Medieval Petitions: A catalogue of exchequer, chancery and gascon petitions in the national archives

国家档案馆（TNA）的“古代请愿书”系列（章节8）包括17 629份在13世纪至15世纪之间向英国王室提交的请愿书;本项目下的3 355份请愿书被收录在该系列的最后。请愿书代表了中世纪英国国家臣民的真实声音。它们提供了大量关于社会、经济和政治状况以及抱怨话语的附带材料。由于它们是用至少四种不同的语言（拉丁语、盎格鲁-诺曼法语、奥克西坦法语和中古英语）写成的，它们揭示了语言的历史及其在中世纪纪实文化中的用法。该项目的目的是大大增加获得这一重要资源的机会，以研究中世纪的历史。该项目是同一计划下的早期奖项（2002年）的延续（RE/AN 3596/APN 15509），于2006年成功完成，并已完成了前14个，该系列中的274份请愿书可通过TNA的在线目录和远程文件传递服务DocumentsOnline充分获取。该系列中的其余3 355份文件在本项目中得到处理，并采用与早期项目相同的方法和传播战略。该项目在两个层面上创建了对这一资源的访问：1.国家档案馆在线目录（前PROCAT）中每个请愿书的详细和完全可搜索的目录条目，http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/default。目录条目记录了所有人名和地名，提供了每份请愿书内容的详细摘要，解释了每份文件的日期，并将提供与本系列和其他技术需要评估系列中其他文件的相互参照。直接访问，免费，以数字化图像的每一个请愿书在国家档案馆设施文件在线，http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/。DocumentsOnline提供了自己的定制搜索功能，但也有一个从TNA主目录到该功能的直接链接。因此，该项目的目标和成就是大大提高了对这一重要的和以前无法搜索的中世纪历史研究资源的访问，并使材料随时可供不同专业水平的研究人员使用。目录条目类似于前公共记录办公室的伟大的十九世纪和二十世纪系列的专利卷日历，关闭卷等（现在正在逐步成为在线）。直接访问文件的数字化图像意味着具有必要的古地理和语言技能的研究人员能够检查原始文件的确切表述。此外，这些图像为学生以及有兴趣扩展其阅读历史文献能力的家庭和当地历史学家提供了极好的培训工具。

The National Archives (TNA) series 'Ancient Petitions' (SC 8) comprises 17,629 petitions addressed to the English crown between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries; the 3,355 petitions catalogued under this project fall at the end of the series.Petitions represent the authentic voice of the subjects of the medieval English state. They provide a wealth of incidental material about social, economic and political conditions and the discourse of complaint. Since they were written in at least four different languages (Latin, Anglo-Norman French, Occitan French and Middle English), they reveal much about the history of language and its usages in medieval documentary culture. The aim of this project was significantly to enhance access to this vital resource for research in medieval history.The project represented a continuation of an earlier award (2002) under the same scheme (RE/AN3596/APN15509), which was successfully completed in 2006 and has made the first 14,274 petitions in the series fully available through TNA's on-line Catalogue and remote document delivery service DocumentsOnline.The remaining 3,355 documents in the series were treated in the present project, and were subject to the same methodology and dissemination strategy as those in the earlier project.The project has created access to this resource at two levels:1. Detailed and fully searchable catalogue entries for each petition in the National Archives on-line Catalogue (formerly PROCAT), http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/default. The catalogue entries capture all personal and place names, provide a detailed summary of the contents of each petition, give explanations for the dating of each document, and will provide cross-references to other documents in this and other TNA series.2. Direct access, free of charge, to digitised images of each petition in the National Archives facility DocumentsOnline, http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/. DocumentsOnline offers its own customised search facility, but there is also a direct link from the main TNA Catalogue into this facility.The aim, and achievement, of the project, has thus been greatly to enhance access to this vital and previously unsearchable resource for the study of medieval history, and to make the material readily available to researchers working at different levels of expertise. The Catalogue entries are akin to the former Public Record Office's great nineteenth- and twentieth-century series of Calendars of Patent Rolls, Close Rolls, etc (which are themselves now gradually becoming available on-line). Direct access to digitised images of the documents means that researchers with the necessary palaeographical and linguistic skills are able to check the exact formulation of the original. Moreover, the images provide excellent training tools for students and for family and local historians interested in extending their abilities in the reading of historical documents.