Charters of the Vicars Choral of York Minster Vol. 1: City of York and its suburbs to 1546

edited by Nigel J. Tringham (1993)

The archive of the vicars choral of York Minster includes the largest collection of original medieval charters for the city. This edition gives the text for 581 charters dating from the later twelfth century to 1546. Most are calendared in English translation, but the earliest are printed in Latin.

Besides providing information on the topography of several parts of the city, the charters illustrate the city’s economy by revealing occupations of residents and the parts of the city where they operated.

In his introduction the editor concentrates on the way in which the vicars acquired their estate, revealing significant changes in policy during the course of the middle ages. He also reviews the motives of grantors, and the conditions on which grants were made.