Title: An Autograph MS of Ranulph Higden's "Polychronicon"
Abstract:THE Polychronicon1 of Ranulph Higden, monk of St. Werburg's abbey at Chester, belongs more to students of medieval literature than to historians, whose real interest attaches rather to its continuatio...THE Polychronicon1 of Ranulph Higden, monk of St. Werburg's abbey at Chester, belongs more to students of medieval literature than to historians, whose real interest attaches rather to its continuations' The known facts about the author and his book are few and not altogether reliable. From the colophon in Laud MS. 6I9 it appears that he entered the abbey in 1299 and that he died in 1363/4. From the chronicle of Henry Knighton, canon of Leicester Abbey, we learn that Higden brought his Polychronicon to an end in I327 but later continued it to the year 1340. Manuscripts of several of his theological works, of no great distinction (for example, the Speculum Curatorum, written in 1340), also survive. Nothing more is known of the author of the most exhaustive universal history produced in medieval times and, so to speak, the best seller of the age. Twice translated from Latin into English in the century after his death and three times printed between I482 and I527, Higden's Polychronicon still survives in scores, perhaps hundreds, of manuscripts, many of them costly and handsome volumes. Before theRead More
Publication Year: 1959
Publication Date: 1959-11-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 84
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