one of the manuscripts owned by byland abbey in the middle ages is noted for containing a collection of twelve ghost stories. the manuscript is now london, british library royal ms 15 a xx, produced in the twelfth to thirteenth centuries, primarily containing a copy of the "elucidarium" and some tracts by cicero. however, in the early fifteenth century, an anonymous scribe, known in scholarship simply as 'a monk of byland', added some extra texts, also in latin, on previously blank pages (folios 140-43, in the body of the manuscript, and folio 163 b at the end). these are a series of twelve ghost stories, mostly set locally, which were presumably intended for inclusion in sermons as "exempla" and which reflect orally circulating folklore in yorkshire at the time. while not a major literary production in their own time, these stories have since come to be regarded as important evidence for popular belief regarding ghosts in medieval north-west europe.