Realistic Observation In Twelfthcentury England

Speculum

Volumn 47, Issue 1, 1972, Pages 29-51

  Gransden, Antonia ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84971895437     PISSN: 00387134     EISSN: 20408072     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/2851214     Document Type: Article

References (102)

1. T. D. Kendrick, British Antiquity (London, 1950), p. 134. For a large collection of extracts from printed editions of early documents and literary sources relating to art and architecture, including some of the passages cited below, see O. Lehmann-Brockhaus, Lateinische Schriftquellen zur Kunst in England, Wales und Schottland mm Jahre 901 bis zum Jahre 1307 (München, 1955-1960, 5 vols.; Veröffentlichungen des Zentralinstitvts für Kunstgeschiehte in München, no. 1 etc.).
2. This motive is explicitly stated by Matthew Paris; see below p. 32 and n. 15.
3. For the influence of classical literature on mediaeval representations of heroes and rulers, and of landscape, see E. R. Curtius, Europaïsche Literatur und lateinisches Mittdalter (Bern, 1948), chapters ix, x.
4. V. H. Galbraith, Historical Research in Medieval England (London, 1951), p. 7.
5. For Lanfranc's attitude to Anglo-Saxon saints see The Life of St. Ansehn Archbishop of Canterbury by Eadmer, ed., with an English translation, R. W. Southern (Nelson's Medieval Texts, 1962), pp. 50-54. For the changes made by Lanfranc in the liturgical calendar of Christ Church, Canterbury, see F. A. Gasquet and E. Bishop, The Bosworth Psalter (London, 1908), pp. 37-39. For the test of fire to which Walter, the Anglo-Norman abbot of Evesham (1077-1086) submitted the relics at Evesham see Chronicon Abbatiae de Evesham. ed. W. D. Macray (Rolls Series, 1868), p. 323.
6. For Gildas on the Roman wall see De Excidio Britanniae et Conquestu, cc. 15-18, ed. T. Mommsen in Monumenta Oermaniae Historica, Auctorum Antiquissimorum, xII, Chronica Minora Saeculi iv-vii, III (Berlin, 1898), 83-85; Gildas’ interpretation of the evidence is discussed by C. E. Stevens, “Gildas Sapiens” in EHR, LVI (1941), 856-360. For Bede's derivation of the name Horsa apparently from a Roman tombstone see HE, i. 15; Venerabilis Baedae Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, ed. C. Hummer (Oxford, 1896, 2 vols.), i. 31 (cf. H. M. Chadwick, The Origin of the English Nation [Cambridge, 1924], pp. 42-48). For Nennius’ interpretation of archaeological evidence at Cair Segeint (Segontium) see Historia Brittonum, c. 25, ed. Mommsen, m, 166. Cf. F. Lot, Nennius et l'Historia Brittonum (Paris, 1984), pp. 59-60. For hoards of coins found at Segontium see R. E. M. Wheeler, “Segontium and the Roman Occupation of Wales” in Y Cymmrodor, xxxiii (1928), 111 sq. Alcuin mentions the Roman walls at York; see De Ponlificibus et Sanctis Ecclesiae Eboracensit Carmen, lines 19-87, printed in Monumenta Alcuiniana praeparata a Philipp Jaffé, ed. W. Wattenbach and E. Dümmler (Aalen, 1964), p. 82. For a description of Bugga's church by Aldhelm see Carmen in Ecclesia Mariae a Bugge exstructa, printed in Aldhelmi Opera, ed. R. Ehwald in Mon. Germ. Hist. Auctorum Antiquissimorum, xv (Berlin, 1919), 14-18. Brief descriptions of the topography of Lindisfarne and of the author's own monastery are in Æthelwulf ‘s De Abbatibus, ed., with an English translation, A. Campbell (Oxford, 1967), pp. 10, 12.
7. For internal evidence suggesting that The Ruin refers to Bath, see Three Old English Elegies, The Wife's Lament, The Husband's Message, The Ruin, ed. R. F. Leslie (Manchester, 1961), pp. 23-26. For the poet's talent for vivid description see pp. 28-29.
8. For Eddius’ description of York, Ripon and Hexham see The Life of Bishop Wilfrid by Eddius Stephanus, ed., with an English translation, Bertram Colgrave (Cambridge, 1927), pp. 85, 87, 47; cf. H. M. Taylor and J. Taylor, Anglo-Saxon Architecture (Cambridge, 1965, 2 vols.), i, 801; n, 516-518, 700-709. For Eddius’ description of the Gospels in gold letters on purple parchment which Wilfrid gave to Ripon see Colgrave, p. 87; for such gospel-books, executed from the sixth to the twelfth centuries, see E. Maunde Thompson, An Introduction to Greek and Latin Palaeography (Oxford, 1912), pp. 32-33.
9. The Life of King Edward, ed., with an English translation, Frank Barlow (Nelson's Medieval Texts, 1962), pp. 45-46.
10. St Cuthbert was looking at the Roman walls of Carlisle, and a Roman well, when he had his vision of King Ecgfrith's defeat; Two Lives of St. Cuthbert, ed., with an English translation, Bertram Colgrave (Cambridge, 1940), p. 122.
11. For a description of the prehistoric or Roman barrow inhabited by Guthlac see Felix's Life of St. Guthlac, ed., with an English translation, Bertram Colgrave (Cambridge, 1956), pp. 92-95, 182-184.
12. See Brit. Mus. MS. Cotton Nero D i, f. 168T and attached slip, and the flyleaves of Matthew's autograph of the Chronica Major a in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, MS. 16. See also Chronica Majora, ed. H. R. Luard (Rolls Series, 1872-1884, 7 vols.), v. 489; F. Madden, “On the Knowledge possessed by Europeans of the elephant in the thirteenth Century” in The Graphic and Historical Illustrator, ed. E. W. Brayley (London, 18S4), pp. 336-886, 352; and R. Vaughan, Matthew Paris (Cambridge, 1958), pp. 256-257.
13. Chronica Majora, v. 275.
14. Recording the artistic achievement of St. Albans, Matthew writes: “Haec idcirco scripturae immortali, ac memoriae, duximus commendanda, ut penes nos, haud ingratos, eorum vigeat cum benedictionibus recordatio, qui studioso labore suo opera ecclesiae nostrae adornativa post se reliquerunt”; Oesta Abbatum Monasterii Sancti Albani, ed. H. T. Riley (Rolls Series, 1867-1869, 8 vols.), i. 233.
15. This appears, for example in: the thirteenth-century tract on the dedication of the altars, chapels and churches at Bury St Edmunds, in Brit. Mus. MS. Harley 1005, ff. 217T-218V (extracts are printed in M. R. James, On the Abbey of St. Edmund at Bury (Cambridge Antiquarian Society, octavo series, xxviii, [1895], pp. 161-162); the account of the uncovering of the walls of an ancient round church at Bury in 1275; The Chronicle of Bury St. Edmunds 1218-1301, ed., with an English translation, Antonia Gransden (Nelson's Medieval Texts, 1964), p. 58; and in the thirteenth century Gesta Sacristarum, printed in Memorials of St. Edmund's Abbey, ed. T. Arnold (Rolls Series, 1890-1896, 3 vols.), n. 289-296.
16. The Chronicle of Jocelin of Brakelond, ed., with an English translation, H. E. Butler (Nelson's Medieval Classics, 1949), pp. 39-40.
17. Nicholai Triveti Annales, ed. T. Hog (English Historical Society, 1845), pp. 279-283. Cf. F. M. Powicke, King Henry III and the Lord Edward (Oxford, 1947, 2 vols.), n. 686-687. Trevet also gives a good topographical description of Winchelsea; Annales, p. 167.
18. Printed Symeonis Monachi Opera Omnia, ed. T. Arnold (Rolls Series, 1882-5, 2 vols.), i. For post-Conquest interest in Bedan Northumbria see i. 108 sq., and M. D. Knowles, The Monastic Order in England (Cambridge, 1949), pp. 165-171. Already in the tenth century St. Oswald had searched for relics of the Northumbrian saints and tried to refound Ripon (Historians of the Church of York, ed. James Raine, [jn.] Rolls Series, 1879-1894, 3 vols., i. 462), and in the early eleventh century Alured, sacrist of Durham (great-grandfather of Ailred of Rievaulx) went relic-hunting in Northumbria; see Symeon, i. 88-89, and The Priory of Hexham, its Chroniclers, Endowments and Annals, ed. James Raine (Surtees Society xLIV, 1864, 2 vols.), i. liii.
19. Symeon, i. 89. For a reference to two marvellously carved stone crosses at the head and foot of Acca's tomb (one of which is probably to be identified with the cross now in Durham cathedral) see n. 33, and Taylor and Taylor, i. 305.
20. Symeon, i. 67-68. This passage is fully discussed by T. J. Brown in Codex Lindisfarnensis, ed. T. D. Kendrick and others (Oltun and Lausanne, 1960, 2 vols.), I. 5-11.
21. Symeon, i. 64-68. This story is fully discussed by T. J. Brown, toe. cit. I. 21-83.
22. See i. 23-24. The Stonyhurst Gospel, which had a close connection with St Cuthbert, were found in St Cuthbert's tomb when it was opened in 1827; see R. A. B. Mynors, “The Stoneyhurst Gospel” in The Relics of Saint Cuthbert, ed. C. F. Battiscombe (Oxford, 1956), pp. 357-358.
23. William of Malmesbury, Oesla Regum, ed. William Stubbs (Rolls Series, 1887-1889, 2 vols.), I. 2; Gesta Pontificum, ed. N. E. S. A. Hamilton (Rolls Series, 1870), p. 4.
24. Gesta Pontificum, ed. Hamilton, pp. 193, 295.
25. Magdalen College, Oxford, MS. 172. Five pages of this MS are reproduced in facsimile by Hamilton, who gives in the footnotes William's revisions of his text.
26. Gesta Pontificum, p. 288.
27. “[Rex Elfredus] fecitque ecclesiam, situ quidem pro angustia spatii modicam, sed novo edificendi modo compactam. Quattuor enim postes solo infixi totam suspendunt machinam, quattuor cancellis opere sperico in circuitu ductis”; p. 199. For the value of William's description see G. Baldwin Brown, The Arts in Early England (London 1903-1937, 6 vols.; new edition of vol. 2, “Anglo-Saxon Architecture”, London 1925), n. 196. For King Alfred's foundation of the monastery see Asset's Life of King Alfred c. 92, ed. W. H. Stevenson (Oxford, 1904), pp. 79-80. William of Malmesbury also mentions the Anglo-Saxon church at Bradford-upon-Avon: Gesta Pontificum, p. 346; cf. Baldwin Brown, n. pp. 17, 160, 297, 302-803. William mentions an Anglo-Saxon church, now lost, at St. Albans: Gesta Pontificum, p. 316; cf. Baldwin Brown, II. 187. William's description of Hexham (Gesta Pontificum, p. 255) is mainly based on that by Eddius Stephanus (see above p. 31 and n.8 and Baldwin Brown, n. 175-176), and is of less interest than the detailed description written by Richard of Hexham soon after 1188, which is printed in The Priory of Hexham, ed. Raine, 1.10-14, and fully discussed in Baldwin Brown, n. 149-184 passim. Cf. Taylor and Taylor, op. eit. I. 297-812 passim and A. W. Clapham, English Romanesque Architecture (Oxford, 1930-1934, 2 vols.), I. 44-45, 72-73.
28. The Gesta Pontificum is divided into five books; the last is a Life of St. Aldhelm, and includes much historical material concerning Malmesbury abbey.
29. Gesta Pontificum, p. 365. The peacock motif was popular from the seventh century, or earlier, until the thirteenth century: I owe this information to Mr. Donald King, Deputy Keeper of Textiles in the Victoria and Albeit Museum.
30. Gesta Pontificum, pp. 383-884.
31. Printed in Adami de Domerham Historia de Rebus Gestis Glastoniensibus, ed. Thomas Hearne (Oxford, 1727, 2 vols.), I. 1-122.
32. For criticism of William's work see Gesta Regum, n. 857. For the possibility that he was passed over for the abbacy in 1120 see i. xxxviii-ix.
33. See J. Annitage Robinson, “William of Malmesbury ‘On the Antiquity of Glastonbury’ “ in his Somerset Historical Essays (Oxford, 1921), pp. 3, 4.
34. See Domerham, p. 71, and Armitage Robinson, pp. 3, 23. “ Domerham, pp. 44-45. This passage is printed in translation by Aelred Watkin, “The Glastonbury ‘Pyramids’ and St. Patrick's ‘Companions’ “ in Downside Review, LXIII (1945), pp. 30-31. The rendering in Robinson, p. 21, is less precise than that by Watkin (see Watkin, p. 80 n.5).
35. See the suggested identifications of the names given by Watkin, pp. 36-40.
36. For what is known today of the Anglo-Saxon churches at Glastonbury, with references to William of Malmesbury's information, see Taylor and Taylor, Anglo-Saxon Architecture, i. 250-257. See also the same authors’ “Pre-Norman Churches of the Border” in Celt and Saxon, Studies in the Early British Border, ed. N. K. Chadwick (Cambridge, 1963), pp. 256-257.
37. The “pyramids” remained standing until the eighteenth century, when they were dragged away. They were remarked on by other writers from the late twelfth century onwards, but by then their inscriptions were indecipherable; see Watkin, pp. 31-35.
38. Memorials of St. Dunstan, ed. William Stubbs (Rolls Series, 1874), pp. 183-184.
39. Printed A. Wilmart, “Edmeri Cantuariensis cantoris nova opuscula de sanctorum veneratione et obsecratione” in Revue des Sciences religieuses, xv (1935), 362-870. The architectural description in this work is also printed with an English translation (together with other references in the works of Eadmer and other early writers throwing light on the architectural history of Christ Church) in K. Willis, The Architectural History of Canterbury Cathedral (London, 1845), pp. 9-13. See also R. W. Southern, Saint Anselm and his Biographer (Cambridge, 1968), pp. 262 n. 2, 870-371.
40. “Dein sub medio longitudinis aulae ipsius duae turres erant, prominentes ultra aecclesiae alas. Quarum una, quae in austro erat, sub honore beati Gregorii papae altare in medio sui dedicatum habebat, et in latere principale octium aecclesiae, quod antiquitus ab Anglis et nunc usque Suthdure dicitur;” Wilmart, foe. tit. p. 865.
41. Liber Eliensis, ed. E. O. Blake (Camden Soc. third series, XCII, 1962), p. 149. For a description of the altar at Ramsey see Chronicon Abbatiae Rameseiensis, ed. W. Dunn Macray (Rolls Series, 1886), p. 90.
42. Chron.'Abb. Ram. p. 126.
43. Chronicon Monasterii de Bello, ed. J. S. Brewer (Anglia Christiana, London, 1846), p. 108.
44. See also Gesta Regis Henrici Secundi Benedicti Abbatis, ed. William Stubbs (Rolls Series, 1867, 2 vols.), 1.172 n. 4. A picture of the same rota is also in Roger of Howden's chronicle; see Chronica Magistri Rogeri de Houedene, ed. William Stubbs (Rolls Series, 1868-1871, 4 vols.), n. 98. (For evidence suggesting that Roger of Howden wrote “Benedict” see D. M. Stenton, “Roger of Howden and ‘Benedict’ “ in EHR, LXVIII (1958), 574-582 passim). For a reference to this rota, on a diploma dated at Palermo in 1182, see Arthur Engel, Recherches sur la Numismatique et la Sigillographie des Normands de Sidle et d' ltalie (Paris, 1882), p. 87.
45. For examples of the criticism of documents at the papal curia in the twelfth century see R. L. Poole, Lectures on the History of the Papal Chancery (Cambridge, 1915), pp. 143-162.
46. The Historical Works of Gervase of Canterbury, ed. William Stubbs (Rolk Series, 1879, 1880, 2 vols.), i. 296-297. For this case see M. D. Knowles, “The Growth of Exemption” in Downside Re view, L (1932), 411-415. For a similar case, of 1221, involving Dunstable priory see Annales Monastici, ed. H. R. Luard (Rolls Series, 1864-1869, 5 vols.), m. 66, and V. H. Galbraith, Studies in the Public Records (London, 1948), pp. 48-52.
47. Printed in Gervase of Canterbury, n. 414-449. It is fully discussed by M. D. Knowles, “The Mappa Mundi of Gervase of Canterbury” in Downside Review, XLVIII (1980), 237-247.
48. Gervase, I. 7-29, passim. For an English translation see R. Willis, The Architectural History of Canterbury Cathedral, pp. 82-62 passim.
49. Gervase, i. 20, records that William of Sens after his accident, “veruntamen quia hiems instabat, et f ornicem superiorem consummari oportebat, cuidam monacho industrio et ingenioso qui cementariis praefuit opus consummandum commendavit, unde multa invidia et exercitatio malitiae habita est, eo quod ipse, cum esset juvenis, potentioribus et ditioribus prudentior videretur”. The omission of the young monk's name would be surprising if he were not Gervase himself.
50. a Both surveys are discussed and reproduced in The Canterbury Psalter ed. M. R. James (London, 1985) pp. 53-56, and end of volume.
51. Gesta Pontificum. p. 208. This inscription is in R. G. Collingwood and R. P. Wright, The Roman Inscription! of Britain (vol. 1 only published, Inscriptions on Stone, Oxford, 1965), I. 816-317 (no. 950).
52. A few pre-Conquest writers described men's physical appearance. Bede briefly but graphically described the appearance of Bishop Paulinus (BE, ii. 16). Alcuin, writing abroad, described Willibrord, in the Suetonian style (quoted HE, ed. Plummer, n. 298). There is a description of Edward the Confessor in the anonymous Life, apparently based on a description of St. Omer in a contemporary hagiography; The Life of King Edward, ed. F. Barlow, p. 12 and n. 1. The earliest description of an Englishman is that of Pelagius by Jerome, who knew him well (“a huge, fat highland dog” who “walked like a tortoise”); see J. N. L. Myres, “Pelagius and the End of Roman Rule in Britain” in Journal of Roman Studies, L (1960), 24.
53. See e.g. Suetonius, Duodecim Caesares, ed. Maurice Rat, with a French translation (Paris, 1981, 2 vols.), I. 51; II. 65, 127 (Caesar, c. XLV; Caligula, c. 1; Claudius, c. xxx). For the influence of Suetonius on William of Malmesbury treated generally see M. Schütt, “The Literary Form of William of Malmesbury's ‘Gesta Regum’ “ in EHR, XLVI (1931), 255-260.
54. The Vita Wulfstani of William of Malmesbury, ed. R. R. Darlington (Camden Society, third series, XL, 1928), p. 46. For a similar description of Thomas archbishop of York (1070-1100) see Gesta Pontificum, p. 257.
55. Gesta Regum, n. 374. For descriptions of William I and Henry I see n. 885, 488. For a short reference to King Athelstan's appearance, based on observations made when his tomb at Malmesbury was opened, see i. 148.
56. See n. 385-336, 366-371, 488. A character-sketch of William the Conqueror occurs in the Anglo-Saxon chronicle, s.a. 1087; The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a revised translation ed. D. Whitelock with D. C. Douglas and S. I. Tucker (London, 1961), pp. 163-164.
57. Ailred, Relatio de Standardo, in Chronicles of the Reigns of Stephen, Henry II, and Richard I, ed. Richard Howlett (Rolls Series, 1884-1889, 4 vols.)in. 183.
58. Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia Regum Britanniae, c. in. 10; ed. Acton Griscom (London, 1929), p. 291. Cf. c. I. 17; c. in. 20 (pp. 252, 301, respectively).
59. Gesta Stephani, ed., with an English translation, K. R. Potter (Nelson's Medieval Texts, 1955), pp. 22, 37-38, 88-39, 92, 113, 120, respectively. For a detailed account of the Isle of Ely's natural defences and a brief comment on Bedford see pp. 66, 155.
60. William of Newburgh, Historia Rerum Anglicarum, in Chrons. Stephen, Henry II, and Richard I, ed. Howlett, I. 104.
61. Gerald read one of his works to the students of Oxford in about 1185, and spent two years in Oxford from 1193 to 1194; see Giraldi Cambrensis Opera, ed. J. S. Brewer and others (Rolls Series, 1861-1891, 8 vols.), i. 72, 294. Cf. The Autobiography of Giraldus Cambrensis, ed. H. E. Butler (London, 1937), pp. 97,139 and n. 5. Walter Map became archdeacon of Oxford in 1196; J. Le Neve, Fasti Eccleriae Anglicanae (Oxford, 1854, 3 vols.), n. 64. Adam, a monk of Eynsham (about five miles from Oxford), was of an Oxford burgher family; see The Life of St. Hugh of Lincoln, ed. D. L. Douie and H. Farmer (Nelson's Medieval Texts, 1961-1962, 2 vols.), i. viii-ix.
62. Gerald of Wales retired to Lincoln to write and study in 1196; Giraldus, i. 93, and Butler, op. tit. p. 127 and n. 2. Map was precentor of Lincoln; J. Le Neve, op. tit. II. 82. Adam lived partly at Lincoln as St. Hugh's chaplain from 1197 to Hugh's death in 1200; Life of St. Hugh, i. x-xi.
63. See Giraldus, i. 93.
64. See Fitz Stephen's description of London in his Life of Saint Thomas in Materials for the History of Thomas Becket, ed. J. C. Robertson and J. B. Sheppard (Rolls Series, 1875-1885, 7 vols.), m. 4-5.
65. J. Le Neve, Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066-1300, I, compiled by D. E. Greenway (London, 1968), p. 60.
66. Giraldus, I. 23, 45 sq.; vIII. 292.
67. For Map's stay in Paris see Walter Map, De Nugis Curialium, ii. 7; cf. v. 5: ed. M. R. James (Anecdota Oxoniensia, 1914), pp. 69, 225. sq.
68. Diceto studied in Paris, probably at the university and had other close contacts with France and the Angevin empire; see The Historical Works of Master Ralph de Diceto, ed. William Stubbs (Rolls Series, 1876, 2 vols.), i. xvii sq., xxxi sq.
69. See De Nugis, ii. 3; v. 6: ed. James, pp. 65-66, 246, Cf. T. Wright's introduction to his edition of De Nugis (Camden Society L, 1850), p. vi.
70. See Butler, op. tit. p. 81 and n.l.
71. Expugnatio Hibernica, in Giraldus, v. 802; t he pen-portrait and character-sketch (discussed below) is printed, in an English translation, in English Historical Documents 10h6-1089, ed. D. C. Douglas and G. W. Greenaway (London, 1953), pp. 386-388. Walter Map's pen-portrait of Henry II is in his character-sketch of the king; see Walter Map, De Nugis Curialium, v. 6, ed. James, p. 237 and the next note. For another contemporary pen-portrait and character-sketch of Henry II see Peter of Blois’ Epistola 66 (written in 1177), printed in Materials for the History of Thomas Becket, ed. Robertson and Sheppard, vII. 571-575 (and in Petri Blesensis Bathoniensis archidiaconi Opera omnia, ed. J. A. Giles, Oxford 1846-1847, 4 vols.). Peter was a prolific writer whose career resembled that of Gerald of Wales though much of it was on the continent. He was born at Blois, took orders, studied at Bologna and taught at Paris. He was successively tutor of William II of Sicily, and secretary to Rotrou archbishop of Rouen, to Baldwin archbishop of Canterbury, and to Queen Eleanor, and became archdeacon of Bath in about 1175 and of London in about 1192. He knew Henry II well. Short pen-portraits and character-sketches of Thomas Becket occur in the Life by William Fitz Stephen (Materials, in. 17) and in the Icelandic Life (Thómas Saga Erkibyskups, ed. E. Magnusson, Rolls Series, 1875, 1883, 2 vols., I. 29).
72. De Nugis, v. 6; ed. James, pp. 287-242 passim. Map records that he once crossed the channel with Henry II (. p. 242). His character-sketch of Henry is printed, in an English translation, in Douglas and Greenaway, pp. 389-390. Map also gives character-sketches of King Canute and Henry I; De Nugis, v. 4; v. 5: ed. James, pp. 211, 218-220.
73. Giraldus, v. 301-306. Gerald also gives character-sketches of Henry II's sons and of William Longchamp; Giraldut, v. 193-201; iv. 399 sq., respectively.
74. See The Life of St. Hugh of Lincoln, ed. Douie and Farmer. 124.
75. Gildas realized the importance of cities in Britain; De Excidio, c. 8; ed. Mommsen, p. 28. Alcuin praised York as a center of commerce; De Ponttficibus… Carmen, lines 19-87; ed. Wattenbach and Dümmler, p. 88. The tenth century hagiographer Goscelin mentioned London's commercial prosperity; C. H. Talbot, “The Liber Confortatorius of Goscelin of Saint Bertin” in Analecta Monastica III, xxxviii; Rome, 1955), p. 49. For a similar passage see The Life of King Edward, ed. Barlow, p. 44.
76. Gesta Regum, n. 402-408. For the poem and the topography (which dates from the late seventh or early eighth century) see n. cxxi-ii, and J. K. Hyde, “Medieval Descriptions of Cities” in Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, XLVIII (1966), 321.
77. Gesta Regum, n. 411-412, 415-416, 422, respectively. For William's sources for these descriptions see II. cxxii-cxxiii.
78. Itinerarium Peregrinorum et Gesta Regis Ricardi in Chronicles and Memorials of the Reign of Richard I, ed. William Stubbs (Rolls Series, 1864-1865, 2 vols.), i. 435.
79. Radulphi de Coggeshall Chronicon Anglicanum, ed. Joseph Stevenson (Rolls Series, 1875), pp. 149-150.
80. Historia Regum Brittmniae, iii. 20; ed. Acton Griscom, p. 801. See also Geoffrey's derivations of Billingsgate and Ludgate, iii. 10, 20; ed. Acton Griscom, pp. 291, 302.
81. The laudatory attitude to cities in classical literature is well represented by Aelius Aristides’ Roman Oration; printed in translation by J. H. Oliver, The Ruling Power (Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, new series, XLIII, pt. 4,1953), pp. 895-907. Virgil praises Rome throughout the Æneid.
82. An obvious classical prototype is Juvenal's Satire III, on Rome.
83. See, for example, The Chronicle of Richard of Devizes, ed., with an English translation, J. T. Appleby (Nelson's Medieval Texts, 1968), pp. 63-64 and n. 8.
84. A more favourable description of Bath, which mentions the popularity of its health-giving hot springs, is in the Gesta Stephani, ed. K. R. Potter, pp. 88-89.
85. The text is in Materials, m. 2-13 (see above note 76). For an English translation, by H. E. Butler, see F. M. Stenton, Norman London (Historical Association Leaflets nos. 98, 94, 1984). See also Hyde, pp. 324-325.
86. Materials, m. 2-3.
87. Printed Liber Lueiani de Laude Cestrie, ed. M. V. Taylor (Lancashire and Cheshire Record Society, lxiv, 1912). For the date of the De Laude see pp. 8-10.
88. See p. 15.
89. See pp. 19-20.
90. Diceto, Works, ed. Stubbs, n. 291-292.
91. The description of Angers also occurs in the Historia Comitum Andegavenrium; see Chroniques des Comtes d'Anjou, ed. P. Marchegay and A. Salmon, with an introduction by E. Mabille (Société de l'Histoire de France, 1856, 1871), pp. 336-338. Stubbs suggested that Diceto was the author of the Historia; Diceto, Works, II. xxiv-xxix. If so, it is likely that Diceto wrote the description. Stubbs also suggested that the description of the customs of the people of Aquitaine (see below), which is not in the Historia, was by the same author, whether Diceto or not, as the description of Angers. See n. 293 n.l.
92. For the bridge see C. Port, Dictionnaire Historique Géographique et Bibliographique de Maine-et- Loire (Angers, 1874-1878, 3 vols.), i. 105-106.
93. Diceto. i. 293-294. Unlike the descriptions of food cited by Curtius, op. tit. pp. 189-190, this passage appears to be realistic.
94. Printed Giraldus, v. 3-204.
95. Printed vi. 155-227. Gerald's Itinerarium Kambriae, which also has a few first-hand observations, is printed in, vi, 3-152.
96. Such a contrast seems to be implied, for example, in the account of the natural growth of the Irish from their infancy: “… fere cuncta naturae relinquuntur. Non in cunabulis aptantur; non fasciis alligantur; non frequentibus in balneis tenera membra vel foventur, vel artis juvamine componuntur. Non enim obstetrices aquae calentis beneficio vel nares erigunt, vel faciem deprimunt, vel tibias extendunt. Sola natura quos edidit artus, praeter artis cujuslibet adminicula, pro sui arbitrio et componit et disponit.” And the Irish grow up fine, handsome men. v. 150. The same criticism of civilized man seems implicit for example in the account of the hospitality of the Welsh. The Welsh feed guests lavishly, but “non ferculis multis, non saporibus et gularum irritamentis coquina gravatur; non mensis, non mappis, non manutergiis, domus ornatur. Naturae magis student quam nitori.” vi. 183.
97. See above p. 48 n. 120.
98. Giraldus, vi. 80.
99. William Fitz Stephen's description of the action of horses is probably an example of classical influence and not of realistic observation. He describes the ‘rocking-horse’ action and the lateral trot’ action, both of which occur frequently in classical sculpture and numismatics; Materials for the History of Thomas Becket, ed. Robertson and Sheppard, m. 6.
100. Giraldus, v. 57 (cf. v. lxxii-lxxiii); vi. 114-117, respectively. Gerald's knowledge of natural history is fully discussed by U. T. Holmes, “Gerald the Naturalist” in SPECULUM XI (1936), 110-121.
101. Giraldus, VII. 74.
102. Life of St Hugh, ed. Douie and Farmer, i. 105-109.