The nineteenth-century antiquarian Thomas Wright (1810 77) was a prolific scholar, editor and bibliographer. His two-volume anthology of twelfth-century Latin poetry, first published in 1872, is the fullest available and this reissue will be especially useful to scholars of medieval schools, religious life and satire, and those interested in medieval literature's relationship with the Latin classics. It remains the only published edition of important poems by Geoffrey of Winchester, Hugh the Chanter, Reginald of Canterbury, Serlo of Bayeux and Gualo Britto. Volume 2 contains several hundred...

William Campbell (1824 86) compiled this two-volume work for the Rolls Series between 1873 and 1877. It covers the first five years of the reign of Henry VII, following his accession to the throne after the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. The contemporary material is rich in information regarding Henry's governance and character, including his meticulous approach to financial matters and his penchant for splendour. Volume 1 brings together a variety of illustrative and carefully transcribed documents, presented in English, Latin and French. Covering the year 1485 6, it introduces the people who...

William Campbell (1824 86) compiled this two-volume work for the Rolls Series between 1873 and 1877. It covers the first five years of the reign of Henry VII, following his accession to the throne after the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. The contemporary material is rich in information regarding Henry's governance and character, including his meticulous approach to financial matters and his penchant for splendour. Volume 2 brings together a variety of illustrative documents, presented in English. Covering the period between August 1486 and December 1490, it uses material taken from a number of...

Dunstan was a prominent ecclesiastical figure in tenth-century England and following his death and canonisation in 988 the country's most popular saint for over a century; his fame was eventually eclipsed only by that of Thomas Becket. In life a close friend of King Edgar, he was influential as the king's advisor and became archbishop of Canterbury in 959. Published in 1874 as part of the Rolls Series, this work gathers together the lives, letters and other fragments of historical interest that were written to or about Dunstan. As editor, William Stubbs (1825 1901) provides English side-notes...

This Old Norse text and English translation, prepared by the librarian and scholar Eirikr Magnusson (1833 1913) and published in two volumes between 1875 and 1883, remains the standard edition of the 'Saga of Archbishop Thomas'. Composed in Iceland in the early fourteenth century, it narrates the life, death and miracles of Thomas Becket, based on earlier Latin and Old French traditions. Embedded in the saga is a lost Latin life by Robert of Cricklade, written soon after Becket's murder in 1170, which contains some unique details: for example, that he had a stammer. The saga is valuable not...

This Old Norse text and English translation, prepared by the librarian and scholar Eirikr Magnusson (1833 1913) and published in two volumes between 1875 and 1883, remains the standard edition of the 'Saga of Archbishop Thomas'. Composed in Iceland in the early fourteenth century, it narrates the life, death and miracles of Thomas Becket, based on earlier Latin and Old French traditions. Embedded in the saga is a lost Latin life by Robert of Cricklade, written soon after Becket's murder in 1170, which contains some unique details: for example, that he had a stammer. The saga is valuable not...

Ralph de Diceto (d.1199/1200), dean of St Paul's, was both a painstaking compiler of information and an intellectual historian of remarkably wide vision. This two-volume collection of his writings, originally published in 1876, covers the history of the world from the Creation to 1202 (it was continued posthumously). The historian J. F. A. Mason wrote that the Abbreviationes chronicorum (included in Volume 1, together with the first part of the more important Ymagines historiarum) at the time represented the most ambitious attempt at a world history made by an Englishman. In his preface as...

Ralph de Diceto (d.1199/1200), dean of St Paul's, was both a painstaking compiler of information and an intellectual historian of remarkably wide vision. This two-volume collection of his writings, originally published in 1876, covers the history of the world from the Creation to 1202 (it was continued posthumously). Volume 2 contains the second half of Diceto's most important work, the Ymagines historiarum, his Opuscula (a collection of far shorter texts) as well as various appendices. In his preface to this volume, William Stubbs (1825 1901) assesses the historical value of the work via an...

James Butler, Third Earl of Ormond and Lord Justice of Ireland, headed Richard II's Council in Ireland in the late fourteenth century. These records of the Council are a particularly important source for Irish administrative history, owing to the destruction of a considerable portion of Irish public records over the centuries. The 214 items primarily consist of petitions to the Council and council replies. The roll was calendared, edited and translated from the original French by James Graves (1815 86), a founding father of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, and first published in...

Henry of Huntingdon (c.1088 c.1157) wrote his comprehensive Latin chronicle of English history at the behest of the bishop of Lincoln, who asked him to provide a narrative from the earliest English kings right up to their own day. Henry's fondness for anecdotes including the story of King Cnut attempting to hold back the tide adds charm to his account. Although the work was originally completed by 1130, Henry continued to add to his magnum opus for many years, producing a version that concluded with the death of King Stephen and the accession of Henry II in 1154. This is the version edited...