The litanies of the monastic orders in England, above all those of the Benedictines, are key witnesses of devotion to the saints of the British Isles, whose relics and shrines were mostly in Benedictine abbeys and cathedral priories. However, although many of the calendars of the Benedictines have been published, litanies are more rare, and the majority of those within this volume are presented as text editions for the first time. The majority of the textsare Benedictine, but the few surviving litanies from the other monastic orders, Carthusians, Cistercians and Cluniacs, are included, and also those of the Order of Fontevrault. This is the first of two volumes and covers the abbeys and priories from Abbotsbury to Peterborough. The second volume will contain the litanies from the Cluniac Priory of Pontefract to York, St Mary's Abbey.

Nigel Morgan is Honorary Emeritus Professor of the History ofArt at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Corpus Christi College.