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The Complete Peerage (full title: The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom Extant, Extinct, or Dormant; first edition by George Edward Cokayne, Clarenceux King of Arms; 2nd edition revised by Hon Vicary Gibbs et al.) is a comprehensive and magisterial work on the British titled aristocracy.
The Complete Peerage was first published in eight volumes between 1887 and 1898 by George Edward Cokayne. This version was effectively replaced by a new and enlarged edition between 1910 and 1959 successively by Vicary Gibbs (Cokayne's nephew), H.A. Doubleday, Duncan Warrand, Lord Howard de Walden, Geoffrey H. White and R.S. Lea. The revised edition (published by the St Catherine Press Limited, took the form of twelve volumes with volume twelve being issued in two parts. Volume thirteen, issued in 1940, not as part of the alphabetical sequence, but as a supplement covering creations and promotions within the peerage between 1900 and 1938.
It has subsequently be reprinted in a number of formats, most notably by Alan Sutton Publishers which reduced it in size to six volumes in a photgraphically reduced format (this contains four page images on each smaller page; consequently this can be hard to read). It is also available on CD. A further reprint in six volumes appeared in 2000, together with Volume 14, which is an appendix, updating briefly from original publication (1910–1938) to 1995.
Cokayne is generally considered superior to both Debrett's Peerage and Burke's Peerage, especially in the field of genealogy. Although it is sometimes regarded as being unwieldy, it is nevertheless a magisterial work. As with Gibbon, the most interesting comments are often in the footnotes.
