Munimenta Academica Or Documents Illustrative of Academical Life and Studies at Oxford - Volume 1

Henry Anstey (c.1828c.1914) served as a teacher curate and chaplain before becoming a tutor and then vice-principal of St Mary Hall Oxford. On behalf of the Rolls Series he prepared in 1868 this two-volume collection of the university''s oldest documents in Latin dating from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries. Offering fascinating insight into academic life in medieval Oxford this does not constitute a history of the university but it remains an important resource for researchers comprising registers letters university statutes and details of expenses entailed by the ''usual festivities'' after examinations. Volume 1 includes in addition to the chancellors'' and proctors'' books Anstey''s extensive introduction in which he offers a brief background history and describes his struggles in establishing so far as possible a chronological order for the contents and in dealing with the ''utterly illegible torn faded and stained'' condition of his sources.