Chartularies of St Mary’s Abbey, Dublin. With the Register of its House at Dunbrody. Two Volumes. London: Longman & Co, 1884. Pp (1) cv, 535, frontispiece folding plate; (2) clvi, 522 frontispiece folded plate. Volumes recently bound in full brown buckram, titles in gilt on spines. A very good to fine set.

Cartularies are one of our best sources for life in the Middle Ages. Typically compiled by religious communities, the books in question contain copies of charters and related documents, supplying evidence of landholding, legal transactions and day-to-day business.

St. Mary’s Abbey was a former Cistercian abbey located near Abbey Street in Dublin. Its territory stretched from the district known as Oxmanstown down along the River Liffey until it met the sea.

It also owned large estates in other parts of Ireland.