A History of the Abbey of Bury St Edmunds, 1182-1256

St Edmund's Abbey was one of the most highly privileged and wealthiest religious houses in medieval England, one closely involved with the central government; its history is an integral part of English history. This book (the first of two volumes) offers a magisterial and comprehensive account of the Abbey during the thirteenth century, based primarily on evidence in the abbey's records [over 40 registers survive]. The careers of the abbots, beginning withthe great Samson, provide the chronological structure; separate chapters study various aspects of their rule, such as their relations with the convent, the abbey's internal and external administration and its relations with itstenants and neighbours, with the king and the central government. Chapters are also devoted to the monks' religious, cultural and intellectual life, to their writings, book collection and archives. Appendices focus on the mid-thirteenth century accounts which give a unique and detailed picture of the organisation and economy of St Edmunds' estates in West Suffolk, and on the abbey's watermills and windmills. Professor ANTONIA GRANSDEN is former Reader at the University of Nottingham.   hardback   ISBN 978-1-843-83324-6

Price:  £60.00

Charters of St Bartholomew's Priory, Sudbury

The Benedictine priory of St Bartholomew outside Sudbury was a cell of Westminster Abbey founded in the reign of Henry I by Wulfric the moneyer. Although a small and poorly-endowed establishment, it has nevertheless, and unusually, left over 130 original documents in the muniments at Westminster, enabling this volume in the Suffolk Charters series to be the first to be devoted to a group of original documents rather than medieval transcriptions. Dating mostly from the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, the collection illustrates the lower levels of local society and the government of the town, providing a wealth of evidence for trades and occupations, place names and personal names in the Sudbury area, including the earliest known reeves and mayors of Sudbury. Of particular interest are a late-fourteenth century inventory of the priory which brings alive the physical surroundings of the monks, and the quantities of seals attached to the charters, including an unusual number of women's seals.
RICHARD MORTIMER has been Keeper of the Muniments, Westminster Abbey, since 1986; he has edited four previous volumes in the Suffolk Charters series.   hardback   ISBN 978-0-851-15574-6

Price:  £25.00

Eye Priory Cartulary and Charters I

Eye priory, founded in the late 1080s by Robert Malet as a cell of the abbey of Bernay in Normandy, was the first house of Benedictine monks to be established in Suffolk after the Norman Conquest, to be followed shortly afterwardsby Stoke-by-Clare. The two share similarities; both were cells of great Norman abbeys and both were established in the centre of feudal lordships or `honours'. The heartlands of the honour, given by William the Conqueror to Robert's father, lay around Eye itself, stretching from there across the north of the county eastward to the sea and to Dunwich. The development of this port in the early 12th century and its slow decline therafter, is reflectedin the loss and decline of many of the churches the priory held there. The charters contained in the mid-thirteenth century cartulary provide valuable information about the lordship of the honour as well as other religious, social and economic matters of interest to medieval historians of the local and wider world of the 12th and 13th centuries.
VIVIEN BROWN worked on Eye priory material with her husband, R. Allen Brown, the initiator and first General editor of the series. [East Anglian] Eye priory, founded in the late 1080s by Robert Malet as a cell of the abbey of Bernay in Normandy, was the first house of Benedictine monks to be established in Suffolk after the Norman Conquest. The charters contained in its mid-thirteenth century cartulary provide valuable information about religious, social and economic matters of interest to medieval historians of both the local and wider world of the 12th and13th centuries.
VIVIEN BROWN worked on Eye priory material with her husband, R. Allen Brown, the initiator and first General editor of the series.   hardback   ISBN 978-0-851-15322-3

Price:  £30.00

Eye Priory Cartulary and Charters II

This second volume of the charters of the Benedictine priory of Eye, a cell of the Abbey of Bernay in Normandy, comprises an introduction to the charters and completes the text of the thirteenth-century cartulary edited in the first volume, together with certain other charters from a fourteenth-century rental and custumary and the very few original deeds which survive. As well as being of interest to those studying ecclesiastical and social history, the charters are important in casting light on the history of the `honor' of Eye itself, in particular the succession of its lords in the twelfth century. Interesting links can be made to earlier volumes in the Suffolk Chartersseries. As an alien priory in the centre of an `honor', Eye has affinities with Stoke by Clare, and the evidence which the charters of Eye provide for local history and genealogy is all the more comprehensive in the light of other charters, particularly those of Sibton, Leiston and Blythburgh.
VIVIEN BROWN worked on Eye priory material with her husband, R. Allen Brown, the initiator and first General editor of the series.   hardback   ISBN 978-0-851-15347-6

Price:  £25.00

Landscapes of Monastic Foundation

Monastic studies usually focus upon the post-Conquest period; here, in valuable contrast, the focus is on pre-Conquest monastic foundations, in the present-day counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. Tim Pestell considers the place of the monastery in wider landscapes - topographical, social, economic and political.   hardback   ISBN 978-1-843-83062-7

Price:  £50.00

Sibton Abbey Cartularies and Charters Part II

Sibton Abbey, founded in 1150, was the only Cistercian house in Suffolk. Its substantial remains include two cartularies and a large number of original charters. Of particular interest is the proportion of later documents runningup to the Reformation, thus providing an unusually comprehensive survey of the house, its properties, tenants and patrons.   hardback   ISBN 978-0-851-15443-5

Price:  £25.00

Sibton Abbey Cartularies and Charters Part III

Sibton Abbey, founded in 1150, was the only Cistercian house in Suffolk: of particular interest is the proportion of later documents running up to the Reformation, thus providing an unusually comprehensive survey of the house, itsproperties, tenants and patrons.   hardback   ISBN 978-0-851-15474-9

Price:  £25.00

Sibton Abbey Cartularies and Charters Part IV

[East Anglian] A wealth of surviving documents provide an unusually comprehensive overview of the only Cistercian house in Suffolk.   hardback   ISBN 978-0-851-15499-2

Price:  £25.00

Stoke by Clare Cartulary

The first two volumes make available all the existing pre-Reformation charter material, the third consists of an introduction and index. Taken together the three volumes illuminate the social and economic as well as the ecclesiastical organisation of the Suffolk-Essex border in the 12th and 13th Centuries.   hardback   ISBN 978-0-851-15198-4

Price:  £25.00

Stoke-by-Clare Cartulary

[East Anglian]Three volumes illuminating the social, economic and ecclesiastical organisation of the Suffolk-Essex border in the 12th and 13th centuries.   hardback   ISBN 978-0-851-15165-6

Price:  £25.00

Stoke-by-Clare Priory Cartulary

The first two volumes make available all the existing pre-Reformation charter material, the third consists of an introduction and index. Taken together the three volumes illuminate the social and economic as well as the ecclesiastical organisation of the Suffolk-Essex border in the 12th and 13th Centuries.   hardback   ISBN 978-0-851-15179-3

Price:  £25.00

Suffolk Committees for Scandalous Ministers 1644-46

In the 1640s Parliament intervened against clergymen with Royalist sympathies, and in the political jargon of the time they were referred to as 'Scandalous Ministers'. As the Civil War developed two Suffolk committees were empowered to hear evidence against any minister (or schoolmaster) who was 'scandalous' in either life or doctrine, or in any way 'malignant' (ill-affected to Parliament).   hardback   ISBN 978-0-900-71600-3

Price:  £25.00

The Archives of the Abbey of Bury St Edmunds

The abbey of Bury St Edmunds, shrine of St Edmund, was one of the greatest monasteries in medieval England, richly endowed with estates and widely known for its intellectual and artistic life. The surviving manuscripts from its library have been well catalogued, but its extensive archives, which are now to be found scattered on libraries throughout England, with an important group in the United States, have never been properly listed. Dr Thomson provides not only a valuable tool for the researcher, but also, in his introduction, discusses the way in which such an archive was formed, maintained and used. He applies principles familiar to students of medieval libraries, but which have rarely been used in connection with medieval records, to show how the archive worked in practice. Although the 1335 items listed are primarily of local interest, the book as a whole will be valuable to all those interested in the administrative and economic life of medieval monasteries.   hardback   ISBN 978-0-851-15087-1

Price:  £25.00

The Bury Bible

These full scale colour plates will come as a revelation to most viewers. Thomson has provided an excellent introduction... both the reproductions and the text do full justice to this hitherto undervalued monument of English art and it is much to be hoped that it will be acquired by librarians as well as by bibliophiles. BURLINGTON MAGAZINE [C.M.Kauffmann]   hardback   ISBN 978-0-851-15855-6

Price:  £495.00

The Cartulary of the Augustinian Friars of Clare

The Augustinian friary of Clare is one of the very few medieval religious houses to have been re-occupied, in the present century, by its original inhabitants. This late medieval cartulary contains a multitude of deeds relating to Clare and its immediate neighbourhood recording the endowment of the friary in the late thirteenth and fourteenth centuries by the countess Matilda and numerous local inhabitants. The text is presented in the form of a full English calendar, with notes and an introduction.
CHRISTOPHER HARPER-BILL is principal lecturer in history, St Mary's College, Strawberry Hill. He is general editor of Boydell & Brewer's new series, `Studies in History of the Medieval Church', following the death of R. ALLEN BROWN he has also assumed the editorship of the Suffolk Charters Series. He has edited several volumes of records of the medieval church.[East Anglian] The late medieval cartulary of the Augustinian friary of Clare -one of the very few medieval religious houses to have been re-occupied, in the present century, by its original inhabitants -contains a multitude of deeds relating to Clare and its immediate neighbourhood, recording the endowment of the friary in the late thirteenth and fourteenth centuries by the countess Matilda and numerous local inhabitants. Of wider interest are documents relating to the furnishing of a chapel, violation of the right of sanctuary, indulgences and the friars' library and begging limits. The text is presented in the form of a full English calendar, with notes and an introduction.
CHRISTOPHER HARPER-BILL is principal lecturer in history, St Mary's College, Strawberry Hill. He is general editor of Boydell & Brewer's new series, `Studies in History of the Medieval Church'; following the death of R. ALLEN BROWN he has also assumed the editorship of the Suffolk Charters Series. He has edited several volumes of records of the medieval church.   hardback   ISBN 978-0-851-15295-0

Price:  £25.00

The Journal of William Dowsing

During the Civil War, in late 1643 and 1644, the Suffolk puritan William Dowsing visited some hundred parish churches in Cambridgeshire, and about a hundred and fifty in Suffolk, smashing stained glass and other 'superstitious' imagery, ripping up monumental brass inscriptions, destroying altar rails and steps, and pulling down crucifixes and crosses.   hardback   ISBN 978-0-851-15833-4

Price:  £50.00