Domesday Book medieval census goes online

[JohnLocke]

Domesday Book mediaeval census goes online
Reuters
Friday, Augusy 4, 2006
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LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's oldest public record, the 920-year-old census known as the Domesday Book, was put on the Internet on Thursday, allowing readers to browse the nation's greatest archival treasure from the comfort of home.
The Domesday Book details the landholdings and resources that belonged to the king William the Conqueror in 1086. It gives a minute record of the wealth of England and the families settled throughout the countryside in the Middle Ages.
On Thursday, the text of the book in the original Latin, along with an English translation, was put online at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/domesday.
Visitors will be able to search a place name and see the index entry made for the town, city or village.
"It is important that people of all ages should be able to read and use this national treasure," Adrian Ailes, Domesday expert at the National Archives said.
"Everyone can now enter The National Archives' website, discover how and why Domesday was made and read about its enormous importance in history."
The ancient document is thought to have been called "Domesday" -- a reference to the biblical day of judgement or "doomsday" -- because there would be no appeal from the census-takers' rulings.
The book was commissioned in 1085 when England was threatened with invasion from Denmark. To pay for a mercenary army, William needed to know what financial and military resources were available to him. He dispatched assessors to more than 13,000 places across the country.
The book was voted the nation's finest treasure in 2005, yet the National Archive which keeps it says less than one percent of the population has actually seen the original.
Although 80 percent of Britons have heard of the book, not everyone knows what it is, the archive said, revealing that in a survey two percent of the population thought it was actually the name of a novel by best-selling author Dan Brown
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Read the rest here.

[11cents]

1. Wow, the whole site is very cool.

Thanks.

[yorgatron]

3. you can't make this stuff up!

Although 80 percent of Britons have heard of the book, not everyone knows what it is, the archive said, revealing that in a survey two percent of the population thought it was actually the name of a novel by best-selling author Dan Brown
:rofl:

[spinbaby]

2. Very nice find

Thanks. I love some of the names listed--R God-save-the-ladies, Ansgar the cook, Wulfgifu, Grim...

[JackintheGreen]

4. Uh...the whole link is very dead.

WTF???

[cynatnite]

5. Take the period off at the end of the link n/t

[SmokingJacket]

6. Take out the period at the end of the address. nt

[JackintheGreen]

11. Uh...yeah...I finally figued that one out myself

[SmokingJacket]

7. Very , very cool.

The list of translated names is so Tolkein-esque.

[Retrograde]

8. Where do you think Tolkien got his names?

He was a medieval scholar specializing in languages - he collected interesting sounding British names.

[SmokingJacket]

9. There's actually a guy on one list named Frodo. nt

[ThomWV]

10. Dead link

[JitterbugPerfume]

12. cool

a novel by Dan Brown:wtf: :banghead:

[DavidDvorkin]

13. "The rich landscape William inherited"

It says on the front page.

Umm, I wouldn't have used "inherited", if I'd been writing that page.

[Lisa]

14. wow -- this'll be great for researchers

I've been thinking about doing some historical work on landscape change -- this might be a valuable resource. Thanks for posting this story!

[tenshi816]

15. The village my husband grew up in

is mentioned in the Domesday Book! (http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/details-result.asp?Edoc_Id=7580343&queryType=1&resultcount=1)