Gesta regum Britannie

A critical edition and translation of a 13th-century Latin poem from Brittany; a retelling of Geoffrey's History emphasising the tragic side of Britain's decline.

The Gesta Regum Britannie, a Latin poem comprising nearly 5,000 hexameters, is a vital but little known witness to the reception of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britannie. Written shortly before the middle of the thirteenth century, the poem is dedicated to Cadioc, bishop of Vannes in Brittany, and so testifies to the Breton reaction to and enthusiasm for Geoffrey's popular pseudo-history. The poem also provides important evidence for the literary culture of thirteenth-century Brittany. Much in the poem is original and this new edition will bring it to a wider audience so that it may be read in conjunction with the more familiar vernacular verse versions of Geoffrey's Historia.
NEIL WRIGHTis a SeniorMember of Wolfson College, Cambridge.