Domesday Book: Through Nine Centuries

Library Journal

The publication of theses two books coincides with the 900th anniversary of England's oldest surviving record of systematic central-government administration, the Domesday Book (DB), 1086, ordered by William the Conqueror and still preserved as Public Record 1 in the Public Records Office (PRO) in London. The history of DB by Elizabeth Hallam, assistant keeper at the PRO, tells general and scholarly audiences how the survey was made for William's administrative needs and used as a working record of English property-holding even into the last century. By then, however, DB had gained as well a long mythic history and played a continuing role in the English consciousness. This myth of Domesday explains Hinde's The Domesday Book , a strange compilation. After a token historical introduction (by Hallam, to be sure), a chapter for each of the thirty-seven traditional English counties in DB gives complete translation of the DB entry for three to five places, with a rambling little essay about later events there and then a ``gazetteer'' of other sites summarizing DB information and listing modern points of interest. This lavishly illustrated large-format popular history can be skipped by libraries, but college and public history collections will want Hallam's excellent study. Richard C. Hoffmann, History Dept., York Univ., North York, Ontario