The Great Roll of the Year

The account rendered by the sheriff at the Exchequer was recorded on the great roll of the year. In the Dialogue it is spoken of as the roll of the Treasury (rotulus de thesauro ¹ ), the roll of the year (rotulus annalis ² ), the great roll of the year, ³ or the great roll of accounts of the year (magni annates compotorum rotuli ⁴ ). It consisted of a number of membranes, each of which was called a pipe, ⁵ because, as I presume, it naturally rolled up and looked like a cylinder or pipe. That this was the technical meaning of the word ‘pipe’ can be proved from the reign of Edward II; ⁶ la pipe was the single membrane containing the account of a single sheriff, ⁷ though this sometimes extended into two or more membranes separately headed. ⁸ By 1348 the combined roll is called la pipe, and at a date which I have not ascertained it becomes known as magnus rotulus pipae. But this belongs only to later usage. The pipe roll is a roll of pipes, just as a pine wood is a wood of pines; and any fanciful interpretation, such as that which traces the name to the resemblance of the bulky roll to a pipe or cask of wine, or to the pipe or channel through which the king drew his revenue, must be dismissed as unhistorical.