About

Scope and Coverage

This catalogue describes a large proportion of charters, deeds, other documentary materials, and seals in the collections of the Bodleian Libraries from the medieval and early modern periods (to approximately 1800). The catalogue currently covers all of the so-called “charters” and “rolls” collection. This is an artificial collection of documents (shelfmarked MSS. Ch. and MSS. Rolls) organized topographically, created in the late 19th century and added to extensively in the 20th century. The catalogue also covers a large part of the “deposited deed” (D.D.) collections. Currently included are MSS. D.D. Ch. Ch. (Christ Church), D.D. Radcliffe, D.D. Risley, D.D. Weld). The remaining D.D. collections will be added in late 2023 and early 2024. The catalogue does not currently include charter material in other collections (e.g. MSS. Eng., Hist., or Top.)
Although the collections are described and shelfmarked as “charters” and “deeds”, their contents range much more widely than documents of title, including family and estate papers and records of royal and ecclesiastical administration.
The catalogue covers documents created before c.1800. Finding aids for documents of later date are outlined in the collection descriptions. The catalogue does not include antiquarian transcripts of documents, such as those made by Roger Dodsworth.

Sources and levels of description

The catalogue is based on existing finding aids. With one exception, no new cataloguing has been undertaken Some finding aids have been reproduced in full; others have been summarized, with links where possible to the original finding aid, which should be consulted for fuller information.
Charters and rolls (MSS. Ch., MSS. Rolls) acquired before 1878 are described in Calendar of Charters and Rolls Preserved in the Bodleian Library, ed. William H. Turner and H. O. Coxe (1878). The version of record is a copy annotated and corrected by W. D. Macray and others kept in the Weston Library and available in digital form. The full corrected text is included in this catalogue.
Charters and rolls (MSS. Ch., MSS. Rolls) acquired after 1878 are described in handwritten or typescript slips with accompanying indexes. The full text of these slips is NOT currently available in this catalogue. The catalogue provides a summary description containing the date of the document and the main places to which it relates. For full information, the original slip should be consulted: the catalogue records provide links to the relevant digital images.
MSS. D. D. Ch. Ch. (Deposited Deeds Christ Church) are described in N. Denholm-Young, Cartulary of the mediaeval archives of Christ Church, Oxford Historical Society 92 (1931). With the kind permission of Oxford Historical Society, the full text of this volume is included in the catalogue. Denholm-Young also describes some items in the main Bodleian Ch. and Rolls collections, and in these cases his descriptions have been included in preference to those in Turner and Coxe. Denholm-Young does not describe charters relating to Oseney or Osney Abbey which had been printed in H. E. Salter, Cartulary of Osney Abbey, 6 vols., Oxford Historical Society 89-91, 97-8, 101 (1929-1936). Descriptions of these charters have been taken from Salter’s volume and include only Salter’s summary text and his description of any seals.
Other D.D. (Deposited Deed) collections are described in the charter slips referred to above; as above, the full text of the slips is NOT available, only a summary description containing the date of the document and the main places to which it relates Other finding aids relating to these collections, principally unpublished Bodleian Library handlists, are described in the collection notes.
Descriptions of seals are taken from all the above sources, and in addition from the unpublished Bodleian Library handlist of seals compiled by J. Gilbert Wiblin in 1916 and updated at various later periods. We have attempted to use the most detailed description available, but note that the majority of descriptions are summary and some simply note the existence of a seal.
The collection of Miscellaneous Charters (Misc. Ch.) was previously partly uncatalogued. Preliminary descriptions of Misc. Ch. 241-536 are being created as part of this project.

Technical information

The catalogue entries are encoded in TEI XML following a customization of the guidelines developed by the CEI2TEI project. The TEI files are available on GitHub.

Credits and acknowledgements

The first version of the catalogue, launched in October 2023, was created as part of the MARCO project, with funding from the Mellon Foundation.

Curatorial lead

Matthew Holford

Encoding and data conversion

Tuija Ainonen

Helen Watt

Development team

Andrew Irving

Sebastian Lange