News
1. Website
The Project’s website went online soon after the Project commenced in April 2005. Material was uploaded to it as and when it became available. The site itself has been remodelled on several occasions, most recently in December 2009. As the Project is now finished, there will be no further major uploads.
2. The Translations of the rolls
The work of translation has been done by Paul Dryburgh and Beth Hartland (with assistance at the start from Polly Hanchett). All the rolls are in a finished state, fully checked and with the majority of place names identified.
3. Indexes and search facility
The indexes and search facility for the rolls between 1216 and 1248 are online. 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 were collated, made that impossible. In the light of this, in September 2009 the AHRC agreed to a revision of the Project’s aims which became to complete indexes and search facility down to 1248, and the fully finished translation down to end of the reign in 1272. 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 not only translated the rolls. They have also marked them up, or (to put it another way) encoded 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 DDH: 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
The work of identifying the modern forms of places named in the rolls has greatly benefitted from the work of Jonathan Mackman, Ben Wild and Simon Harris.
6. Checking
The 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 1272, captured by TNA, are available on the website. 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) is under preparation. 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). There remains an intention to get the volumes from 1248 to 1272 published if possible.
9. The Fine of the month feature
For each month, starting in December 2005 and ending in December 2012, a member of the project team or outside scholar commented on material of interest to be found within the Fine Rolls. These 85 ‘Fines of the Month’ now amount to over 350,000 words. Occasional new FOMS may continue to be published.
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 editions. 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.