Scottish Episcopal Acta

This volume brings together for the first time the 244 surviving documents issued by, or in the name of, all the Scottish bishops of the early thirteenth century, building on the previously-published twelfth-century Acta. Every Latin text is printed in full, preceded by an English summary and followed by an explanation of the date ascribed to the document and, where appropriate, textual notes and comments. Originals are described in detail: endorsement, physical condition and seal. The sources are archives in Scotland, England, France and the Vatican, the muniments of several private owners, copies made by antiquaries in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and three which survive only as printed in the nineteenth century. The introduction provides an account of the diplomatic of the bishops' Acta and describes the problems and policies of thirteenth-century Scottish bishops. This volume is a mine of information on the activities of bishops, the personnel of episcopal households, diocesan administration, the growth of papal authority, the parochial system, episcopal dealings with religious houses, especiallythe provision of vicarages, economic activity, the settlement of disputes and the bishops as builders.