Domesday Book: A Complete Translation (Penguin Classics) [Paperback]

This is the first time that the entire contents of both Little Domesday and Great Domesday have been available in one affordable volume, and what a wonderful thing Penguin have done! This is a translation by a group of the greatest Domesday scholars, and provides a powerful insight into the society of medieval Britain, through a document unique in the world in it's scope and detail. It is possible to look beyond the numbers, and gain real insight into how an individual, or a community was doing. By examining the economy, landscapes and early settlements, it paints a picture of what sort of people lived on this island 900 years ago. This is not a book that anyone will read from cover to cover, but rather you can open any page and enjoy history in bite-size pieces.

Still a vivid and authoritative guide, so long after it's creation, it is a book that I will be dipping into for many years, and I am sure that it will be a source of great pleasure to all historians, amateur and otherwise. Penguin Classics are to be congratulated for a truly worthy (and fascinating) publication.

There are few historical documents now over 900 years old that are frequently quoted in courts of law to clarifie points of law.

The Domesday volumes, Great Domesday and Little Domesday as they are known are kept within a large 14Century chest at the Public Records Office at Kew in London.

On prior arrangement and a fee you are allowed to examine under strict supervision the contents of either volume but unless you are a scholar in early Latin their velum pages will mean little.

In the early 1980s a most impressive hardback series totalling every county surveyed by Williams officials known as The Philimore Collection became available but at a considerable cost.

I know because i bought the Hereford volume with its gorgeous red cover to help in my research of churches mentioned in the Hereford area during the Elevnth Century.

The beautifully presented hardback volume of Hereford was a direct copy of the original 11Century text and set me back nearly £30 in 1984 which was a lot of money for me then and it still remains heavy going with little or no direct modern English translation. It still stands on my bookshelf covered in dust unopened for many years.

The Philimore collection was magnificent but had one major flaw in that it was aimed at the accademic scholar whose grasp of early Latin enhanced their understanding of the text and also it would have cost an absolute fortune to purchase every individual volume had one required them for academic research.

Roll forward twenty or so years and we are presented with what must be the Holy Grail for those stydying 11thCentury history.

Penguin have compiled the entire Domesday both Great and Small into one most impressive 1436 paged soft back or hardback volume.

The time it must have taken those involved to translate the early text into 21st Century language must have been collosal.

What we have here is plain English that we can all understand and enjoy but still this is hardly Harry Potter.

Your interest must lie in discovering what 11thCentury life in Williams kingdom was really like and there is no other book in the English language that will provide the reader with such an indepth analysis of daily life nine centuries ago.

I find its contents trully fasinating,with the information on how many people and properties were at Oxford and Gloucester in 1086 as well as how many oxen and slaves ploughed the land in each and every village there about is history at your fingertips.

For the historian or person interested in English history this book is an almost unique narrative.

Maybe Bedes History of England and The Anglo Saxon Chronicles are of equal merit for their period in English history but neither book is as relevant to today's civil and criminal proceedings as are the Domesday Volumes.

Remember the entire population of Williams kingdom is estimated to be just around 800,000 subjects and the stewards sent out by the King gathered so much information about each and every village and town that we can look on in wonder and almost visualise what life so long ago must have been like.

The most compelling thing is that the many place names especially in the Hereford and Gloucestershire areas are still here over 900 years later and with some, the population has little changed apart from lack of oxen and your occasional slave or Housecarl tending the land.

We have our regular census every now and then but really there is no historical document in any country throughout the world to rival THE DOMESDAY survey.It was of its time but the insight into a way of life and being is relevant today.

Until you familiarise yourself with its contents you cannot imagine the pleasure it will give those trully interested in early English history and its text now is so easy to read and comprehend.

If you set sail from the port of Chester without the permission of the crown everybody found onboard the vessel was fined 100 shillings.

Likewise if you refused to gather arms upon request to venture into Wales to give the Taffies a bloodynose you were fined 40 shillings.

These are only two of the most interesting aspects of everyday life in the city of Chester under Williams rule.

This was a considerable sum of money in the 11C more than a years wages for the majority of peasants or those who worked the land.

Talking of Wales, Williams officials didnot include it in the servey mainly because under the tenureship of the Lords Marcher who were some of the most powerfull men in the kingdom next to the King himself their estates in South and Mid Wales were known quantities and William roughly knew the revenue due to him.

The county of Herefordshire is as close as Domesday came to Wales with certain villages especially Kilpeck famous for its magnificent 12c Norman church were directly on the English Welsh border.

Kilpeck was then known as Chipitee but Streton Sugwas, Shobdon, Eardisley and Castle Frome all made famous by the magnificent Kilpeck school of Norman architecture are right there in the Herefordshire county of Domesday and even their original 11C names except Kilpeck have remained unchanged.

Remarkably these two counties of Gloucestershire and Herefordshire show remarkable little change in overall place name index in Domesday.

Atleast 80% of place names mentioned in Domesday for these two counties still remain and the parish boundaries have not changed much either.

This is prabably not a document you will read from cover to cover but certainly one you can pick up again and again to learn what life was really like over 900 years ago.

What other document of similar antiquity can provide a modern reader with so much relevant information.

Domesday predates Magna Carta by well over 150 years both are just as relevant to our legal system to this very day and thats why both are often quoted in our Courts of Law.

It has taken years to materialise and is now available for all to read,its contents will enthrall or disintrest you but you cannot denie its impressiveness,there are few books on my bookshelf as thick or as compelling to read as this one.

Its price is so impressive that it would make the ideal gift to anyone interested in history but here is a book that now is easy to read and follow and thankfully has a glossary at the back to explain what a Housecarl is.

For anyone who collects books and is interested in history this (for the price)should be in your library. Most books about the Domesday benefit by having this copy of the complete greater and lesser Domesday to delve into.
Facinating in its own right just to leaf throught the pages and glance at a unique snapshot of history.