Methodology

The LASC database works within the established parameters established by the Sawyer catalogue; therefore, the database provides an individual entry for each Sawyer number. This allows the user to align their findings easily with the information provided in other publications and resources – and it is for this reason that for each individual charter page, we have provided a hyperlink to its respective page on Esawyer. There are, however, limitations to adopting the Sawyer framework that one must bear in mind. First, it needs to be stressed that the Sawyer catalogue does not provide individual entries for differing copies of charters. This is relatively unproblematic, though one should be aware of the small number of documents that survive in multiple contemporary forms; these do not necessarily have the exact same content or orthography. Second, for most examples the Sawyer catalogue implicitly treats a document as a single entity and does not, therefore, indicate multiple stages of production. Stages of production are often extremely difficult to discern unless the charter survives in an original form, but where such pieces of evidence are visible, it is extremely important to consider these when analysing the language choices made within a text. It is for these reasons that the individual entries for charters within our database include a comments section, in which such relevant information can be found.

It is a principal aim of this resource to demonstrate the linguistic complexities of individual documents and, therefore, we have broken down charters into four constituent parts in order to catalogue their languages. These are:

• Main text: the ‘main text’ comprises all elements of the charter that are not related to boundary clauses, witness lists or endorsements.
• Boundary Clause: the description of the limits of a piece land.
• Witness List: the list of names of individuals who attested the charter.
• Endorsement: text written on the back (‘dorse’) of a charter. One is rarely able to identify with certainty such passages within charters that do not survive in a single-sheet form.

We believe that the most salient language features can be captured through the division of a charter into these four categories. Of these, the most complex is the main text section, which could feasibly be broken down further into smaller parts (such as ‘invocation’, ‘proem’, ‘dispositive section’ and ‘sanction’; compare with the description of the constituent parts of an Anglo-Saxon charter by Simon Keynes at http://dk.usertest.mws3.csx.cam.ac.uk/node/91).

For the main text, the range of language search options is larger than for the other three fields, allowing for more variation in the uses of Latin and Old English, since this section is often longer and more heterogeneous than other parts of the charter. In particular, for those charters that are predominantly in Latin, special attention has been given to differentiating between small amounts of Old English that were used to describe a feature in the landscape (a ‘topographical’ term) and small amounts of Old English that serve another purpose – for the simple reason that the former occurs far more frequently than the latter. Note here that a considerable number of Old English landscape words are prefaced by a vernacular preposition (more characteristically æt). These vernacular prepositions have not been catalogued separately, since there is an argument that they should be conceptualised as part of the topographical vocabulary that they accompany, and we did not wish to overwhelm the database with too great a number of categories of Old English usage. In addition, there are numerous occasions when the presence of a vernacular preposition is uncertain – for example, in later copies of charters where we see variable uses of æt, at, ad and et to introduce Old English topographical terms. Nevertheless, those instances where the use of a vernacular preposition seems certain have been noted in the relevant comments section that accompanies the entry for an individual charter.

For the other three sections of a charter – boundary clause, witness list and endorsement – one can search for one of four options: Latin, Old English, Mixed, or N/A (N/A indicating that this feature does not exist in the charter). Here it is important to stress that all Old English-derived words have been catalogued as Old English, including items that may be considered to be place-names. It should also be noted that we have drawn a distinction within the boundary clause section between the statement that introduces the bounds and the bounds themselves, as there is considerable variation in what languages were employed for either of these two parts of the boundary clause.

An additional feature of the database relates to the treatment of personal names within charters, which can be found on some occasions to have been latinised. This database does not offer an exhaustive catalogue of latinisation of personal names, but it was felt that this was an important aspect of language dynamics and that it must be acknowledged in some way. Thus, users are able to search for instances where a personal name that is acting as a subject (nominative) within a main text or witness list has been latinised with the addition of a –us ending. The addition of such a –us ending can be found in a substantial but small enough number of charters to suggest that there may be particular worth in examining this phenomenon. One should note that it is far more common to find the latinisation of a personal name when it is an indirect object (and thus it acquires a –o ending) – so much so that the compilers of this database have deemed the cataloguing of this feature to be of limited utility. One should also note that considerable value could be gained from examining the latinisation of place names in charters, though this resource does not facilitate such an investigation.

The Search Page

The LASC database allows for searches to be conducted not only based on linguistic features, but also by any of the following criteria:

• Sawyer number
• Date range
• Archive
• Survival as a single sheet (via Single Sheets Only)
• Likely to be authentic (via Exclude Spurious)
• Issuing authority

Full definitions of these categories can be found by clicking on the associated information buttons () on the search page. One can search the corpus using one or several of these criteria at once, in conjunction with or independent of language criteria. Note that the results of a search will only contain those charters that meet all the selected criteria.

As to the language filters, as stated above, charters have been catalogued as constituting four parts: a main text, boundary clause, witness list and endorsement. Click on any of these to reveal a selection of language filters and click on the associated information buttons () for more information on individual filters.

The Results Page

The results of a search appear on a new page in tabular form. The table will only contain those charters that each meet all the criteria by which a user has searched. For each of these charters, the table provides all the information that is searchable in the database. Thus, the table provides the following details:

The results are automatically displayed alphabetically according to archive. One can change the order in which they are presented so that they are in ascending or descending order according to any one of the tabular columns by simply clicking on the title of a column.

It is also possible to print the results table by clicking on . By clicking on the same icon, one can also choose to save the table as a PDF.

Finally, if one wishes to view the full details for an individual charter, simply click anywhere in the row in the table for that charter and you will then be taken to the corresponding individual charter page.

The Individual Charter Page

Each Sawyer numbered Anglo-Saxon charter has its own page within this database. These pages are accessed via the results page, by clicking anywhere in the row of that charter within the results table. The page for an individual charter contains all the information that is searchable through the search page, namely:

• Sawyer number
• Date range
• Archive
• If it survives as a single sheet
• If it is spurious
• Issuing authority
• Languages of the charter (by main text; boundary clause; witness list; endorsement; latinised personal names)

In addition, the page also contains:

• a hyperlink to the corresponding page on Esawyer
• a summary of the content of the charter, as it is found on Esawyer
• details of the edition used in the compilation of the LASC database entry
• Additional pertinent comments made by the LASC compilers relating to the languages of the charter, its production and survival

Note that references to editions are abbreviated. A list of abbreviations and their full corresponding bibliographic details can be found on the Bibliography page of this database.