This is the first modern edition of the pre-Conquest charters surviving in two important Somerset archives, Bath Abbey (26 texts) and Wells Cathedral (16 texts). It forms part of a significant project which will produce editions of the full corpus of extant pre-Conquest charters.
The texts are edited to the highest standards, and supplied with substantial and exhaustive commentaries on diplomatic and historical problems, with full discussion of estate history and analysis of Old English boundary clauses. Each archive is prefaced by a historical introduction which places the individual texts in the context of the history of each church, and which includes discussion of the manuscripts and of general issues of authenticity and fabrication.
This volume will be of great value to those studying Anglo-Saxon and ecclesiastical history, to local historians and to specialists in other fields, such as medieval Latin, Old English and place-name studies.