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Author of William the Conqueror's 'Medieval Big Data' Project Revealed

A landmark study co-authored by Professor Stephen Baxter, Professor of Medieval History, Faculty of History, has shed new light on the Domesday survey of 1086 - one of the most famous records in English history - revealing it as an audacious and sophisticated operation of statecraft and data management.

'It was carefully planned, drawing on ancient precedents for taking large-scale surveys, and made rational use of existing systems of government; but it was also implemented with breathtaking efficiency and was conceptually innovative, foreshadowing the profitable exploitation of big data in the modern world, using technologies no more complex than pen, parchment and human interaction. The study draws on the rich evidence of Exon Domesday - a manuscript compiled in 1086 by a team of scribes working under intense pressure, and the earliest surviving record of the survey. 'It also gave a glimpse of the humanity of those anonymous scribes: how they worked as a team, and how each had his own habits and oddities, with strange spellings, blunders and corrections, and doodles which include musical notation and a biblical reference to wine.

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