The medieval Parliament Rolls contain the official records of the English parliament from c.1270 to 1503. They record the debates held and the decisions made in parliament, as well as the petitions, bills and answers, both public and private, that formed the basis of acts of Parliament.

In 1996 the Leverhulme Trust funded the creation of a new edition, replacing an 18th Century text, the "Rotuli Parliamentorum" (6 vols, London, 1767-83). According to the General Editor, Professor Chris Given-Wilson of St Andrews University, it constitutes "one of the fundamental series of records for the political, constitutional, economic, social, religious and legal history of England in the later middle ages". For Parliament itself, it is the nearest medieval equivalent to Hansard that we have and of comparable value.

Such is the value of this text, that it will be published on CD-ROM at an affordable price (£50) as well as on a subscription based website and in a printed 17 volume set. A sample of the electronic text is available online, and the disk will be on sale from Scholarly Digital Editions (SDE).

The new electronic edition provides a full transcript, modern English translation and the introductory matter, critical apparatus, footnotes and bibliographical references of a modern scholarly edition. It will extend access to users who do not have the linguistic or palaeographical skills to consult the originals and allow undergraduates to make use of it.

To encourage them and postgraduate students to use it for special subjects options, a prize essay/dissertation competition will be announced at the 2005 Leeds International Medieval Conference with the winning entries published on the Parliament Rolls website, The National Archives website and Institute of Historical Research website.