ABSTRACT
In the eighteenth century large-scale, general national histories had been completed by Edward Gibbon, David Hume and William Robertson. History was often considered a branch of philosophy rather than a concentrated concern for the past in itself, until the new Medieval Revival generated the rediscovery of medieval literature. The Record Commission was appointed in 1800 (and a new one in 1836) as a move to improve the collection, classification and use of national archives. In 1857, Lord Romilly, Master of the Rolls, gained the Treasury's permission to publish critical editions of English historical sources up until the close of the Middle Ages.
