The Endorsement Practices of Early Medieval England

Abstract

Often noted within modern editions of Anglo-Saxon charters but rarely discussed in depth, endorsements represent one of the most understudied aspects of documentary culture in early medieval England. This chapter provides a comprehensive survey of this feature, which is defined here a text that was composed with the intention that it would be written on the back (dorse) of the single-sheet charter. A wide variety of examples survives, some of which were written by the main scribe of the document, some possibly by a contemporary; others are ostensibly the work of later scribes, thus attesting to the continued importance of written records years after their initial production. Endorsements, moreover, come in different forms and languages. Most are predominantly in Old English, regardless of the languages of the main body of the charter, though others are predominantly or entirely in Latin. In providing an overview of these features, this chapter focuses its attention primarily on the evidence provided by charters that survive in early medieval single-sheet forms. This allows for greater accuracy when considering possible chronological, geographic and typological trends. It also means, furthermore, that this chapter offers readers an introduction to and summary of the single-sheet corpus itself.