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Review
This is surely going to be the all-purpose and long-awaited standard critical edition (...) which all medievalists will need to read and cite when dealing with what is one of the foundational texts of the Latin Middle Ages. MEDIUM AEVUM This fine edition will serve to make Geoffrey's Latin much more accessible and no doubt spur further research. Neil Wright's translation is graceful and precise. (...) It is wonderful to have a reliable Latin edition and translation of this important work priced for the library of the individual scholar and student. JOURNAL OF MEDIEVAL LATINA fabulous British history - giants and all - deserves its former bestseller status. Fresh and engaging, and can be enjoyed purely as mythical history. FORTEAN TIMES This new critical edition (...) is a major advance in scholarship and will undoubtedly become the standard text for the foreseeable future. SPECULUM This is a handsome volume and a major contribution to twelfth-century British studies. It will provide a firm textual basis for the next generation of scholarly research on Geoffrey of Monmouth and on twelfth-century historiography. JOURNAL OF BRITISH STUDIESThe Historia Regum Britanniae is a text of major importance for any folklorist interested in medieval folklore, national epics, and the invention of tradition. (...) For students and scholars wanting to read Geoffrey in the original Latin, or even just looking for a good translation of the book, Michael Reeve's and Neil Wright's edition and translation (.) is the best available edition of this influential text. FABULABR> Praise for the original hardback: Reeve's new text, a collation of 11 of the most important manuscripts, is probably the best we've had since Geoffrey put his pen down, and it makes much previous scholarship redundant. (...) A definitive work for scholars. TOM SHIPPEY, LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKSThe text itself is beautifully edited, and the translation is extremely close to the Latin original without being stilted: all the energy of Geoffrey's prose shines through. CHOICE
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This new critical edition [...] is a major advance in scholarship and will undoubtedly become the standard text for the foreseeable future.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is as near as possible a definitive version of Geoffrey's fabulous, racy and vivid "history", with a Loeb-style Latin text and English facing-page translation. The critical study of variant editions and readings is exhaustive, though most readers might have preferred more notes about Geoffrey's possible sources, his literary style and his influence on later writers.
Still, this is the text to get, whether you only want to read the English version or have the Latin as well -- and the Latin is a real joy, accessible and readable and always running along at a cracking pace. Why this is not studied and enjoyed more by Latin students is a mystery -- hopefully this edition will start to become a required text for post A-level (or even A-level).
A perfect companion to this is Geoffrey of Monmouth's Life of Merlin: A New Verse Translation, newly translated (2011) into English (no Latin!) and published by Amberley.
Still, this is the text to get, whether you only want to read the English version or have the Latin as well -- and the Latin is a real joy, accessible and readable and always running along at a cracking pace. Why this is not studied and enjoyed more by Latin students is a mystery -- hopefully this edition will start to become a required text for post A-level (or even A-level).
A perfect companion to this is Geoffrey of Monmouth's Life of Merlin: A New Verse Translation, newly translated (2011) into English (no Latin!) and published by Amberley.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Geoffrey of Monmouth's book was a hit in 12th Europe, but in the present age few would read more than the occasional excerpt of this repetitive account of stylised battles for entertainment. If it has little value for entertainment, does it also have little historical value? Modern opinion has tended to disregard it as a late and fabulous account of events in post-Roman Britain. However, this has been challenged in the most recent years. The text would imply that some larger cities such London, York and Lincoln remained as Romano-British enclaves in the Saxon lowlands, with archbishoprics of the British church at London and York, until not long before the arrival of St. Augustine in AD 597. This is contrary to the traditional reading of the period, but is consistent with modern archaeological findings, and explains Pope Gregory's original plan to have his own archbishoprics at London and York rather than Canterbury and York.
In one respect in particular, Geoffrey's account appears more realistic than more generally accepted history provided by Bede. The latter recounts how St. Augustine threatened the British clergy with war from their enemies when they refused to submit to his demands. A subsequent British defeat in war is then attributed by Bede to the workings of divine judgment. Geoffrey gives a more practical account of how the King of Kent, which now tends to be seen as a base for Frankish influence in the Saxon areas, incited the King of Northumbria and other Saxon leaders to attack the British clerics.
Geoffrey of Monmouth's account will always only be useful as a cross reference to other history or archaeology, but it does imply a a possible different slant to history and particularly religious history in sixth and seventh century Britain.
In one respect in particular, Geoffrey's account appears more realistic than more generally accepted history provided by Bede. The latter recounts how St. Augustine threatened the British clergy with war from their enemies when they refused to submit to his demands. A subsequent British defeat in war is then attributed by Bede to the workings of divine judgment. Geoffrey gives a more practical account of how the King of Kent, which now tends to be seen as a base for Frankish influence in the Saxon areas, incited the King of Northumbria and other Saxon leaders to attack the British clerics.
Geoffrey of Monmouth's account will always only be useful as a cross reference to other history or archaeology, but it does imply a a possible different slant to history and particularly religious history in sixth and seventh century Britain.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
A seminal source particularly recommended for college library world history collections
14 Sep 2009
Format:Paperback
Originally written in the 1130s, "The History of the Kings of Britain" is Geoffrey of Monmouth's history of the Britons from Brutus to Cadwallader is one of the first texts to relate the travails of Lear and the legend of Arthur. Now this classic text is reprinted in its first critical edition since 1929; each two-page spread features the original Latin text on the right page and the English translation on the left page. A seventy-six page introduction, a wealth of footnotes, and an index round out this remarkable classic text. "The History of the Kings of Britain" is a seminal source particularly recommended for college library world history collections.
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