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

国家档案馆（TNA）系列“古代请愿书”（SC 8）包括13至15世纪之间向英国王室提出的17,629份请愿书；在这个项目下编目的3355份请愿书位于该系列的末尾。请愿书代表了中世纪英格兰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。由于它们至少是用四种不同的语言写成的（拉丁语、盎格鲁-诺曼法语、欧西坦法语和中世纪英语），它们揭示了许多关于语言的历史及其在中世纪纪录片文化中的用法。这个项目的目的是显著地增加对中世纪历史研究的重要资源的访问。该项目是2002年同一计划下的一个项目（RE/AN3596/APN15509）的延续，该项目于2006年成功完成，并通过TNA的在线目录和远程文件交付服务DocumentsOnline提供了该系列的首批14,274份请愿书。本项目对汇编中其余的3 355份文件进行了处理，采用与前一个项目相同的方法和传播战略。该项目在两个级别上创建了对该资源的访问：在国家档案馆在线目录（以前的PROCAT）中详细和完全可搜索的每个请愿书目录条目，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，并将提供本系列和其他TNA系列中其他文件的交叉参考。在国家档案设施DocumentsOnline， http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/上直接免费访问每一份请愿书的数字化图像。DocumentsOnline提供了自己的定制搜索工具，但也有一个直接链接，从主要的TNA目录到这个工具。因此，该项目的目的和成果是大大增加了对中世纪历史研究的这种至关重要的、以前无法搜索到的资源的访问，并使从事不同专业水平的研究人员随时可以获得这些材料。目录条目类似于前公共记录办公室19世纪和20世纪伟大的专利卷、关闭卷等日历系列（它们现在也逐渐在网上提供）。直接访问这些文件的数字化图像意味着具有必要的古学和语言学技能的研究人员能够检查原始文件的确切格式。此外，这些图像为学生、家庭和当地历史学家提供了极好的训练工具，这些历史学家对扩大他们阅读历史文献的能力感兴趣。

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.