Archives mensuelles : mai 2023

Records of Medieval Newmarket

Manor Court Rolls 1399-1413 and Manor Account Rolls 1403-1483

Edited by James Davis and Joanne Sear

Medieval manorial records provide a unique insight into the economic and social life of local communities, as well as the different approaches adopted by lords in managing their estates.

This volume, edited by James Davis and Joanne Sear, contains the translations of the surviving court and account rolls of Newmarket, together with translations of two royal charters for Newmarket’s fairs. Although the court rolls span only fifteen years around the turn of the fifteenth century, the four different types of court they represent – manorial, market, fair and leet – are not replicated in the surviving records of any other medieval English small town. Also included are substantial sets of account rolls from the middle and later years of the fifteenth century which, in particular, provide details of the holdings, stalls and shops that were rented not just to Newmarket tenants but also to traders from further afield. Although the dates of the two sets of rolls do not coincide, their span across most of the fifteenth century provides substantive evidence for the growth and expansion of commercial activities, changing Newmarket from an inconsequential trading post into a significant and vibrant settlement, albeit small, on the main route between London and Norwich.

The manorial rolls contain deletions and revisions, showing that they were used as working documents, indispensable to the lord of the manor’s officials in overseeing the smooth running of the settlement and in ensuring the maximal receipt of all the income due to him. The commercial focus is a clear and vibrant reminder of the importance of markets to much of medieval society.

Approaching Pipe Rolls. The Thirteenth Century

By Richard Cassidy

This is the first study specifically concerned with thirteenth-century pipe rolls and shows how pipe rolls were compiled, what they contain, and how to read them.

These records of English government finance were produced annually. They list debts owed to the government, by the sheriffs of each county, by manors and boroughs, and by individuals for taxes, fines and judicial penalties. They also list the payments made, sometimes in cash to the treasury, sometimes for building works, fees for royal employees and relatives, the provision of castles, and much more. The rolls are an essential source for administrative history, and provide detailed information for family and local historians. All the rolls are now readily available, either in print or online, but they are at first sight difficult to understand.

This book shows how the rolls evolved in the course of the century and serves as a guide for beginners, armed with some basic Latin, who want to explore these records. As well as explaining the conventions of dates, numbers, abbreviations, monetary units and so on, it illustrates the material to be found in pipe rolls by a detailed examination of a single roll.

Late-Medieval Accountability

Accounting, normativity, and rhetoric from the public to the domestic sphere

Research Institute of the University of Bucharest 2–3 June 2023

Friday, June 2nd

1000 Welcome remarks

1005 From record-keeping to norms of accountability

Chair: Dana-Silvia Caciur (University of Bucharest)

Louis IX’s inquests: from accounting for the next life to royal accountability

Marie Dejoux (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne)

Accounting, accountability, and normativity from the public to the domestic sphere: state of research and perspectives
Ionuț Epurescu-Pascovici (University of Bucharest)

1125 Coffee break
1140 Public accounting on the shores of the Mediterranean

Chair: Ionuț Epurescu-Pascovici

The municipal accountability of fourteenth-century Marseille

François Otchakovsky-Laurens (Université d’Aix-Marseille)

Mani pulite! Auditing accounts and fighting corruption in fifteenth-century Sicily Alessandro Silvestri (Università degli Studi di Salerno)

1300 Lunch
1500 Ultra mare: controlling the Venetian and Genoese overseas agents

Chair: Ionuț Epurescu-Pascovici

The Venetian counts of late-medieval Dalmatia: administrative responsibilities and accountability
Dana-Silvia Caciur

The Venetian and Genoese Black Sea agents: accountability and institutional dialogue with the metropolis (14th15th centuries)
Alessandro Flavio Dumitrașcu (University of Bucharest)

1620 Coffee break

1640 Surveys and fiscal assessments in late-medieval Italy Chair: Alessandro Silvestri

Indirect taxation, liability, and ‘semipublic’ documents: accounting practices and records of the gabellers of the commune of Bologna (13th14th centuries)
Marco Conti (Université Bordeaux Montaigne)

The public accountability of measurers and surveyors: the case of late-medieval Florence

Anna Pomierny-Wąsińska (Manteuffel Institute of History, Warsaw)

Saturday, June 3rd
10
00 Between family, business, and the commune: accounting in late-medieval Tuscany

Chair: Ionuț Epurescu-Pascovici

Women and bookkeeping in fifteenth-century Florence: a gendered perspective on medieval accounting
Serena Galasso (University of Glasgow)

Artisans and small merchants as accountants of Tuscan institutions (14th16th centuries)

Paola Pinelli (Università degli Studi di Firenze) 1120 Coffee break
1140 The accounts of medieval clerics and friars

Chair: Ionuț Epurescu-Pascovici

Private accounting in curial Avignon: the ledgers of Pierre Boyer, acolitus of Urban V and Gregory XI
Armand Jamme (Centre national de la recherche scientifique, Lyon)

Reddere rationem: the mendicant friars’ money management Emanuele Carletti (Università degli Studi Roma Tre)

1300 Lunch
1500 Roundtable: current directions in the study of medieval accountability

This event is organised in the frame of the Exploratory Research Project

A holistic approach to social and institutional accountability in the late Middle Ages

funded by the Romanian research agency (grant no. PN-III-P4-PCE-2021-0238) https://icub.unibuc.ro/medieval-accountability/