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  • Chapter 11 - Creating and Curating an Archive: Bury St Edmunds and its Anglo-Saxon Past

  • from Part II - Place
  • Edited by Jennifer Jahner, California Institute of Technology, Emily Steiner, University of Pennsylvania, Elizabeth M. Tyler, University of York
  • Book:
    Medieval Historical Writing
    Published online:
    19 December 2019
    Print publication:
    28 November 2019, pp 192-207

  • Summary

    This contribution explores the mechanisms by which the Benedictine foundation of Bury St Edmunds sought to legitimise and preserve their spurious pre-Conquest privileges and holdings throughout the Middle Ages. The archive is extraordinary in terms of the large number of surviving registers and cartularies which contain copies of Anglo-Saxon charters, many of which are wholly or partly in Old English. The essay charts the changing use to which these ancient documents were put in response to threats to the foundation's continued enjoyment of its liberties. The focus throughout the essay is to demonstrate how pragmatic considerations at every stage affects the development of the archive and the ways in which these linguistically challenging texts were presented, re-presented, and represented during the Abbey’s history.