Winchester College Hall Book

• die Martis: 11 February 1415/16
• Die mercurii: 26 February 1415/16
• die dominica: 3 May 1416

Record title: Winchester College Hall Book
Repository: Winchester College Archives
Shelfmark: 22820
Repository location: Winchester

The hall books were rough accounts in paper booklets kept by the hall steward (this job was rotated weekly between the junior fellows), listing by name in two columns all those eating in hall each day. The totals were entered later in the bursars' accounts, 'Commons' section. The visitors eating in hall were entered at the end of each week, generally across both columns, under the heading of 'Jurnelli,' that is, guests. The listings start on the left with the day of the week followed by a list of guests, usually without commas or virgules, and then a formulaic entry such as 'ad prandium/cenam cum socijs' or 'cum famulis.' Sometimes the visitors were listed as eating at the top table with the warden, sometimes with the junior fellows ('socijs'), and sometimes with the servants ('famulis'). This pecking order gives us some idea of the status accorded to the various sorts of visitors. None of the visitors of interest to us ate 'in alta mensis' or 'in camera Custodis.'

There are datings of regnal years on the covers, sometimes the year the book was started and sometimes when it ended. Sometimes there are two entries in different hands; the lengthier one in Latin appears to be contemporary and the other brief one is in a later hand. Each week starts with a Saturday and is not dated but designated by a heading such as '2nd week, 2nd quarter' and then by the days in Latin. These have been given dates with reference to H. Chitty, bursar from the 1910s to 30s, who went to considerable lengths to verify them and also to establish dates where no cover has survived, with reference to the corresponding account rolls where they exist or else to lists of scholars/fellows and their dates of admission. The accounting period is usually Michaelmas to Michaelmas and the new year begins with the Saturday following Michaelmas (with one or two exceptions). The quarters are divided into thirteen weeks each, although the fourth quarter sometimes contains a fourteenth week to make the first quarter of the next year start on the Saturday after Michaelmas.

1415–16; Latin; paper and parchment; 52 leaves in 2 quires; 300mm x 115mm; unnumbered; bound in parchment cut from an architectural plan, on cover: '1416 4 H V,' 'Nomina commensalium de' (rest illegible because of large stain on cover), and miscellaneous scribblings.