G. H. Martin – författare

Domesday Book has been described as 'the most valuable piece of antiquity possessed by any nation.' (David Hume) But a complete translation has never been available before at an affordable price. Penguin's edition will change that. Compiled in a matter of months in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror, Domesday quickly established itself as document of immense legal importance. It was last consulted for legal precedent in 1982. It is also the most remarkable portrait of England in thelate eleventh century. The publication of a complete translation of Great and Little Domesday is already being eagerly anticipated by historians. There are advance quotes from Norman Davies, Michael Wood, Roy Strong and Antonia Fraser.

Henry Knighton, a canon of St Mary's Abbey, Leicester, wrote his Chronicle between 1378 and 1396. Leicester was a fief of the duchy of Lancaster, and the abbey was closely in touch with the households of Henry of Grosmont and John of Gaunt. The Chronicle contains exceptionally vivid accounts of the campaigns in France, in which Duke Henry was one of Edward III's leading generals, of the onset and effects of the Black Death, and of the crises of Richard II's reign. Knighton, whose fellow canon Philip Repingdon was a pupil and early disciple of John Wyclif, was a horrified witness of the rise of Lollardy, his account of which is unmatched.The Chronicle was printed in 1652 in a competent text with a brief Latin commentary, and less satisfactorily in the Rolls Series in 1889-95. This edition includes analysis of the text and its sources, and the first translation of its distinguished and engaging narrative.

The history of Church and government in England and on the continent of Europe between the eleventh and the early fourteenth centuries is the subject of this volume of essays by twelve historians including scholars as well known as C. N. L. Brooke, R. C. van Caenegem, R. Foreville, S. Kuttner and W. Ullmann. Each essay is concerned with a major historical text (such as Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain) or an important type of historical document (such as the writings of a famous civilian, Master Vacarius). The general theme of Church and government in the Middle Ages is illustrated through the eves of different types of officials - among them English royal justices, Norman bishops, and monastic archdeacons - as well of scholars and thinkers who also served the needs of government both lay and ecclesiastical - such as Gratian of Bologna and the hitherto neglected canon lawyer John Baconthorpe.