Antonia Gransden • 1973
Bury St Edmunds Abbey in Suffolk was founded by King Canute (1016-1035) to service the shrine of St Edmund, King of East Anglia (d. 870). It became a rich and powerful exempt abbey under royal protection. The customary here edited was probably written in or soon after 1234, and is a compilation by an unknown monk from a variety of sources, including earlier custom books, the statutes of the General Chapter of 1218-1219 and various documents then in the abbey's archives.
The chief manuscript employed is the Liber Albus of Bury, London, British Library, MS Harley 1005, ff. 102-119, and reference is also made to a fragment in Cambridge, University Library, Additional MS 6006, ff. 9r-9v, 16r-20v. The edition is supplied with 10 appendices: eight from London, British Library, Harley MS 1005; a mid-12th century tract De Pitanciis from New York, Pierpoint Morgan MS 736 (Appendix IV); plus a further tract De Duodena apud Sanctum Edmundum relating to the douzegild at Bury, from London, British Library, Harley MS 3977, ff. 25r-25v. There is a full index.
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