The Bolton Priory Compotus 1286-1325, together with a priory account roll for 1377-1378 (review)

Short Notices 293 Politics of Papal Reform,' Larry Scanlon clarifies Foucault's 'utterly confused category' of sodomy to unpack the intricacies of Peter Damian's desire for 'heteronormativity' and its double - homophobia. 'Bel Acueil and the Improper Allegory ofthe Romance of the Rose' allows Simon Gaunt to expose the fallacy ofC. S. Lewis's reading and logically claim Jean de M e u n as a queer writer. Helen Solterer's 'States of Siege: Violence, Place and Gender: Paris Around 1400' shifts the volume's focus to read spatial phenomena and spatialised metaphor. 'Metonymy, Montage, and Death in Francois Villon's Testament similarly locates textual meaning within cultural space; this time in metonymic chains of significance circulating around death. In 'The Trouble With Harold: the Ideological Context of the Vita Haroldi, Robert Stein produces a skilful narrative account ofthe sources of Harold's death and their contextual meanings. 'Eliding the Interpreter: John Wyclif and Scriptural Truth' shifts the preoccupation with textual context allowing Kantik Ghosh to locate the 'basic dichotomies in Wyclif's thought' at the argument's centre. Wendy Scase's '"Strange and Wonderful Bills": Bill-Casting and Political Discourse in Late Medieval England' seeks to 'erect some of the structure necessary for making an interpretive framework' for bill-casting as a 'discursive practice.' The stand-out essay is Susan Crane's brilliant 'Maytime in Late Medieval Courts' for its theoretical lucidity, intellectualrigourand convincing argumentation. Louise Fradenburg's 'Analytical Survey 2: W e Are Not Alone: Psychoanalytic Medievalism' is not only insightful as a survey but also makes a shapely return to the disciplinary concerns signalled in Copeland's introduction. Jenna Mead School ofEnglish, Journalism and European Languages University of Tasmania Kershaw, Ian and David M. Smith, eds., The Bolton Priory Compotus 12861325 , together with a priory account roll for 1377-1378, (Yorkshire Archaeological Society Record Series 154), Woodbridge, The Boydell Press, 2000; cloth; pp. viii, 636; 2 maps; R R P £50.00, US$90.00; ISBN 0902122932. This is a truly collaborative work as Ian Kershaw, who wrote the authoritativ work on this Northern Augustinian priory, built deep in the Pennine chain, was prevented by other responsibilities from completing the transcription on his own. The compotus, which covers the years from 1286-1325, is in many ways a unique 294 Short Notices survival giving a remarkable insight not only into the economy ofthe priory itself, but also into the agricultural life of the area in which it was situated. Various segments or extracts from the volume have appeared in print before but the production of a critical edition ofthe entire, massive account book,firstproposed by R. J. Whirwell before the First World War but only n o w realised, makes that material available to scholars interested in many aspects of the period from the accounting conventions used to the costs and returns of demesne farming to the money the house spent on the fabric of the churches under its control and its relationship with local lords such as the Cliffords. The introduction gives a clear account of the structure of the accounts and the background to their compilation which probably derives from the financial reforms ordered by the bishop in 1280 that also resulted in an up-todate rental. The structure was not static, and the ways in which it altered over time are explored. As Kershaw makes clear, these accounts do not include all the income and expenditure of the house as the sacrist and the refectorer had their own funds which were separate. In some respects, the accounts are abstracts of the particular rolls kept by the individual obedientiaries. Nevertheless there was a centralfinancialsystem headed by the receiver and the compotus roll is a form ofbalance sheet with the cash account followed by the granary, larder, stock, and profit calculations to which the subsidiary accounts, only a few of which survive, are complementary. Auditing was carried out by the senior monks, assisted by lay professionals, so that the prior could provide the community with a reckoning. Critical to the priory's profitability were the returns from the manors. After 1325 there are no more accounts for 50 years although the isolated 1377-8 account shows...