John Benet's Chronicle, 1399-1462: An English Translation with New Introduction

ISBN-13: 9781137589194 / Angielski / Twarda / 2015 / 80 str.

Alison Hanham

Opis

John Benet's Latin chronicle covers the troubled years from 1399 to 1462 ('The Wars of the Roses' period), and is here presented in an English translation to enable non-Latinists to become acquainted with this lively and unique work of medieval history.

Spis treści

Introduction
John Benet's Chronicle, Translation
Appendix 1. Copying Errors in Benet's Manuscript
Appendix 2. Possible Authors of Benet's Exemplar
Appendix 3. John Benet's Copy of 'The Five Dogs of London' Verses

O autorze

Alison Hanham was formerly Associate Professor in History, Massey University, New Zealand. She is now retired and writes on Early Modern History and Literature, and has published The Cely Letters, 1472-1488.

Blurb

John Benet's Chronicle, 1399-1462 is the first English translation of a fifteenth-century Latin chronicle which has been much used by medievalists since it was published in 1972. Lively and entertaining, it richly deserves the much wider readership that translation can now attract.

The introduction argues that John Benet, vicar of Harlington, was only the — rather inefficient — copyist of a chronicle composed by an unidentified writer. Internal clues suggest that the real author was a Londoner who was exceptionally well-informed about events and people in the period of the Wars of the Roses. He was possibly a clerk to the signet, as this book investigates further.