This work serves as a comprehensive prosopographical record designed to document the lives and careers of individuals associated with the University of Oxford from its inception until the year 1500. A. B. Emden, a noted historian and archivist, compiled this multi-volume register by meticulously examining university records, college archives, and ecclesiastical documents. The text provides a structured framework for understanding the social, academic, and professional trajectories of medieval scholars, administrators, and students within the university system.

Historians and medievalists regard this register as a foundational reference tool for the study of late medieval English education. Scholars frequently note the immense density of the data and the rigorous archival methodology employed by Emden throughout the series.