The Stock Book, which dates back to the 15th century, documents how Fountains Abbey became the richest Cistercian abbey in England.
It contains detailed accounts of how the monks built up vast wealth from the sale of livestock and dairy products. Entries show how just one small part of a network of estates produced more than 53 stones of cheese and 26 stones of butter in one year.
At the same time it reared a 50-strong herd of cattle.
The book is the jewel in the crown of an extensive collection of archives that is to be conserved thanks to a £49,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Staff at the Yorkshire Archaeological Society will have the painstaking task of cleaning and repairing the pages from their base in Clarendon Road, Leeds.
The pages will be digitally scanned before being sewn into the new vellum covers specially made to protect the volume for the next 500 years.
Examples
The book is part of a collection built up by Ripon antiquarian H L Bradfer-Lawrence, which also includes examples of family and estate documents, medieval charters, accounts and maps relating to large areas of North Yorkshire, Bradford, Wakefield and adjoining Lancashire.
Following his death in 1965, it was given to Yorkshire Archaeological Society by his son and daughter.
The society will work in partnership with the Access to Archives (A2A) team at London's National Archives over the next 13 months.
The completed records will be loaded onto the A2A database at www.a2a.org.uk, where it will be free to view.
Peter Addyman, president of Yorkshire Archaeological Society and the former director of Jorvik Viking Centre at York, said they were "thrilled" to have secured the grant.
He said: "Cataloguing this marvellous collection and making details available on the A2A database will really open up access to all.
"We are planning an exciting interactive website, partly aimed at Key Stage 2 schoolchildren, and which will really whet their appetites for delving into Yorkshire's rich history."
andrew.hutchinson@ypn.co.uk