Published in six volumes between 1839 and 1848, this was the first collected edition of the surviving corpus of Anglo-Saxon charters, comprising royal diplomas in Latin and a variety of documents (wills, writs, etc.) in the vernacular (Old English). John Mitchell Kemble (1807–57) collected his material from many different places (the British Museum, the official records then in the Tower of London, cathedral archives, college libraries, and various private collections), and arranged it as best he could in chronological order. He believed passionately that he was laying foundations for a new history of the English people, and his work formed the basis for his study The Saxons in England (1849). Volume 6 of the Codex (1848) complements Volumes 3 and 4 with additional texts from the mid-tenth century to the Norman Conquest. It also contains a listing of the manuscripts used by Kemble, and a substantial index of places.
