2.1 The body of the calendared is in roman type.
2.2 Words or phrases in Latin, French or Gascon from the text, except personal or place-names, are in italics. Only those of exceptional significance are treated in this way. Names of Gascon official positions are rendered as in Appendix 7. Elements such as Gascon terms which are translated in the calendar, but for which there is room for debate as to their actual meaning, appear in their original form in round brackets and italic type after the translated version.
2.3 Place-names are rendered in the calendar in their modern forms: 'Madaillan'. However, the spelling as found in the document has also been captured, and will appear against the modern form when hovered over, and in the index with appropriate cross referencing: Madalhano. Places that are unidentified are rendered in italics.
2.4 For the spellings of place-names for:
the United Kingdom
The chief authority is the Gazetteer of Great Britain: All names from the 1:50,000 Landranger maps, 4th ed. (1999).
England
The various volumes of the English Place-Name Society provide authoritative supplement for those counties that have so far been published.
The various editions of The Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names, initally edited by Eilert Ekwall, have also proved valuable.
The Lay Subsidy of 1334, ed. Robin E. Glasscock, Records of Social and Economic History New Series II (London, 1975; Published for The British Academy).
Ireland (both the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland)
Gasaitéar na hÉireann/Gazetteer of Ireland; Ordnance Survey of Ireland (Dublin, 1989).
Obsolete Welsh territorial and administrative units
Richards, Melville, Welsh Administrative and Territorial Units, Medieval and Modern, (Cardiff, 1969); also of use has been the online resource based on Melville Richards’ slips – ‘Archif Melville Richards Place Name Database’ available online at http://www.e-gymraeg.co.uk/enwaulleoedd/amr/cronfa_en.aspx.
Continental Europe
For the spelling of European placenames
France
Dictionnaire National des Communes de France, ed. Albin Michel (2001).
Dictionnaire Général des Communes de France et des Principaux Hameaux en Dépendant ..., (Paris, 1818), available on Gallica.
Dictionnaire topographique de la France, quelques départements publiés, available on Gallica.
Dictionnaire des Toponyms de France, available to download or on cd-rom.
Carte de Cassini, cf. http://cassini.seies.net/ See also the site Géoportail.
Belgium
Wordenboek der Belgische Gemeenten (Brussels, 1997).
Netherlands
Gebieden in Nederland 2007 http://statline.cbs.nl/StatWeb/publication/?PA=71377ned&D1=18&d2=A&HDR=T&STB=G1
Germany
German Regional Travel Maps 1:200,000 (Freytag & Berndt)
Counties, when they are referred to directly, such as in the phrase 'sheriff of Bedfordshire', are always spelled out in full. When they are used to locate place-names in the index, for places in England the standard county abbreviation is used e.g. ‘Bath, Somerset’ appears as 'Bath (Som)'. For a list of the ancient English counties and the abbreviated forms of their names, see Appendix 4.
2.5 Christian/forenames have been translated according to standard forms for the respective countries. For Welsh forenames, see Appendix 3, Part I; for Gascon Christian names see Appendix 3, Part II.
2.6 Surnames have been rendered in their modern forms. The original spelling has also been recorded but is only visible in the text by hovering over the name, while all the original variant spellings will be grouped together and preceded in the index by the modern form, with appropriate cross-references from the original spellings. Surnames that cannot be modernised are rendered in italics. For the standardisation of British surnames P.H. Reaney, with additions by R.M. Wilson, A Dictionary of British Surnames, 2nd revised edition (London, Henley & Boston, 1976) has been used as the standard form. The only exceptions to this rule are those included in 2.7 where the published name forms have been used, so that William Ayermine, bishop of Norwich, whose surname would otherwise be standardised to the modern Yorkshire place name 'Airmyn' has remained as 'Ayermine'. Gascon surnames have been standardised from the unpublished ‘Index des Rôles Gascons’ provided by Dr G. Pépin.
2.7 Names of important persons are given in their commonly accepted English forms, thus 'King John II of France', 'Pope John XXII'. For the names of individuals who belong to the major noble families of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, and for those of the major ecclesiastics, such as bishops, the spellings of names has been taken from the most recent volume of the Handbook of British Chronology. Frequently such figures may only be described by their Christian name, or by its initial. If there is no doubt as to the identity of the individual then this has been extended in square brackets, thus 'Edward of Woodstock, duke of Cornwall', and 'Henry Burghersh, bishop of Lincoln'. There is one exception to this - John of Brittany, earl of Richmond is termed 'John de Bretagne' in the Handbook. Since this was an odd merger of an English Christian name and a French surname, it was felt that adopting an anglicized format would be better.
For the names of other major English and Welsh ecclesiastics such as abbots, abbesses, priors and prioresses, and so on, volumes II and III of The Heads of Religious Houses England and Wales are the chief source. Once again, if the names of abbots et al. are indicated by only their Christian name or its initial letter, this has been extended using the appropriate reference volume form. For French and European ecclesiastics and monastic houses, Cottineau, L.H. Répertoire topo-bibliographique des abbayes et prieurés, 3 vols (1939-1970, Mâcon), and Gallia Christiana provide the basic details, while Eubel, C. Hierarchia catholica medii avi; sive, Summorum pontificum, S.R.E. cardinalium, ecclesiarum antistitum series, 3 vols (1913-1923), and Gams, P.B., Series episcoporum ecclesiae catholicae, quotquot innotuerunt a Beato Petro apostolo (Leipzif, 1931) give further detail.
2.8 Significant words in the document that cannot be read because of damage have, where appropriate, been supplied in square brackets, or with a hiatus. See also 2.7 for the use of square brackets in relation to forenames and surnames of major individuals.
2.9 Each entry, with only a few exceptions, has been given a date. Dates have been converted from the regnal years, and from years commencing on the feast of the Annunciation (25 March), or Easter, to the historical year, using Handbook of dates for students of British history, ed. C.R. Cheney, revised by Michael Jones, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks no. 4, (Cambridge, 2000). See also the website Millesimo (in French) http://www.palaeographia.org/millesimo/index.htm. Those entries that have the phrase Teste Rege ut supra have been dated with those previous entries with the insertion of the phrase 'As above'.
When dates are referred to in the document they have been calendared, whenever possible, in their equivalent modern form, so that in festo Nativitatis Sancti Johannis Baptiste anno regni regis Edwardi tercii decimo becomes '24 June 1336'. The original form has only been retained when there is a serious doubt as to what the date should be.
2.10 Notes of warrant, when they occur at the end of an entry, have been abbreviated as in the published Calendars of Chancery rolls. Thus per ipsum regem becomes 'By K.', per (ipsum) regem et consilium 'By K. and C.'. Where letters are warranted ‘on the information of’, or ‘by the advice of’ named individuals, then that is indicated, as well as when it is indicated that more than one copy of a document has been made ('In duplicate', etc.), or when they are to be sent ‘patent’ or ‘close’. See Appendix 5 for a list of abbreviated forms.
2.11 Headings to the entry, which are normally to be found in the margins of the roll, have been translated and placed after the date and place of the issue of the letters, in italics, except when the heading covers a group of entries in which case the heading precedes all of those entries on its own line, but in the same type and italics as the standard headings (See Appendix 2). However, marginal notes, such as those indicating why an entry has been rendered void have been recorded in a footnote appended to the dating clause.
2.12 Membrane numbers are aligned on the left, and are in bold in the following form Membrane 32 or Membrane 32d. When schedules are attached to membranes they have not been treated as separate membranes, but have been given an entry number identical to the entry that they relate to, but with the addition of a letter code. In the example found on membrane 14 of C 61/32 the schedule clearly relates to entry 50, so that the entry on the schedule was given the code '50.A'.
2.13 Entries have been numbered consecutively from 1 onwards in bold type, without a full stop. Sub-entries will be given a number coding in the following manner: 61.1, 61.2, and so on. See Appendix 2 for examples. However, it has been agreed that the numbering in the coding in the programme used for the calendaring and editing (Oxygen) will appear in the following format: roll_regnal year_membrane_entry, hence ‘000_00_00_000’, though ultimately the details for roll, regnal year and membrane will not appear in the online and print editions. This level of detail is simply to aid in the identification of the entry, and for searching purposes.
2.14 Currencies should be rendered according to the following forms:
pounds sterling should be written as l.st.
shillings and pence should by s. and d., which should immediately follow the number. If halfpennies and farthings occur then they should be ½d. and ¼d. If these are to be followed by st., etc., then a single space should be left.
livres tournois (Tours) will be rendered as l.t. which will follow the sum with no space between the number and abbreviation. If small or black tournois are encountered then this should be abbreviated as nig. for black, and parv. for small.
livres bordelaises (Bordeaux) as l.bord.
livres arnaudines or arnaldèses (Agen) as l.arn.
livres chipotoises (Bordeaux) as l.ch.
livres morlanes (Morlaas, in Béarn) as l.morl.
livres parisis (Paris) as l.par.
livres cahorsines (Cahors) as l.cahor.
livres as l.
marks as m.
florins.
rials (floreni realx).
écu (floreni de scuto).
livres guiennaises as l.guien.
2.15 When an entry is in a language other than Latin this is noted on the line immediately below the heading on a line on its own, and the language placed in square brackets, e.g. [In French].
2.16 If the entry is significantly altered in some way then the fact will be recorded in a footnote. Such alterations include: substantial interlineations; crossings out or passages that have been expunged (if the sense is very different from the final entry then its details should be recorded); if the entry changes hands in the course of the entry; if the entry or part of it is written over an erasure; or if the entry has been inserted subsequent to the main compilation of the membrane.
References to related records, explanatory notes or necessary contextualisation have been entered in footnotes, though these have been kept to a minimum.
2.17 The names of ships have been entered in italics in the form in which they appear in the text.
2.18 Numbers below twenty have been written out in words, from twenty upwards as arabic numerals. The only exception is numbers used to denote currency (see 3.15).
2.19 For duplicate entries the text simply states: ‘Duplicate of ....’ If the entry varies in such minor ways not to warrant separate comment then this has been rendered as: ‘Near duplicate of .....’
2.20 When an entry is crossed out, a note is added immediately after the final full stop of the body of the text stating: ‘The entry is crossed out.’
2.21 On some entries there are marginal notes often in addition to the heading. These have been recorded in a note attached to the dating clause following the heading stating: ‘A marginal note states that ‘...’.’