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FROM MEMORY TOWRITTEN RECORD:

ENGLAND

1066-1307

M. T. Clanchy

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WHO IS M. T. CLANCHY?

Michael T. Clanchy is a Professor Emeritus of Medieval History at the Institute

of Historical Research, University of London, and a Fellow of the British Academy.

He has taught at the University of Glasgow.

His interests are primarily in law and government in the 12th and 13th century.

He is the Patron of the London Medieval Society.

His other books include:

Abelard: A Medieval Life(about Peter Abelard, the master of the Paris schools) England and its Rulers 1066-1272

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William the Conqueror

William II Rufus

Henry I

Stephen

Henry II

KINGS OF ENGLAND

Richard (Lion Hearted)

John

Henry III

Edward I (Longshanks)

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MEMORIES & MYTHS OF

THE NORMAN CONQUEST

Anglo-Saxon Uses of Writing

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Misconception that Normans had greater expertise in writing

Saxons had more interest in recording their history

2,000 Writs & Charters Exist (Probably Most Destroyed by

Normans)

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MEMORIES & MYTHS OF

THE NORMAN CONQUEST

Uses of the Domesday Book

While spending the Christmas of 1085 in Gloucester, William had

deep speech with his counselors and sent men all over England toeach shire to find out what or how much each landholder had in landand livestock, and what it was worth

Exaggerated its useonly 10 references of being used from WilliamI to Henry I (1135).

A mythology surrounding it

Edward I Use of a Sword This is my warrant Old traditions persisted

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Documents at Village Level

Chronology of Charter

Making

Output of Royal Documents

Documents & Bureaucracy

Work of Hubert Walter

THE PROLIFERATION OF

DOCUMENTS

Royal Influence on Records

All This Wax Data???

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Charters

Chirographs

Certificates

Letters

Writs

Memoranda

TYPES OF RECORDS

Financial Accounts

Surveys & Rentals

Legal Records

Year Books

Chronicles

Cartularies

Registers

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THE TECHNOLOGY OF

WRITING

The Scribe & His Materials

Wax, Parchment & Wood

Committing Words to Writing

Layout & Format

Rolls or Books?

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PRESERVATION & USE OF

DOCUMENTS

Documents DO NOT automatically become Records???

Monastic Documents for Posterity Secular Documents for Daily Use

Archives & Libraries

The Royal Archives

Ways of Remembering

Ways of Indexing

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PRESERVATION & USE OF

DOCUMENTS

Archives:

Do not see any real archival development until later in the medieval

period

Mentions transporting documents through traveling trunks.

Early Church Archives:

Alphabetical Index

Cataloguing System(s) to Identify Records

Many Having Limited Public Access Few of the Monastic Orders Encouraged Scholarship

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WHAT READING MEANT???

What is the literate mentality?

Real scribes vs. petty clerk or scribbler

Some confusion to when villagers really started to learn how to

read and write due to the use of symbols (marks) for signatures

Slowness Norman French competing with Latin and English

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LANGUAGES OF RECORD

French was introduced as a spoken language by the Normans.

Old English declined as a written language.

Hebrew was used by the Jewish as a language of record.

Latin was the language of the clergy and the main language for

records (French began to compete with Latin in this aspect though).

English remained the most common spoken language.

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LITERATE MENTALITY

Literate and Illiterate

Hearing and Seeing

Trusting Writing

Practical Literacy

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GROUP QUESTIONS Clanchy talks about the symbolism that the Domesday Book created whenits significance as a working/practical document had vanished. How had thatchanged when the Magna Carta was signed? Did it have the same symbolicsignificance as the Domesday Book? Did the sheer amount of copies that

were produced somehow diminish this symbolic significance? The statement that a layman was unclerkly by definition whereas a literatewas clerkly even if he were a knight is problematic for the author inanswering if laymen were literate. By our modern definition, where laymenliterate? By the medieval definition, where laymen literate? Did the definitionof a laymen change as well over time?

A past student once argued that Thomas argued in her book on ancient

Greece that democracy did not develop because of literacy, but literacydeveloped because of democracy. She then stated that Clanchy proves thesame point in his book. Do you agree? Why or why not? Was the power oforatory in Greece the same as Clanchys reliance on memory in England?