HLS's Digitized Manor Rolls, Writs and Statutes

[Via HLS's Karen Beck and H-Law, we have the following Announcement of Digitized English Manor Rolls, Writs, Statutes.

The Harvard Law School Library’s Historical & Special Collections is pleased to announce the release of several early manuscript digital collections of likely interest to students and scholars of late medieval and early modern Anglo-American law and history.

English Manor Rolls.  We recently began a multi-year project to conserve and digitize our collection of English manor rolls. The collection consists of 170 court rolls, account rolls, and other documents from various manors, ranging in date from 1282 to 1770. For a complete description of the collection, see the finding aid, which will change and grow as digital images of the rolls become available. Links to the images, along with improved descriptions of the rolls, will be added as the project progresses. We welcome your suggestions for improved descriptions; email specialc@law.harvard.edu with your feedback.  [More information.]

Registers of Writs.  With funding from the Ames Foundation and the Harvard Law School Library, we have digitized our entire manuscript collection of 19 registers of English legal writs, dating from about 1275 to 1476. A link to the online collection is available here. Cataloging information for each writ may be found by searching Harvard’s library catalog, HOLLIS, and browsing by “other call number”: HLS MS XXX.

Magna Carta and English Statutory Compilations.  To celebrate Magna Carta’s 800th birthday, the Ames Foundation and the Harvard Law School Library have digitized our entire manuscript collection of English statutory compilations, dating from about 1300 to 1500. A link to the collection is available here. Search HOLLIS as described above for cataloging information.

Enhancing the Online Descriptions.  The Ames Foundation has begun a project to fully describe the contents of these registers and statutes. Visit [here] to read more about the project, to see an example of a fully-described manuscript (HLS MS 184), and to find out how you can help.

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