The Writing of Obedientiary Account Rolls at Norwich Cathedral Priory (1256-1344)

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The present study aims to describe the organisation of the writing of accounts at Norwich cathedral priory, using, amongst other methods, the palaeographical comparison of handwritings. lt will focus on one kind of accounts only: those rendered by the obedientiaries, who were the monks in charge of an office within the priory, such as the cellarer, the sacrist, the almoner, the infirmarer, the precentor, etc. After presenting the accounts of these obedien­tiaries, we shall discuss the different obstacles arising when attempting to identify the number of clerks or scribes involved in their writing. We will then analyse the practices of the obedientiaries, before developing one specifie aspect of some Norwich accounts, namely the use of Arabic numerals.