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31-541: The Scottish Gaelic Texts Society is a text publication society established "to provide the publication of texts in the Scottish Gaelic language , accompanied by such introductions, English translations, glossaries and notes as may be deemed desirable." It was established in 1934. This article about an organisation in Scotland is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article about

62-555: A literary society or organization is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Text publication society Members of the society (private individuals or institutions) pay an annual subscription , in return for which they either automatically receive a copy of each volume as it is published, or (as in the case of, for example, the Royal Historical Society ) are eligible to purchase volumes at favourable members' rates. Some societies attempt to keep to

93-722: A broader range of activities, and in certain cases – for example, the Yorkshire Archaeological and Historical Society and the Kent Archaeological Society – continue to do so. In other cases, a new society has broken away from its parent archaeological society to become an independent body dedicated solely to text publication: examples include the Surrey Record Society and the Wiltshire Record Society . In

124-412: A prime mover in many of the early ventures. In the second half of the 19th century the government-sponsored Rolls Series took over some of the territory of the amateur societies, particularly in respect of the publication of chronicles . The productions of several of the early societies included literary texts, but by the end of the 19th century, the majority of societies were tending to focus instead on

155-606: A regular cycle of publishing (generally one volume per year, as in the case of the London Record Society and the Canterbury and York Society ; the Royal Historical Society, exceptionally, aims for two volumes per year). Others, however, publish on an irregular and occasional basis, as the completion of editorial work allows. Volumes are usually also made available for sale to non-members, but

186-611: The Historia Ecclesie Abbendonensis , a 12th-century chronicle written at Abingdon Abbey (the second and final volume appeared a few months later); and F. C. Hingeston 's edition of John Capgrave 's fifteenth-century Historia de Illustribus Henricis . Hingeston's work was slapdash, and reviews were unfavourable. Prolific and well-regarded editors for the series included William Stubbs (19 volumes), H. R. Luard (17 volumes), and H. T. Riley (15 volumes). Editors were handsomely paid (Stubbs received, over

217-755: The Public Record Office . The publication of the series was undertaken by the British Government in accordance with a scheme submitted in 1857 by the Master of the Rolls, then Sir John Romilly . A previous undertaking of the same kind, the Monumenta Historica Britannica , had failed after the publication of the first volume (1036 folio pages, London, 1848). The principal editor, Henry Petrie had died, and its form

248-624: The 1960s and 1970s by the Kraus Reprint Corporation (part of the Kraus-Thomson Organization Ltd.) of Millwood, New York . The works published within the series were not sequentially numbered (although the individual parts of multi-volume works were numbered). This has presented bibliographers and librarians with a number of problems, and citations of volumes, and their arrangement within libraries, has therefore varied. Many libraries, however, adopted

279-628: The 21st century, partly as a result of the growing quantity of historical research materials now available online, many societies have experienced a significant decline in membership numbers, and consequent difficulties in maintaining their traditional business model. Societies have responded to the challenge in various ways, including by selectively uploading some of their publications to the World Wide Web , while continuing to publish other materials in print. Rolls Series The Chronicles and Memorials of Great Britain and Ireland during

310-465: The Confessor , St Hugh of Lincoln , St Thomas Becket , and St Wilfrid and other northern saints. In the series as proposed, "preference was to be given in the first instance to such materials as were most scarce and valuable", each chronicle was to be edited as if the editor were engaged on an editio princeps , and a brief account was to be provided in a suitable preface of the life and times of

341-724: The History of our forefathers under its different characters". The Chetham Society , founded in 1843, concerned itself in much the same way with the counties of Lancashire and Cheshire . From the 1880s onwards, many societies focused on a single county. A particularly energetic advocate was W. P. W. Phillimore , who was active in the foundation of the British Record Society , Scottish Record Society , Thoroton Society , Canterbury and York Society , and Irish Record Society. Several county archaeological and historical societies undertook text publication as just one among

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372-569: The Middle Ages ( Latin : Rerum Britannicarum medii aevi scriptores ), widely known as the Rolls Series , is a major collection of British and Irish historical materials and primary sources published as 99 works in 253 volumes between 1858 and 1911. Almost all the great medieval English chronicles were included: most existing editions, published by scholars of the 17th and 18th centuries, were considered to be unsatisfactory. The scope

403-488: The Public Record Office and published in three volumes in 1897. This became the occasion of a virulent and intemperate scholarly feud between Hall and J. H. Round (who had been co-editor, but who withdrew for reasons of ill-health and subsequently fell out with Hall): Round described the eventual edition as "so replete with heresy and error as to lead astray for ever all students of its subject", and "probably

434-576: The author as well as a description of the manuscripts used. The vast bulk of the texts are in Latin , printed without translation. Scribal abbreviations are silently extended. Texts in Old French , Old English , Irish , Gaelic , Welsh , Old Norse , etc. have a translation annexed. Volumes were published in octavo format. Many of the Rolls Series volumes were reprinted under licence in

465-440: The beginning of the project Romilly insisted on a print run of 1,500 for each volume, this proved greatly over-optimistic in terms of sales, and 750 became the normal figure. The retail price per volume was initially 8 s . 6 d ., later rising to 10 s . Initial sales figures for each volume generally reached something over 200 copies: this left considerable surplus stock, and so in the 1880s William Hardy , as Deputy Keeper, introduced

496-628: The dissemination of valuable historical texts as widely as possible. Nevertheless, their activities tended to appeal to the "monied and educated" classes: in 1838, 20% of the Camden Society 's members were clergymen, 9% held legal qualifications, and 36% were Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries . Success being dependent on fund-raising and the attraction of new members, the early societies often suffered from financial and organisational troubles. Controversy followed Frederick James Furnivall ,

527-480: The lifetime of the series, a total of some £6,600; Luard £6,432; and Riley £6,487). However, although editorial standards were often high, there was little supervision or opportunity for enforcing editorial quality, and little incentive for dilatory editors to bring their work to fruition; and as a result there were also less successful editions. In some quarters the project came to be regarded as providing an easy source of income for relatively little work. Although at

558-559: The most misleading publication in the whole range of the Rolls series". The last volume to be commissioned was the Memoranda de Parliamento (records of the parliament held at Westminster in 1305), edited by F. W. Maitland , which appeared in 1893; while the final volume to reach print was the second part of the Year Book for the 20th year of Edward III (1346–7), edited by L. O. Pike, which appeared in 1911. Chronicles published in

589-526: The practice of presenting free copies to reputable public and university libraries, with a label inserted stating that "in the event of the Library being broken up", the volume should be returned to the Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office . Funding for the project began to be reduced from the mid-1880s, particularly following the appointment as Deputy Keeper in 1886 of Henry Maxwell Lyte , who

620-673: The price is invariably higher than that paid (either as the retail price or through subscriptions) by members, thereby establishing an incentive for interested parties to join. The model originated and is most commonly found in the United Kingdom , but has also been adopted in other countries. In the 19th century, when many societies were founded, they were sometimes known as book clubs . They have also been termed printing clubs . Those that publish exclusively archival material are often known as record societies or records societies . The principle of subscription publishing – funding

651-596: The principle that each member should sponsor the publication of an edition of a rare work of interest to members, and that other volumes would be published by the Club collectively. In both cases, the volumes were intended for distribution to the entire membership. The Club's first publication, donated by Sir William Bolland and issued in 1814, was the Earl of Surrey 's translation of parts of Virgil 's Aeneid , originally printed in 1557. One early Roxburghe Club member (from 1822)

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682-481: The publication of archival records. This continued to be the pattern in the 20th century. The Durham-based Surtees Society , founded in 1834 and modelled in part on the Scottish Bannatyne and Maitland Clubs, was the first English society to adopt a specifically regional remit, in its case the elucidation of the history of the area constituting the ancient kingdom of Northumbria . Its establishment

713-468: The publication of a volume by securing multiple advance subscriptions from individuals interested in buying the final product – was first established in the 17th century, and routinely adopted during the 18th. The idea of extending the model to the membership of a society was initiated by the Roxburghe Club , founded in 1812 as a convivial association of bibliophiles , but which rapidly introduced

744-525: The series included the edition of the Chronica Majora of Matthew Paris by H. R. Luard ; the chronicles of Roger of Hoveden , Benedict of Peterborough , Ralph de Diceto , Walter of Coventry , and others, edited by William Stubbs ; the works of Giraldus Cambrensis by J. S. Brewer ; and the Materials for the History of St Thomas Becket by James Craigie Robertson . However, the scope of

775-724: The series was not limited to conventional chronicles. It also encompassed materials of a more or less legendary character relating to Ireland and Scotland, such as Whitley Stokes 's edition of The Tripartite Life of St. Patrick , and the Icelandic sagas edited by Guðbrandur Vigfússon and G.W. Dasent ; rhymed chronicles like those of Robert of Gloucester and Robert of Brunne in English, and that of Pierre de Langtoft in French; quasi-philosophical works like those of Roger Bacon and Alexander Neckam , together with folklore materials like

806-712: The three volumes of Leechdoms, Wortcunning and Starcraft of Anglo-Saxon times. Archival records and legal tracts, such as the Year Books of Edward I and Edward III , the Black Book of the Admiralty , the Red Book of the Exchequer , and Bracton 's work De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliæ were also included; as were hagiographical documents, dealing for example with the lives of St Dunstan , St Edward

837-468: Was Sir Walter Scott , who was inspired by it to establish the Bannatyne Club to print works of interest for Scottish tradition, literature, and history. Other special-interest societies followed. In contrast to the exclusive Roxburghe Club (which had an elite membership and issued its publications as luxurious limited editions), most had broad membership criteria, and had as their primary objective

868-544: Was also extended to include legendary, folklore and hagiographical materials, and archival records and legal tracts. The series was government-funded, and takes its unofficial name from the fact that its volumes were published "by the authority of Her Majesty's Treasury, under the direction of the Master of the Rolls ", who was the official custodian of the records of the Court of Chancery and other courts, and nominal head of

899-422: Was concerned about the scholarly quality and pace of production, the funds being paid to unproductive editors, and who felt that his office's priorities should lie elsewhere. Thereafter, although work continued on editions already in progress, few new works were initiated. One of the final works in the series was the 13th-century legal compilation known as the Red Book of the Exchequer , edited by Hubert Hall of

930-564: Was cumbrous. Representations were made by Joseph Stevenson , and the scheme of 1857 was the direct outcome of this appeal. Alongside Romilly and Stevenson, another key figure in shaping the direction of the project in its early years was Thomas Duffus Hardy , who served as Deputy Keeper of the Public Records from 1861 to 1878. The first two volumes were published in February 1858: they were the first volume of Stevenson's own edition of

961-422: Was deeply rooted in local pride: in an early prospectus, James Raine (its principal founder and first secretary) drew attention to just a few unpublished manuscripts of Durham interest, "which, in these times, few individuals would incur the risk of printing at their own cost; but which nevertheless, afford even singly, how much more collectively, the most valuable materials to those who are anxious to study rightly

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