Philippa Hoskin - Böcker

This latest edition to the English Episcopal Acta series brings together for the first time edited versions of all the extant charters issued by the bishops of Durham between 1241 and 1283: Nicholas Farnham, Walter Kirkham, Robert Stichill and Robert of Holy Island (the last two, unusually at this date, monastic bishops). The surviving charters provide insights into episcopal administration and estate management in the mid-thirteenth-century diocese. A full introduction considers the lives of these little-studied bishops and the diplomatic of their charters, as well as the unusual structure of the episcopal households here. The bishops' itineraries are also given in an appendix. This volume complements EEA 24IR (0-19-726234-1) and EEA 25 (0-19-726235-X), which contained the acta from 1153 onwards.

This long-awaited study of the early acta of the bishops of Worcester includes full editions of the surviving documents of eight bishops, from the saintly Wulfstan to the future archbishop of Canterbury, Baldwin. The 265 documents or references to lost acta, include indulgences, confirmations and grants, settlements of disputes and some of the earliest surviving inspeximuses. Accompanying the documents is a comprehensive introduction, providing brief biographies of the bishops as well as considerations of their households and of the diplomatic of their documents.

This volume completes the publication of acta from this diocese. It contains full editions of the surviving documents of seven bishops and charts a period of building work, the canonisation of an earlier bishop, Wulfstan, and includes the documents of a future archbishop of York, Walter de Gray. The introduction discusses the Statuta of Bishop Henry and the Decreta of Bishop John. This volume is of value to all those interested in medieval England as well as to those with particular interests in the history of Worcestershire, Gloucestershire or Warwickshire.

This volume reproduces at full size 190 original charters produced for English bishops between 1085 and 1300. Full transcriptions face each plate, with a brief English summary and bibliographical note.The documents are drawn from every diocese, and are taken from fifty-five archives in England, France and Belgium. The selection includes representative examples of all the commoner types of document - solemn charters, judgements, mandates, indulgences, administrative or personal correspondence and formal notifications to the crown. A few cases of drafts, and several of forgery, are also included.The volume indicates the ways in which these documents, as the scribe prepared them, contain information - in punctuation, lay-out and physical appearance - which cannot be shown in even the most scrupulous printed edition. The introduction gives a broad outline of the evolution of the forms and script, and of methods of sealing.

The position of the medieval diocese of London - situated at the heart of government - ensured that the bishops were involved in both pastoral care and politics. Volume 38 edits the extant documents of five bishops of London, from Roger Niger to John Chishull. It includes an extensive introduction, which considers the role of men such as Fulk Basset and Henry of Sandwich, both within their diocese and beyond, and examines in particular how, as bishops and lords, they were involved with the upheavals of the 1260s. It also provides insights into the development of their administrative practice and a discussion of the careers of men associated with the bishops' households. Volume 39 completes the episcopal documents and includes full itineraries for all the bishops, an appendix of episcopal documents relating to Bishop Gravesend's role in the papal taxation of 1301 to 1303, and full subject and name indexes.

The position of the medieval diocese of London - situated at the heart of government - ensured that the bishops were involved in both pastoral care and politics. Volume 38 edits the extant documents of five bishops of London, from Roger Niger to John Chishull. It includes an extensive introduction, which considers the role of men such as Fulk Basset and Henry of Sandwich, both within their diocese and beyond, and examines in particular how, as bishops and lords, they were involved with the upheavals of the 1260s. It also provides insights into the development of their administrative practice and a discussion of the careers of men associated with the bishops' households. Volume 39 completes the episcopal documents and includes full itineraries for all the bishops, an appendix of episcopal documents relating to Bishop Gravesend's role in the papal taxation of 1301 to 1303, and full subject and name indexes.

With the publication of volumes 43 and 44 in the internationally-recognised English Episcopal Acta series, the project's work on the diocese of Coventry and Lichfield is complete. The volumes draw together for the first time modern, scholarly editions of all the known documents issued by six bishops. They enable academics to see the work of the bishops of this large see in a broader chronological context and elucidate areas of their economic and social activity. They also deal with the bishop's political activities: at national level in the events of the civil war of the 1260s, and locally in their dealing with their own chapters and the struggle to reconcile the conflicting claims of the monks of Coventry and the canons of Lichfield. The volumes reveal men whose episcopates were ones of academic learning as well as those whose concerns were principally those of landed lords. The implications of the documents are discussed in a full introduction. In addition, appendices include the first full itineraries of the bishops and editions of the known documents issued by the bishop's officials and commissaries, thus allowing a fuller consideration of the working of Church administration in this period.