Chronicon monasterii de Abingdon: Volume 2, From the Norman Conquest until the Accession of Richard the First Cambridge Library Collection - Rolls Series

Originally published in 1858, this two-volume chronicle covers approximately 500 years, from the seventh-century foundation of Abingdon Abbey to the accession of Richard I in 1189. Editor Joseph Stevenson (1806?95) claims that its value is less as a detailed history than as an illustration of England's journey from barbarism to civilisation. Although ostensibly a record of the fortunes of the Benedictine monastery, it is a rich source of not only local but also national and international history. In his prefaces to the Latin text, Stevenson discusses the manuscript sources as well as the context of the monastery's development. He goes on to describe the influence of Christianity and the monastic system on such areas as agriculture and commerce. Volume 2, which begins with the Norman Conquest, includes a life of the tenth-century abbot and saint Ethelwold, among other appendices, as well as helpful glossaries, chronological lists of documents and an index to both volumes.

Preface; Appendix to the preface; Chronicon monasterii de Abingdon; Appendix I. Vita Aethelwoldi, episcopi Wintoniensi, auctore Aelfrico; Appendix II. De abbatibus Abbendoniae; Appendix III. De consuetudinibus Abbendoniae; Appendix IV. De Obendientiariis abbatiae Abbendoniensis; Introduction to the glossary of Latin words; Glossary of Latin words and expressions; Glossary of Saxon words and expressions which occur in the boundaries; A chronological list of the charters contained in the chronicle of Abingdon - volume the first; Table showing the concordance between the arrangement of the Saxon charters as they stand in the Historia monasterii de Abingdon, the Codex diplomaticus, and the chronological list; A chronological list of the charters contained in the chronicle of Abingdon - volume the second; Index.