Little Domesday Book: Norfolk. Introduction, Translation & Indexes.[ Library edition ]

Alecto Historical Editions, London, first edition, 2000. Quarter-leather and linen boards, large 8vo,. 434 pp. Alecto Historical Editions published their Library Edition of Little Domesday Book as a 6-volume set, comprising one facsimile volume and one translation volume for each of the three counties in Little Domesday. The volume offered now is the translation volume (only) for Norfolk (without the facsimile volume). From the preface: "Norfolk is the second of the three counties described in the text traditionally called Little Domesday, which together with Great Domesday makes up the survey of England in 1086 known as Domesday Book. The most striking difference between the two volumes is that the descriptions of the counties in Little Domesday are fuller than those of the rest of the kingdom which Great Domesday contains. They seem to represent some preliminary stage in the redaction of the material which the Conqueror's commissioners collected. Norfolk shares an unusual administrative structure with Suffolk, and for both counties there is a valuable supplementary source of material in the survey of the lands of Ely Abbey known as the Inquisitio Eliensis. There is much still to be discovered in the texts, but they afford altogether a detailed and vivid portrait of late Anglo-Saxon and early Norman society in a wealthy and populous region of England." Principal contents: Preface; Introduction by David Roffe; Bibliography; Notes to the Translation; Translation; Gathering Chart; Scribal Abbreviations; Glossary; Index of Places; Index of Persons and Ecclesiastical Bodies. Fine.