William Dugdale's 'Monasticon Anglicum,...' was first published in three volumes between 1655 and 1673, and then abridged by John Stevens between 1718 and 1723. "Almost a century elapsed before a new edition was undertaken [as here]: by the Rev. Bulkeley Bandinel, Keeper of the Bodleian Library, to be published in 54 Parts, of which the first appeared on 1 June 1813. On completion of part 4 two other editors came to his assistance, John Caley of the Augmentation Office and Henry Ellis, Keeper of Manuscripts at the British Museum, who soon became chief editor and transcribed much additional manuscript material. Seventeen years went by before all the Parts had been issued but by 1830 they were ready with their plates for binding, nominally into six magnificent folios but actually into eight, since the sixth volume was so extensive as to require division by the binder into three separate portions" (Adams).

The illustrations of religious houses in London appear in volumes one and six. The original work was illustrated by Wenceslaus Hollar, Daniel King, Thomas Johnson, Richard Newcourt and others. This new edition included re-engravings of some of these by William Finden, but "the crowning glory of this edition are the fine plates of cathedral and monastery interiors and exteriors which were both drawn and etched by John Coney" (Adams)