Introduction, Commentary, Glossary, and Bibliography

The late fifteenth-century Middle English manuscript Oxford, Trinity College, MS 29 contains a universal history of the world, which begins with the creation and covers large swathes of biblical and ancient history up to the time of Hannibal. Compiled from diverse printed and manuscript sources by a single compiler-scribe, the text forms an intricate network of sources which provides extensive material for the study of history writing and compilation in fifteenth-century England. Only very brief excerpts from this text have previously appeared in print. Volume I (MET 63) contains the first complete edition of this history of the world, together with a textual apparatus. The present volume consists of an introduction with a comprehensive discussion of the manuscript, its language and provenance, the source texts, the compiler's method, and six illustrations, as well as a detailed commentary and glossary.