British Academy - Royal Historical Society

ANGLO-SAXON CHARTERS

ANGLO-SAXON CHARTERS
ON SINGLE SHEETS

A CLASSIFIED LIST

compiled under the auspices of the
Joint Committee of Anglo-Saxon Charters
by Simon Keynes

Updated 20 July 2002

About 200 Anglo-Saxon charters survive in their 'original' form, written on single sheets of parchment. Many of these charters satisfy all of the available tests of authenticity, are written in hands judged to be contemporary with the given date, and thus constitute a foundation for our knowledge and understanding of Anglo-Saxon palaeography, diplomatic, and much else besides. Others prove on inspection to be later copies, or forgeries, often made in the tenth or eleventh centuries, and as such are of great interest for a variety of other reasons.

For further information on published facsimiles of all this material, click here.

The great majority of the surviving corpus of Anglo-Saxon charters on single sheets are preserved in the British Library, notably in the collections formed in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by Sir Robert Cotton, Sir Edward Dering, Sir Simonds D'Ewes, Sir Edward Harley, Sir Christopher Hatton, Thomas Astle, and others. For a fuller account of the Anglo-Saxon charters in the British Library, click here.

Images of all the single-sheet charters in the British Library will be made available via links from this website, for purposes of private study, by kind permission of the British Library. The Joint Committee on Anglo-Saxon Charters is grateful to Professor Andrew Prescott (University of Sheffield, and Department of Manuscripts, British Library) and to Dr Claire Breay (Department of Manuscripts, British Library) for their assistance in this connection. For links to some sample images, click here.

<Please note that the format of this list is experimental>

Entries are separately numbered, for ease of cross-reference within the list, and for purposes of concordance. Each entry supplies the following information:

the number of the particular document in Professor Sawyer's Anglo-Saxon Charters (abbreviated S);
a reference to a printed text;
the identity of the person (usually the king) in whose name the document runs, or some other general indication of its nature;
the apparent or stated date of the text;
a specific citation of the single sheet in question;
a reference to a published facsimile, in BMFacs., OSFacs. or BAFacs.;
the name of the archive in which the single sheet is or was preserved.

In several cases additional information is supplied after the main entry, for example on significant physical features of the single sheet, or on the identification of the scribe in other charters or different contexts. These comments are not exhaustive, and are merely intended at this stage to draw attention to some of the more obvious physical features of the charters themselves.

It is intended (when time and resources permit) to provide links within each entry to the corresponding entries in the 'Electronic Sawyer' and in 'Regesta Regum Anglorum'.

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Section I

Charters written in the seventh, eighth, or ninth century

(a) Royal diplomas, etc.: nos. 1-77
Listed in order of their apparent or stated date; includes originals, contemporary or later copies of apparently authentic documents, and forgeries. The notes give some indication of status, but it is often difficult to make a clear distinction.
(b) Vernacular documents: nos. 78-87
Vernacular documents (including wills and miscellaneous records) are listed in sub-section I (b), in order of their apparent or stated date.

Section II

Charters written in the tenth or eleventh century

(a) Royal diplomas, etc.: nos. 88-161 (originals or contemporary copies)
Listed in order of apparent or stated date.
(b) Copies or forgeries: nos. 162-223
Listed in order of the number of the document in Professor Sawyer's catalogue.
(c) Leases: nos. 224-37
Listed in order of apparent or stated date.
(d) Vernacular documents: nos. 238-76
Listed in order of apparent or stated date.

Section III

Writs

(a) Originals (or apparent originals): nos. 277-82
Listed in order of apparent or stated date.
(b) Copies or forgeries: nos. 283-94
Listed in order of apparent or stated date.

Section IV

Charters on single sheets written in the twelfth century or later

(a) Medieval copies or forgeries: nos. 295-315
Listed in Sawyer order.
(b) Early Modern script-facsimiles or transcripts: nos. 316-18
Listed in Sawyer order.

This section includes all charters contained in one or other of the facsimile editions; but it should be noted that there are others.

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