eleventh century, apparently at the behest of Wulfstan II, bishop of Worcester.
The Codex Wintoniensis
BL Add. 15350 · 1130s
Compiled at the Old Minster (Cathedral Priory), Winchester, in the 1130s.
The Sherborne Cartulary
BL Add. 46487 · mid-1140s
Compiled at Sherborne Abbey in the mid-1140s.
The Abingdon Liber Terrarum (I)
BL Cotton Claudius C. ix · late 1160s
A chronicle-cartulary compiled at Abingdon Abbey in the late 1160s.
The Abingdon Liber Terrarum (II)
BL Cotton Claudius B. vi · early 13th century
A revised version of the above, compiled at Abingdon Abbey in the early thirteenth century.
The Wilton Cartulary
BL Harley 436 · mid-13th century
Compiled at Wilton Abbey in the mid-thirteenth century.
The Liber Vitae of the New Minster, Winchester
BL Stowe 944 · 1031
Not a cartulary but a confraternity book into which documents were entered for the record — an example of the use of gospel-books and libri vitae for record-keeping before cartularies proper.
Known to have existed, now untraced
- Abbotsbury, Dorset MedCart 1 Abbotsbury Abbey →
- Athelney, Somerset MedCart 15 Came to light in 2001. Athelney Abbey →
- Barking, Essex MedCart 18.2 Barking Abbey →
- Burton, Staffordshire Burton Abbey →
- Glastonbury, Somerset: Liber Terrarum MedCart 432.1 Glastonbury Abbey →
- St Albans, Herts. MedCart 830.1 St Albans Abbey →
- London, St Paul's MedCart 598.1 St Paul's Cathedral →
Further reading
- G. R. C. Davis, Medieval Cartularies of Great Britain and Ireland (London, 1958), revised by Claire Breay, Julian Harrison and David M. Smith (London: British Library, 2010). Cited as MedCart, with number. Review (EHR, DOI)
- Peter A. Stokes, 'The Problem of Grade in English Vernacular Minuscule, c. 1060 to 1220', New Medieval Literatures 13 (2011), pp. 23–47, at 32–41 (incl. table of cartularies, c. 1060–c. 1220) and 42–6 (Evesham cartulary in BL Cotton Vespasian B. xxiv). DOI
- S. Keynes, 'King Athelstan's Books' (1985), p. 189 n. 216 — for references to the use of gospel-books for record-keeping.
Background: charters, gospel-books and the first cartularies
There are recorded instances of the keeping of charters by religious houses in the eighth and ninth centuries, and thereafter, presumably in a chest or box. It is also apparent that documents, or copies of documents, might be entered, for the record, in gospel-books, libri vitae, and perhaps other special books, probably from the tenth century onwards (perhaps earlier). For references to the use of gospel-books for record-keeping, see S. Keynes, ‘King Athelstan’s Books’ (1985), p. 189 n. 216.
Cartularies were compiled in the Frankish world from the late eighth century onwards. The earliest surviving English example is ‘Tiberius I’, from Worcester. Cartularies came in many different forms; the selection and organisation of the documents, and the treatment accorded to them by the copyist, depended on the purpose which each was intended to serve.
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