The Priory of St Giles and St Andrew, Barnwell, was among the earliest English communities of Augustinian canons, founded by the sheriff of Cambridge in 1092. Although little survives of its buildings, its records form a significant source for both Cambridge and Augustinian history. The Observances, translated and edited in 1897 by J. W. Clark, form the eighth book of the late thirteenth-century Liber Memorandorum, also reissued in this series. The fourth-century Rule of St Augustine is a short and general guide to community life, and needed to be supplemented by a fuller set of instructions for the day-to-day running of the complex organisation which comprised a medieval monastery. The Observances provide detail about the roles played by all the officials of the priory and about the daily cycle of work and prayer, and give the modern reader a real insight into medieval monastic life.
