Giraldi Cambrensis Opera - Volume 4

Despite a frustrated ecclesiastical career his ongoing failure to secure the See of St David''s embittered him Giraldus Cambrensis (Gerald of Wales Gerald de Barry c.11461220/23) composed many remarkable literary works initially while employed as a royal clerk for Henry II and subsequently in semi-retirement in Lincoln. Eight volumes of his works were compiled as part of the Rolls Series of British medieval material. Volume 4 edited by historian J. S. Brewer (180979) and published in 1873 contains two texts one a moral quasi-pastoral critique of the monastic orders the other a life of Geoffrey Plantagenet (11511212) Archbishop of York focusing on power struggles at the Angevin court. Noted for his vigorous Latin and anecdotal style Giraldus gives a vivid portrait of medieval Britain while the English editorial preface illuminates nineteenth-century interest in the period.