Seminar II: Charters and Cartularies

Seminar II: Charters, Cartularies and Other Administrative Records

Charters are one of the few archival sources to survive in significant quantities for the entire medieval period. They are usually short, self-contained texts, concerned with the ownership of land or of some other right or privilege. Some record the transfer these rights from one person or institution to another or purport to do so, others confirm the ownership of such rights, many are concerned with the legal conditions and obligations that go with the holding of particular rights or properties. They record acts of authority and had considerable force as records that might be used in court or to obtain further confirmations of the rights they record; but they did not, in the earliest period, constitute legal instruments in themselves even though they often drawn up by clerks present at the ‘issuing’ authority’s court. It was the oral transaction and the sacred rituals that accompanied it—the utterances of the king or authority who made or confirmed the grant, the oaths offered and the gesture of the cross—which constituted the legal act. The lists of witnesses often attached to charters should not, therefore, be understood as a list of those who ‘signed’ the document, but as a record of those who were present when these gestures took place.

The internal organisation of charters is often highly formulaic, the conventions in use varying according to time and place. In its classic form—as found in the tenth century, before a tendency to abbreviate takes over in the later eleventh and twelfth centuries—the English royal charter typically had most of the following components:

an invocation (i.e. an invocation of the deity in words and often also conveyed by the use of the chi-rho symbol);
a proem or arenga, which provides a religious rationale for the grant;
an exposition, a passage or phrase which links the grant which follows to the religious rationale;
a superscription or intitulatio, a passage which identifies the authority issuing the grant;
a dispositive section, which names the recipient of the grant and details the conditions under which it is made;
a sanction, anathema or curse, a passage which affirms that God will punish those who violate the grant if not in this world then at the Last Judgement;
a boundary clause (but see below);
a dating clause, typically but not always given at the end of the document;
a witness list in which each name is marked with a chrismon or cross; and
an endorsement, a short summary of the charter written on the outside of the document so that it could be identified in its folded form.

firebeast Seals—impressions set in a mixture of bees-wax and resin made using a metal matrix—were used to close letters (especially official correspondence) in Anglo-Saxon England, but not, it seems, to validate charters. The only genuine documents to survive from before 1066 with seals attached are writs of Edward the Confessor (1042–65), and Gervase of Canterbury says that he was ‘the first of the kings of England who appended pressed wax on his charters as a testimony of the truth’ (Gesta regum Anglorum, ed. Stubbs, RS 83 (1880), ii, 59). A little doubt must remain as to whether Edward was the first to issue charters as well as writs in this way, but the practice was certainly well established by the end of Willliam the Conqueror’s reign, and it soon became widespread for lords of all kinds when it had not previously been the norm in either England or Normandy. In the early English instances a double-sided seal created with the help of a press encloses a strip or tongue of vellum attached to the document. Each side had two elements: an inscription around the outer edge naming the person whose seal it was and the image or device at its centre. The image on the chief side often showed for an institution a building or for an individual their bust or upper three-quarters front on or in profile. Figures are often shown holding an object that symbolises their socio-political function, such as a book for a cleric or a sword or sceptre for a secular lord. Seals had long been used to authenticate royal charters in both eastern and western Frankia, but they were pressed onto the sheet itself—except, that is, in the case of seals made of lead or gold which were affixed with strings of hemp or ribbons.

Though some charters were produced in the form of libelli or booklets, most were first issued on single-sheets. Having received them in these forms their recipients (or those who later gained possession of the rights or properties to which they pertained) might and often did go on to copy them into books or registers known after the nature of their contents as ‘cartularies’. Indeed, many texts are known only from the later copies found in these books, and sometimes only from the great registers which record the findings of the royal clerks who surveyed the landholdings of England in the late thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. But in contrast to the situation with other types of short document, large numbers of charters survive in their original form—for England, at least. Of the one thousand texts known, for example, for the Anglo-Saxon period, a good number, some two hundred, survive as ‘originals’: that is, for two-hundred or so the earliest witness now extant is a single sheet written in a hand consistent with the stated date and place of issue—one made in the presence (or with the knowledge) of the king in whose name it was issued. These witnesses are particularly important in so far as they are free from the distortions introduced by repeated copying and interpolation—by the editorial interventions of those who found their texts ‘insufficient’.

Forgery through interpolation was common. Changes in legal practice and the invention of new obligations often exposed gaps in the provisions made when charters were first issued, inviting or necessitating the modification of clauses and sometimes the insertion of entirely new provisions. Thus, many later copies show signs of interpolation, but these alterations are themselves significant in as much as they bear witness to subtle changes in the situation and concerns of those who held property and power.

firebeast The historical significance of charters is manifold. They seldom provide enough information to establish fully the contexts in which they were issued, but the data that they provide can have immense value. They can be used, for example, to establish land-holding patterns in a particular region or within the estates of a particular family, they can be used to construct a picture of individual or familial piety, and their witness lists can be used to identify the persons attached to the issuing authority’s court and that circle’s evolution over time. They can sometimes even be used to identify those in the circle of the donor. The language of charters is usually highly formulaic, and becomes increasingly so in the later Middle Ages, but it is this very feature which makes them important for the study of political thought. Subtle changes in these formulas can speak to far-reaching shifts in the notions of authority and service which governed social and political practice.

Most charters survive because they record the transfer of rights attached to estates that came into the possession of a religious house (or one of the few enduring baronies or honours), and the way in which these archives were managed is itself a significant subject—one which bears witness to the gradual evolution of a literate mentality and to the way in which historical knowledge was organised and deployed in long-lived and privileged communities. The contents of cartularies were often selected and sometimes edited in order to answer particular needs and concerns. Some collections of charters were illustrated or decorated, reflecting the wealth and pretensions of the persons or institutions for whom they were produced. Some imitate the layout and script of the originals, reproducing the rotas of papal privileges and other authenticating symbols.

The boundary-clauses of charters have their own special significance for the study of the medieval landscape. They typically start in one corner of the estate and proceed in a clockwise direction from feature to feature around the perimeter to end where they began. Some survive as free-standing texts, recorded in cartularies or on loose sheets. The recording of bounds seems to have taken off, for England, in the later Anglo-Saxon period, especially the period between 930 and 1000. But their use seems to have been governed by regional custom, with the vast majority being found in records from the southern and western England. Over half of the surviving bounds concern estates in the counties of Worcestershire, Wiltshire, Hampshire, Berkshire, and Kent. A few charters provide evidence, furthermore, for the use of boundary clauses to establish the limits of estates: Sawyer 1441 describes, for example, how one party to a dispute led the other around ‘all the boundaries’ reading the landmarks from þam aldan bocum, that is, ‘the old documents’.

Topics for Consideration

The uses of charters.
The internal organisation of charters.
The evolution of the charter from its putative Roman origins through to the later Middle Ages.
Methods for establishing the authenticity of charters and for dating forgeries.
The range of manuscripts in which charters are preserved, from single sheets to large scale cartularies.
The ways in which historians can exploit charters as evidence.

Manuscripts for Discussion

Introductory Reading

Clemens, R., and T. Graham, Introduction to Manuscript Studies (Ithaca, NY, 2007), chp. 14 (pp. 222–39), ‘Charters and Cartularies’. +VSR.B. Particularly useful for its succinct discussions of the various eras and dating systems used in charters (and chronicles) and of the format of papal documents.
Clanchy, M. T., From Memory to Written Record: England, 1066–1307 (3rd edn, Oxford, 2013). See esp. chps 2, 5 and 9. Available at Ebook Central.
Rumble, A., ‘Anglo-Saxon Royal Archives: Their Nature, Extent, Survival and Loss’, in G. R. Owen-Crocker and B. W. Schneider (eds), Kingship, Legislation and Power in Anglo-Saxon England (Woodbridge, 2013), pp. 185–200. ‘This paper is intended to promote a more balanced view of the extent of the royal archives kept by and for Anglo-Saxon kings than either the national land registry postulated by Cyril Hart in 1970 or the minimalist entity suggested by Michael Clanchy in 1979 and 1993.’ Available at JSTOR.
Walker, D., ‘The Organisation of Material in Medieval Cartularies’, in D. A. Bullough and R. L. Storey (eds), The Study of Medieval Records: Essays in Honour of Kathleen Major (Oxford, 1972), 132–50. MVB5.

Bishop, T. A. M. (ed.), Scriptores regis: Facsimiles to Identify and Illustrate the Hands of Royal Scribes in Original Charters of Henry I, Stephen, and Henry II (Oxford, 1961). Oversize MVE.
Bond, E. A. (ed.), Facsimiles of Ancient Charters in the British Museum, 4 vols (London, 1873–8). Legal History Collection 34LEI: Enquiries. Parts 2–4 only.
Johnson, C. B., and H. Jenkinson, English Court Hand A.D. 1066 to 1500: Illustrated Chiefly from the Public Records, 2 pts. (Oxford, 1915; rpt. New York, 1967). Part 1 = text; Part 2 = 44 leaves of plates. LDY.
Keynes, S. D. (ed.), Facsimiles of Anglo-Saxon Charters, Anglo-Saxon Charters: Supplementary Volumes 1 (Oxford, 1991).
Patterson, R. B. (ed.), Earldom of Gloucester Charters: The Charters and Scribes of the Earls and Countesses of Gloucester to A.D. 1227 (Oxford, 1973). Oversize MVG3.
Salter, H. E. (ed.), Facsimiles of Early Charters in Oxford Muniment Rooms (Oxford, 1929). Oversize MWJD.
Sanders, W. B. (ed.), Facsimiles of Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts, Ordnance Survey Facsimiles, 3 vols. (Southampton, 1878–84).
Warner, G. F., and H. Ellis (ed.), Facsimiles of Royal and Other Charters in the British Museum, vol. 1, William I–Richard I (London, 1903). LEIea.

Useful Series, Calendars of Documents and Websites

Davis, H. W. C., R. J. Whitwell, C. Johnson, H. A. Cronne (eds), Regesta regum Anglo-Normannorum, 1066–1154, 4 vols. (Oxford, 1913–69). Oversize MVE5.
English Episcopal Acta, ed. D. M. Smith et al. (London, 1980–). This series aims to publish (or in some cases, to calendar) the complete output of England’s episcopal chanceries. Many volumes include useful discussions of the diplomatic conventions employed in these documents.
Kemble: The Anglo-Saxon Charters Website, hosted by the Department for Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic in the University of Cambridge.
LangScape: The Language of Landscape—Reading the Anglo-Saxon Countryside. An on-line searchable database of Anglo-Saxon estate boundaries / descriptions of the countryside made by the Anglo-Saxons themselves.
The Electronic Sawyer. A revised, augmented, and updated form of P. H. Sawyer, Anglo-Saxon Charters: An Annotated List and Bibliography (London, 1968). Covers Sawyer nos. 1–1602. The print version is shelved at MVC.C. A revised online catalogue providing links to texts and translations is in preparation.

Charters and Cartularies

Barrow, G. W. S. (ed.), The Charters of King David: The Written Acts of David I, King of Scots, 1124–53, and of his Son, Henry, Earl of Northumberland (Woodbridge, 1999). MXBF.C.
Barrow, J. S., ‘Why Forge Episcopal Acta? Preliminary Observations on the Forged Charters in the English Episcopal Acta Series’, in P. Hoskin, C. Brooke and B. Dobson (eds), The Foundations of Medieval English Ecclesiastical History: Studies Presented to David Smith (Woodbridge, 2005), pp. 18–39.
Birch, W. de G. (ed.), Cartularium Saxonicum: A Collection of Charters Relating to Anglo-Saxon History, 3 vols. and index (London, 1885–99).
Bouchard, C. B., ‘Forging Papal Authority: Charters from the Monastery of Montier-en-Der’, Church History, 69 (2000), 1–17.
Bowman, J. A., ‘From Written Record to Historical Memory: Narrating the Past in Iberian Charters’, in R. A. Maxwell (ed.), Representing History 1000–1300: Art, Music, History (University Park, PA, 2010), pp. 173–80 and 247–50.
Bresslau, H., Handbuch der Urkundenlehre für Deutschland und Italien, 3 vols. (4th edn, Berlin, 1969).
Brooks, N., ‘The Early Charters of Canterbury Cathedral’, in S. Sweetinburgh (ed.), Early Medieval Kent, 800–1220, Kent History Project 10 (Woodbridge, 2016), pp. 155–64. MWFM.
Brown, E. A. R., ‘Falsitas pia sive reprehensibilis: Medieval Forgers and their Intentions’, in Wolfram Setz (ed.), Fälschungen im Mittelalter, MGH Schriften 33, 5 vols. (Hannover, 1988), I, pp. 101–20.
Brown, W. C., M. Costambeys, M. Innes, A. Kosto (eds), Documentary Culture and the Laity in the Early Middle Ages (Cambridge, 2012).
Ceccarelli, P., L. Doering, T. Fogen, and I. Gildenhard (eds), Letters and Communities: Studies in the Socio-Political Dimensions of Ancient Epistolography (Oxford, 2018). For the classical antecedents of the medieval letter.
Chaplais, P., ‘The Origin and the Authenticity of the Anglo-Saxon Diploma’, Journal of the Society of Archivists, 3 (1965–69), 48–61; rpt. in F. Ranger (ed.), Prisca Munimenta: Studies presented to Dr A. E. J. Hollaender (London, 1973), pp. 28–42.
Chaplais, P., ‘The Anglo-Saxon Chancery: From Diploma to the Writ’, Journal of the Society of Archivists, 3 (1965–69), 160–76; rpt. in F. Ranger (ed.), Prisca Munimenta: Studies presented to Dr A. E. J. Hollaender (London, 1973), pp. 43–62. Cf. Rumble below.
Clay, C. T., Sir (ed.), Early Yorkshire Families, With illustrative documents edited by D. E. Greenway (Leeds, 1973). MWS.
Constable, G., ‘Forgery and Plagiarism in the Middle Ages’, Archiv für Diplomatik, 29 (1983), 1–41.
Everard, J., ‘Lay Charters and the Acta of Henry II’, Anglo-Norman Studies, 30 (2008), 100–16.
Fichtenau, H., Arenga: Spätantike und Mittelalter im Spiegel von Urkundenformeln (Graz, 1957).
Flanagan, M. T., and J. A. Green (eds), Charters and Charter Scholarship in Britain and Ireland (Basingstoke, 2005). LEIea.
Foot, S., ‘Reading Anglo-Saxon Charters: Memory, Record, or Story?’, in E. M. Tyler and R. Balzaretti (eds), Narrative and History in the Early Medieval West, Studies in the Early Middle Ages (Turnhout, 2006), pp. 39–65. MBR.
Foulds, F., ‘Medieval Cartularies’, Archives: The Journal of the British Record Association, 18 (1987), 3–35. Journals L6.
Freed, J. B., ‘The Creation of the Codex Falkensteinensis (1166): Self-Representation and Reality’, in B. K. U. Weiler and S. Maclean (eds), Representations of Power in Medieval Germany, 800–1500, International Medieval Research 16 (Turnhout, 2006), pp. 189–210. MHB.J.
Furtado, R., and M. Moscone (eds), From Charters to Codex: Studies on Cartularies and Archival Memory in the Middle Ages, Textes et Etudes du Moyen Âge 93 (Turnhout, 2019). Essays on the historical value of medieval cartularies and ‘the management of archival memory’ in the medieval period.
Galbraith, V. H., ‘Monastic Foundation Charters of the 11th and 12th Centuries’, Cambridge Historical Journal, 4 (1932–4), 205–22. Journals L6. For forgeries in cartularies.
Geary, P. J., ‘From Charter to Cartulary: From Archival Practice to History’, in R. A. Maxwell (ed.), Representing History 1000–1300: Art, Music, History (University Park, PA, 2010), pp. 181–6 and 250–2.
Geary, P. J., Phantoms of Remembrance: Memory and Oblivion at the End of the First Millennium (Princeton, NJ, 1994).
Gejrot, C., ‘Original Value: On Diplomatics and Editorial Work’, in E. Göransson, G. Iversen and B. Crostini (eds), The Arts of Editing Medieval Greek and Latin: A Casebook, Studies and Texts 203 (Toronto, 2016), pp. 123–37. XDA.
Gervers, M. (ed.), Dating Undated Medieval Charters (Woodbridge, 2000). LEI. Papers first presented at a conference hosted by Collegium Budapest/Institute for Advanced Study, March, 1999.
Giry, A., Manuel de Diplomatique: Diplomes et chartes, chronologie technique, éléments critiques et parties constitutives de la teneur des chartes, les chancelleries, les actes privés (Paris, 1894).
Guyotjeannin, O., L. Morelle, M. Parisse (ed.), Les Cartulaires: Actes de la table ronde organisie par l’Ecole nationale des chartes et le G.D.R. 121 du C.N.R.S (Paris, 5–7 décembre 1991), Mémoires et documents de l’Ecole des chartes 39 (Paris, 1993).
Hart, C. R., ‘The Codex Wintoniensis and the King’s Haligdom’, in J. Thirsk (ed.), Land, Church and People: Essays presented to Prof. H. P. R. Finberg, Agricultural History Review 18, Supplement (Reading, 1970), pp. 7–38. MU7. Cf. Rumble below.
Hiatt, A., The Making of Medieval Forgeries: False Documents in Fifteenth-Century England (London, 2004).
Hector, L. C., Palaeography and Forgery (London, 1959). 7LDea.
Hector, L. C., The Handwriting of English Documents (London, 1958; 2nd edn, London, 1966). LDY.
Heidecker, K. (ed.), Charters and the Use of the Written Word in Medieval Society (Utrecht, 2000). LEI.
Hudson, J., Land, Law, and Lordship in Anglo-Norman England (Oxford, 1994). SN60.
Hyams, P. R., ‘Charters as a Source for the Early English Common Law’, Journal of Legal History, 12 (1991), 173–89. Journals S6.
Hyams, P. R., ‘Warranty and Good Lordship in Twelfth-Century England’, Law and History Review, 5 (1987), 437–503. JSTOR. Journals S6.
Keats-Rohan, K. S. B. (ed.), The Cartulary of the Abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel (Donington, 2006).
Kemble, J. M. (ed.), Codex Diplomaticus Aevi Saxonici, 6 vols. (London, 1839–48). 34MU5 Enquiries.
Kemp, B. R. (ed.), Reading Abbey Cartularies: British Library Manuscripts, Egerton 3031, Harley 1708 and Cotton Vespasian E.XXV, Camden Society, 4th ser., 33 (London, 1987). MU6.
Keynes, S. D., ‘Church Councils, Royal Assemblies, and Anglo-Saxon Royal Diplomas’, in G. R. Owen-Crocker and B. W. Schneider (eds), Kingship, Legislation and Power in Anglo-Saxon England (Woodbridge, 2013), pp. 17–182. Available at JSTOR.
Keynes, S. D., The Diplomas of Æthelred ‘the Unready’ 978–1016: A Study in their Use as Historical Evidence, Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought, 3rd ser. 13 (Cambridge, 1980). MVD.
Kosto, A. J., ‘Laymen, Clerics, and Documentary Practices in the Early Middle Ages: The Example of Catalonia’, Speculum, 80 (2003), 44–74. JSTOR; Journals L6.
Kosto, A. J., and A. Winroth (eds), Charters, Cartularies and Archives: The Preservation and Transmission of Documents in the Medieval West, Proceedings of a Colloquium of the Commission Internationnale de Diplomatique, Princeton and New York, 16–18 September 1999 (Turnhout, 2002). Includes: C. B. Bouchard, ‘Monastic Cartularies: Organizing Eternity’ (pp. 22–32).
Loud, G. A., ‘The Chancery and Charters of the Kings of Sicily (1130–1212)’, English Historical Review, 124 (2009), 779–810.
Morelle, L., ‘Diplomatic Culture and History Writing: Folcuin’s Cartulary-Chronicle of Saint-Bertin’, in R. A. Maxwell (ed.), Representing History 1000-1300: Art, Music, History (University Park, PA, 2010), pp. 53–65 and 221–4.
Pratesi, A., Genesi e forme del documento medievale (Rome, 1979).
Rio, A., ‘Charters, Law Codes and Formulae: The Franks between Theory and Practice’, in P. Fouracre and D. Ganz (eds), Frankland: The Franks and the World of Early Medieval Europe: Essays in Honour of Dame Janet Nelson (Manchester, 2008), pp. 7–27. MSBF7.
Rio, A., Legal Practice and the Written Word in the Early Middle Ages: Frankish Formulae, c. 500–1000, Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought, 4th Ser. (Cambridge, 2009).
Rosenwein, B. H., To be the Neighbour of Saint Peter: The Social Meaning of Cluny’s Property, 909–1049 (Ithaca, NY, 1989).
Rumble, A., ‘Anglo-Saxon Royal Archives: Their Nature, Extent, Survival and Loss’, in G. R. Owen-Crocker and B. W. Schneider (eds), Kingship, Legislation and Power in Anglo-Saxon England (Woodbridge, 2013), pp. 185–200. ‘This paper is intended to promote a more balanced view of the extent of the royal archives kept by and for Anglo-Saxon kings than either the national land registry postulated by Cyril Hart in 1970 or the minimalist entity suggested by Michael Clanchy in 1979 and 1993.’ Available at JSTOR.
Snook, B., The Anglo-Saxon Chancery: The History, Language and Production of Anglo-Saxon Charters from Alfred to Edgar, Anglo-Saxon Studies 28 (Woodbridge, 2015).
Stenton, F. M., The Latin Charters of the Anglo-Saxon Period (Oxford, 1955).
Stubbs, W.,. Select Charters Illustrative of English Constitutional History: From the Earliest Times to the Reign of Edward the First, rev. H. W. C. Davis (9th edn, Oxford, 1913). MVB.C.
Thomson, S. D., Anglo-Saxon Royal Diplomas: A Palaeography, Publications of the Manchester Centre for Anglo-Saxon Studies (Woodbridge, 2006).
Tucker, J., Reading and Shaping Medieval Cartularies: Multi-Scribe Manuscripts and their Patterns of Growth. A Study of the Earliest Cartularies of Glasgow Cathedral and Lindores Abbey (Woodbridge, 2020). LEK.
West, J. R. (ed.), St Benet of Holme, 1020–1210: The Eleventh- and Twelfth-Century Sections of Cott. MS Galba E.II, The Register of the Abbey of St Benet of Holme, 2 vols, Norfolk Record Society 2–3 (Norwich, 1932). MWGP.K.

Seals and Sigillography

Bedos-Rezak, B., ‘Suger and the Symbolism of Royal Power: The Seal of Louis VII’, in P. L. Gerson (ed.), Abbot Suger and Saint-Denis: A Symposium (New York, 1986), pp. 95–103.
Chaplais, P., ‘The Seals and Original Charters of Henry I’, English Historical Review, 75 (1960), 260–75. JSTOR; Journals L6.
Ellis, R. H., Catalogue of Seals in the Public Record Office: Monastic Seals (London, 1986). LCN.
Ellis, R. H., Catalogue of Seals in the Public Record Office: Personal Seals, 2 vols. (London, 1978–81). LCN.
Harvey, P. D. A., ‘Personal Seals in Thirteenth-Century England’, in I. N. Wood and G. A. Loud (eds), Church and Chronicle in the Middle Ages: Essays presented to John Taylor (London, 1991), pp. 117–27. L43ea.B.
Harvey, P. D. A., and A. McGuinness, A Guide to British Medieval Seals (Toronto, 1996). LCN.
Heslop, T. A., ‘Twelfth-Century Forgeries as Evidence for Earlier Seals: The Case of St Dunstan’, in N. L. Ramsay, M. Sparks and T. Tatton-Brown (eds), Dunstan: Life, Times and Cult (Woodbridge, 1992), pp. 299–310. PN.DM.D9.
Heslop, T. A., ‘English Seals from the mid-9th Century to 1100’, Journal of the British Archaeological Association, 133 (1980), 1–16. Ask at Information Point LA6.
Heslop, T. A., ‘The Seals of the Twelfth-Century Earls of Chester’, Journal of the Chester Archaeological Society, 71 (1991), 179–97.
Jenkinson, H., A Guide to Seals in the Public Record Office (London, 1954). Pamphlet LC.
New, E. A., Seals and Sealing Practices, Archives and the User 11 (London, 2010).
Rigold, S. E., ‘Two Common Species of Seal-Matrix’, Antiquaries Journal, 57 (1977), 324–29.
Roberts, J., ‘What did Anglo-Saxon Seals Seal When?’, Costerus, 163 (2006), 131–57.
Whatley, L. (ed.), A Companion to Seals in the Middle Ages, Reading Medieval Sources 2 (Leiden, 2019).
Wyon, A. B. and A., The Great Seals of England from the Earliest Period to the Present Time (London, 1887). Legal History Collection: 34LCN. Ask Enquiries.