Saltgate m.13 (1404), p. 1250 (1404) bis

Just what does this mean? I’ve spent quite a bit of this afternoon decoding this cryptic clue – however, once you know what the code is it makes sense…sort of.

So when does history start? The notation above is from a PhD thesis by Dr Barrie Cox. Thanks to Dr Cox I don’t have to spend all my life wading through old manuscripts in vain hope of finding something of interest – he has done all that work for me. Thank you Dr Cox. The only problem is this thesis was written on an old manual typewriter and published in 1971. This means that the way that he has set things out needs to be decoded before you start to decode the even older history. Still with me? Dr Cox had several pages of useful notes on what all the abbreviations meant but it still took quite a while to make sense of things.

So here is actually what the entry means:

Saltgate, from a manuscript purporting to have been recorded in the middle of the 13th century, however the copy available is dated 1404, personal name of Saltgate purporting to have been recorded in 1250 however the copy available is dated 1404.

So far so good. But what does bis mean? Well the only answer I could find to this was it means twice – there was nothing in the thesis to indicate this. I can only assume that this was a common term when the theses was written but here in 2013 not so much and I had to spend some time looking on the internet to find the answer.

What this reminds me of is the short hand used by the scribe writing the Domesday entries. He used an arcane abbreviation that take some time to understand but once you do things start to make sense.

So when decoding history you have to be aware that it is closer than you think.

Simon Marchini
www.simonmarchini.co.uk