Documents, Documentation, and the Making of History Books

History books functioned to preserve historical records, and some scribes and artists attempted to replicate the features of documents when they compiled copies of them in cartularies. This chapter asks how and why the makers of manuscripts attempted to evoke the features of documents, particularly when cartularies could not serve the same evidential function. Beginning with an examination of a remarkable version of the Domesday Book created in the mid-thirteenth century, it explores how text and imagery were combined in cartularies and associated records. Although cartularies, like the Domesday Book, gave an impression of authority, they were carefully crafted, and did not always contain copies of a complete archive. Instead, the organization of the text and addition of illumination in some cartularies suggest that they were designed for specific audiences, including monastic communities and potential patrons.