Sensory Perception in the Medieval West
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Book Series
Utrecht Studies in Medieval Literacy, vol. 59
The Materiality of Medieval Administration in Northern England
Abigail Armstrong
- Pages: xxv + 325 p.
- Size:156 x 234 mm
- Illustrations:33 b/w, 5 col., 9 tables b/w., 3 maps b/w
- Language(s):English
- Publication Year:2024
- € 95,00 EXCL. VAT RETAIL PRICE
- ISBN: 978-2-503-60743-6
- Hardback
- Available
- ISBN: 978-2-503-60744-3
- E-book
- Available
A study of the financial and administrative record-keeping practices of the late medieval earls of Northumberland and bishops of Durham, which furthers our understanding of seigneurial estate management.
Subject(s)
BIO
Dr Abigail S. Armstrong is a postdoctoral researcher within the German Research Foundation (DFG) funded Collaborative Research Centre 933: Material Text Cultures at the University of Heidelberg. She obtained her PhD from Canterbury Christ Church University in 2019. Her research focusses on the records of the nobility and royal government in the High and Late Middle Ages.
Summary
In the late Middle Ages, the Percy earls of Northumberland and the bishops of Durham were two of the largest landholders in the North East of England. This book is a study of their estate administrations based on the extant manorial accounts from the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries. Examining the documents holistically, it investigates the shapes of the records and the materials they were written upon, as well as how they were used and stored to provide new insights into late medieval lordly administration. Such a material-focussed approach explores the concurrent use of rolls, booklets, paper, and parchment for different types of manorial accounts and at different steps of the multistage production and audit process. It also examines the hands drafting, editing, and auditing the accounts, in addition to the layout and presentation of the contents of the records to further our understanding of the written burden of proof required in the management and audit of large estates in late medieval England. Studying the financial accounts of the earls of Northumberland and the bishops of Durham from a material perspective reveals two highly sophisticated administrative systems and structures of accountability.
