Description

Between 1863 and 1876, the Rolls Series published several works about the abbey of St Albans, edited by Henry Thomas Riley (1816-78) under the rubric Chronica monasterii S. Albani. This account of the achievements of its abbots was compiled and enlarged by Thomas Walsingham (c.1340-c.1422), who supervised the scriptorium at St Albans until 1394, and wrote several other historical works. It appeared in three volumes between 1867 and 1869. The early part of the Gesta reworks earlier accounts, including that by Matthew Paris (d. 1259), but the section covering 1308-93 was composed by Walsingham himself and is an important primary source for fourteenth-century English history. Volume 1 covers the period from the foundation of the abbey by King Offa in 793 to 1290. The Latin text (with English side-notes) includes references to the aftermath of the Norman Conquest and to the Fourth Lateran Council.