Tuesday 17 June 2014 – Matthew Holford – Mapping the Medieval Countryside
The IHR Seminar in Digital History would like to welcome you to its final seminar of the 2014 summer term.
Speaker: Dr Matthew Holford, University of Winchester
Title: Mapping the Medieval Countryside: Places, People and Properties in the Inquisitions Post Mortem
Date: 17 June, 2014
Time: 5:15 PM (BST=GMT+1)
Venue: Athlone Room, 102, Senate House, South Block, First floor, or live online at http://www.livestream.com/historyspot
Abstract: Mapping the Medieval Countryside is a major research project dedicated to the online publication of medieval English inquisitions post mortem (IPMs).
These inquisitions, which recorded the lands held at their deaths by tenants of the crown, comprise the most extensive and important body of source material for landholding in medieval England. They describe the lands held by thousands of families, from nobles to peasants, and are a key source for the history of almost every settlement in England (and of many in Wales). They are indispensable to local and family historians as well as to academic specialists in areas as diverse as agrarian history and political society.
The project will publish a searchable English translation of the IPMs covering the periods 1236 to 1447 and 1485 to 1509. From 1399 to 1447 the text will be enhanced to enable sophisticated analysis and mapping of the inquisitions’ contents. The online texts will be accompanied by a wealth of commentary and interpretation to enable all potential users to exploit this source easily and effectively.
Speaker biography: Matthew Holford gained his first degree at the University of Cambridge, and an MA and DPhil in Medieval Studies from the University of York. He subsequently worked for the Oxford English Dictionary and held research posts at the Universities of Durham and Cambridge. He is currently Research Officer on the AHRC-funded Inquisitions Post Mortem Project.
