Essays on the medieval chronicle tradition, shedding light on history writing, manuscript studies and the history of the book, and the post-medieval reception of such texts. The histories of chronicles composed in England during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and onwards, with a focus on texts belonging to or engaging with the Prose Brut tradition, are the focus of this volume. The contributors examine the composition, dissemination and reception of historical texts written in Anglo-Norman, Latin and English, including the Prose Brut chronicle (c. 1300 and later), Castleford's Chronicle (c. 1327),and Nicholas Trevet's Les Cronicles (c. 1334), looking at questions of the processes of writing, rewriting, printing and editing history. They cross traditional boundaries of subject and period, taking multi-disciplinary approaches to their studies in order to underscore the (shifting) historical, social and political contexts in which medieval English chronicles were used and read from the fourteenth century through to the present day. As such, the volume honours the pioneering work of the late Professor Lister M. Matheson, whose research in this area demonstrated that a full understanding of medieval historical literature demands attention to both the content of theworks in question and to the material circumstances of producing those works. JACLYN RAJSIC is a Lecturer in Medieval Literature in the School of English and Drama at Queen Mary University of London; ERIK KOOPER taughtOld and Middle English at Utrecht University until his retirement in 2007; DOMINIQUE HOCHE Is an Associate Professor at West Liberty University in West Virginia. Contributors: Elizabeth J. Bryan, Caroline D. Eckhardt,A.S.G. Edwards, Dan Embree, Alexander L. Kaufman, Edward Donald Kennedy, Erik Kooper, Julia Marvin, William Marx, Krista A. Murchison, Heather Pagan, Jaclyn Rajsic, Christine M. Rose, Neil Weijer

Essays reflecting the most recent research on the thirteenth century, with a timely focus on the Treaty of Paris. Additional editors: Karen Stoeber, Bjoern Weiler The articles collected here bear witness to the continued and wide interest in England and its neighbours in the "long" thirteenth century. The volume includes papers on the high politics of the thirteenth century, international relations, the administrative and governmental structures of medieval England and aspects of the wider societal and political context of the period. A particular theme of the papers is Anglo-French political history, and especially the ways in which that relationship was reflected in the diplomatic and dynastic arrangements associated with the Treaty of Paris, the 750th anniversary of which fell during 2009, a fact celebrated in this collection of essays and the Paris conference at which the original papers were first delivered. Contributors: Caroline Burt, Julie E. Kanter, Julia Barrow, Benjamin L. Wild, WilliamMarx, Caroline Dunn, Adrian Jobson, Adrian R. Bell, Chris Brooks, Tony K. Moore, David A. Trotter, William Chester Jordan, Daniel Power, Florent Lenegre

In 1856 J.S. Davies edited for the Camden Society the continuation of the Middle English prose Brut, from a manuscript in the Bodleian (Lyell 34), that became known as the Davies ChronicleI/>. Covering the reigns of Richard II, Henry IV, Henry V, and Henry VI, it was at once recognised as an important vernacular historical narrative. Unfortunately Lyell 34 is in places badly damaged, and the narrative of the reign of Richard II has survived only in fragments. This new edition of what are in fact two BrutI/> continuations makes use of a full text recently discovered in the National Library of Wales (MS 21608), providing a more authoritative version. The narrative covers the periods 1377-1437 and 1440-1461, and includes previously unknown English-language accounts of episodes of the reign of Richard II, such as the Peasants' Revolt. Each continuation is the product of a different political climate, and the introduction explores the narrative and rhetorical structures that lie behind them. As a whole, the edition offers particularly valuable insights into the growth of a highly politicised vernacular historical narrative, and the way in which two medieval compilers sought to represent the history of the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. WILLIAM MARX is senior lecturer in medieval literature at the University of Wales, Lampeter

`The Index of Middle English Prose when completed will be a monumental achievement.' REVIEW OF ENGLISH STUDIES This is the first volume in the series to deal with a national library. Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru, the National Library of Wales, was founded with the expressed purpose of preserving the material of the literary culture and history of Wales. The number of medieval English language manuscripts, while substantial, does not form as great a proportion of the holdings as in other libraries in Britain, and a special feature of the collection is that the manuscript context for some English texts is one in which Welsh is the main language. The collection is thus relatively unexplored for its Middle English holdings, and of the manuscripts indexed here fewer than half are listed in the Index of Printed Middle English Prose; they contain awealth of materials, most notably in historical writings, scientific texts, and prophecies. The introduction sets the wider context for the manuscripts by discussing the history of the Library and the way in which its major collections were brought together. WILLIAM MARXis Senior Lecturer in the Department of English, University of Wales, Lampeter.