The Writing of Great Domesday Book

Abstract The Mystique That surrounded Domesday Book in the popular mind was in no small measure a function of the sacral connotations of the book form. Nevertheless, the extent to which such symbolism was fostered by government should not be exaggerated. In 1279 Edward I ordered his commissioners to enter the Hundred Rolls ‘in books [in libris] ‘. Edward was certainly aware of the power of appropriate iconography; that of his Welsh castles evoked images of a triumphant Albion. But the survey of 1279 was never completed and it is therefore impossible to determine what was intended. Nevertheless, throughout the Middle Ages inquests were abbreviated and copied into books for more prosaic reasons. Almost all of the major surveys brought to light information that was of continuing interest to government, and convenient summaries were frequently made to facilitate reference. Sometimes the process was contemporary or almost contemporary. The Rotuli de Dominabus certainly date from the late twelfth century and Round believed them to be the verdicts of the inquest of 1185. In reality they appear to be abbreviations (here in roll form, albeit sewn together) of the inquest, for the names of the jurors are not preserved and the rolls were apparently not sealed. More often abbreviation post-dates by many years the inquests. Thus it is that many of the twelfth-and early-thirteenth-century surveys are preserved in works of reference of the later thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.