The register of Edward Story, bishop of Chichester 1478-1503

摘要

Bishops registers are the fundamental source for the late medieval English Church. Bishops registers contribute to every parish history. Hundreds of registers survive in diocesan series inconveniently scattered across the country. They are always written in the Latin that fewer and fewer people understand. Such registers are being calendared and thus made accessible each year by the Canterbury and York Society and occasionally by local record series. A century after the foundation of the society, a dispiriting number remain to be published. Regrettably most published county sets start at the beginning, often 1270-1300, and break off well before the Reformation. To have two new late-fifteenth-century volumes is therefore thoroughly welcome. Once published, of course, the original registers will seldom be consulted and it is therefore essential that the editing be properly done. Few historians today have the necessary linguistic, palaeographic, editorial and technical skills, but both these editors have published such complex texts before and knew what was needed. All Latin entries have been rendered into English, none being printed in extenso, but items in Middle English (a proclamation and abjurations) are retained as such.