News
1. Website
The Project’s website went online soon after the Project commenced in April 2005. Since then, material has been uploaded to it as and when it has become available thanks to the progress of the Project. The site itself has been remodelled on several occasions, most recently in December 2009.
2. The Translations of the rolls
Thanks to the work of Paul Dryburgh and Beth Hartland (with assistance at the start from Polly Hanchett), the initial translations of the rolls are now nearing completion. The rolls between 1216–1242 are online in a finished state, fully checked and with place names identified. The rolls between 1242–1272 are on line in draft form with checking and the identification of place names uncompleted. The year 2010 will see placed online the draft translations of all the remaining rolls. By the end of the project, the plan is to have all the rolls online in finished form, that is fully checked and with place names identified.
3. Indexes and search facility
The indexes and search facility for the rolls between 1216 and 1234 are online. The work to advance the indexes and search facility to 1242 has largely been done and these will be made available in the course of 2010. By the end of the Project the online indexes and search facility will be further advanced to 1248. The Project had planned to complete the indexes and search facility for all the rolls down to the end of the reign in 1272. However the sheer bulk of the later rolls, and the amount of material on the Originalia rolls with which they are being collated, has made that impossible. In the light of this, in September 2009 the AHRC agreed to a revision of the Project’s aims which are now to complete indexes and search facility down to 1248, and the fully finished translation down to end of the reign in 1272. It is hoped that further funding will enable the 1248–1272 indexes and search facility to be completed. Meanwhile it will be possible to investigate the 1248–1272 rolls using a web browser Edit-Find function (Ctrl-F).
4. Mark-up
Paul Dryburgh and Beth Hartland are not only translating the rolls. They are also marking them up, or (to put it another way) encoding them, in XML format. 1 The ‘structural’ mark-up divides up and numbers the entries. The ‘semantic’ mark-up creates the authority lists which provides the basis for producing the multiple indexes and search facility. In all this Dryburgh and Hartland have been trained by, and work in collaboration with, Harold Short and his team at CCH: Paul Spence, Arianna Ciula, José Miguel Vieira, and Tamara Lopez. That team has done the path breaking technical work and research which has made possible the electronically encoded rolls on the website.
5. Place name identification
Progress in identifying the modern forms of the places named in the rolls has greatly benefited from the work of Jonathan Mackman and Ben Wild.
6. Checking
Work of checking the translations has been carried out by David Crook, David Carpenter, and Louise Wilkinson with the assistance of Paul Brand.
7. Images
Images of every roll from 1216 to 1248, captured by TNA, are available on the website and those for the remaining rolls will follow in 2010. It is possible to click from the membranes into which the rolls are divided to the relevant translation.
8. Book publication
The first three volumes of the Fine Rolls of Henry III have been published: Calendar of the Fine Rolls of the Reign of Henry III. Volume I: 1216–1224, eds. Paul Dryburgh & Beth Hartland, technical eds. Arianna Ciula & José Miguel Vieira (Woodbridge, 2007), Calendar of the Fine Rolls of the Reign of Henry III. Volume II: 1224–1234, eds. Paul Dryburgh & Beth Hartland, technical eds. Arianna Ciula & José Miguel Vieira (Woodbridge, 2008), and Calendar of the Fine Rolls of the Reign of Henry III. Volume II: 1234–1242, eds. Paul Dryburgh & Beth Hartland, technical eds. Arianna Ciula & José Miguel Vieira (Woodbridge, 2009). All these volumes have been seen through the press by Tamara Lopez of CCH. A fourth volume (for the years 1242 to 1248) will be ready for publication by the end of the Project. The Project originally hoped to publish further volumes covering the years from 1248 to 1272 but the sheer bulk of the later material has made this impossible (see above under 2). However, it is hoped to secure funding which will make volumes for the years 1248 to 1272 possible.
9. The Fine of the month feature
For each month, starting in December 2005, a member of the project team or outside scholar has commented on material of interest to be found within the Fine Rolls. These ‘Fines of the Month’ now amount to over 150,000 words. The FOMS may sometimes lag behind, but the intention is very much for there to be one for every month down to the end of the Project.
10. Style book
In the early stages of the Project, Paul Dryburgh and Polly Hanchett spent considerable time compiling the Style Book, identifying problems that require clarification and formulae that can and ought to be standardised for edition. Their findings were presented to the International Advisory Committee for consideration. After much (often-heated) discussion the Style Book, which can now be viewed on this site, was updated into its present form with the assistance of Paul Brand, whose knowledge of legal terminology is reflected throughout the calendars and indexes. The last update was in December 2009. We welcome any comments, suggestions and corrections.