The Cartulary of Chatteris Abbey

The fifteenth-century cartulary of the Benedictine nunnery of Chatteris abbey in Cambridgeshire (founded in the early eleventh century) has until now received little attention, perhaps due to its damage in the Cotton Library fire of 1731. The records, however, reveal valuable detail about the abbey's operations, and, as one of the few cartularies surviving from English nunneries, are especially useful for the study of women religious. The manuscript contains copies of documents dating from the mid-twelfth to the fifteenth centuries; this critical edition comprises a full transcription, together with historical notes and apparatus. The introduction draws on the cartulary itself, as well as manorial and episcopal records, to analyse the nunnery's relationship with its patron, the bishop of Ely, and the development and management of its estates; it also examines the location and layout of the abbey, the social and geographical origins of the nuns, and the production and organisation of the cartulary. The edition is accompanied by an annotated list of all known abbesses, prioresses and nuns