Wikipedia:Today's featured article/August 30, 2011

Hemming's Cartulary is a manuscript cartulary collected by Hemming, a monk around the time of the Norman Conquest of England. The manuscript comprises two separate cartularies made at different times and later bound together. The first section, traditionally titled the Liber Wigorniensis, is a collection of charters and other land records, most of which are organized geographically. The second section, Hemming's Cartulary proper, combines charters and other land records with a narrative of deprivation of property owned by the church of Worcester. The two works are bound together in one surviving manuscript, the earliest surviving cartulary from medieval England. A major theme concerns the losses suffered by Worcester at the hands of royal officials and local landowners. Included among the despoilers are kings such as Cnut and William the Conqueror, and nobles such as Eadric Streona and Urse d'Abetot; also included are accounts of lawsuits waged by the Worcester monks to regain their lost lands. The two sections of the cartulary were first printed in 1723. The original manuscript was slightly damaged by fire in 1733, and required rebinding. A new printed edition is in production as of 2010. (more...)

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