Advertisement
Videos

Do Manuscripts Burn? Royal Diplomas in Late Pre-Norman England (871–1066)

Do Manuscripts Burn? Royal Diplomas in Late Pre Norman England (871–1066): The Representatives of the Corpus

Paper by Denis Sukhino-Khomenko

Given at 58th International Congress on Medieval Studies, held at Western Michigan University, on May 11, 2023

Abstract: The presentation addressed the problem of the geographical and chronological representativeness of the surviving corpus of English pre-Norman royal diplomas of 871–1066 AD. My research spotlights a peculiarly pronounced correlation between the ethno-political division of Lowland Britain into the “Danelaw” and “Greater Wessex”, as well as between the sum total of charters for a given region and the number of archives in it. Next I broached the subject of whether the archival and chronological distribution of the extant royal acta can be considered objective. When put together, indirect evidence tips the balance in favour of the corpus’ at least relative chronological and geographical representativeness, even if the said losses distorted it to a lesser or greater degree.

Advertisement

Denis Sukhino-Khomenko is a PhD student at the University of Gothenburg. Click here to view his Academia.edu page or visit Denis’ Youtube page to see more videos of his presentations.

See also the article “Do Manuscripts Burn? The Representativeness of the Corpus of Royal Diplomas of Late pre-Norman England (871–1066): Opening a Discussion

Advertisement

Top Image: Grant of King Æthelstan of England (r. 924–939) to Ealdwulf, minister – British Library Cotton MS Augustus II 23

Advertisement