Description

Between 1863 and 1876, the Rolls Series published several works from or about the abbey of St Albans, edited by Henry Thomas Riley (1816-78) under the rubric Chronica monasterii S. Albani. These annals, whose attribution to the shadowy John Amundesham seemed doubtful even in Riley's day, appeared in two volumes in 1870-1. They describe events in the first half of the fifteenth century, during the first abbacy of John of Whethamstede, and record fascinating information about the early reign of Henry VI. Volume 2 includes details of building projects, more of Abbot Whethamstede's verse, lists of the abbot's huge allowances of food and wine, and a detailed inventory of the monastery church's treasures (gold and silver crosses and reliquaries, candlesticks, thuribles, chalices, croziers, and rich vestments). The Latin text is accompanied by an English introduction and side-notes, a glossary of legal and ecclesiastical terms, and an index.