White Book of Southwell

Description

"The White Book of Southwell derives its name from its white vellum cover. Compiled between c. 1350 and 1460, with a few later additions, its 500 pages record 620 individual documents from c. 1100 onwards. They range widely from papal bulls and royal charters, quo warranto inquiries, privileges granted by many archbishops of York to the Chapter at Southwell, individual canons (or prebendaries) and the parishes where the Minister held lands or controlled livings. The majority date from c. 1200-1460 and concern properties which the Chapter owned and administered through its courts, for which some rare proceedings are preserved. Because of their variety, the documents it contains are important not simply for ecclesiastical history but for broader social and economic trends in medieval Nottinghamshire either side of the Black Death. The volume also furnishes a remarkable amount of little-studied onomastic and linguistic evidence in medieval Latin, Anglo-Norman French and Middle English as well as strong traces of earlier Anglo-Scandinavian influences on Nottinghamshire"--Publisher's description, from dust jacket.