[Rarebooks] fa: ROGER OF WENDOVER - CHRONICA, SIVE FLORES HISTORIARUM - 5 Vols. 1841-44

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auctions ending Sunday, November 18. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/bclw24r

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.


[Roger of Wendover; Henry O. Coxe, editor:]: Rogeri de Wendover Chronica, sive Flores Historiarum, nunc primum edit Henricus O. Coxe, M.A. [WITH:] [Matthew Paris:] Appendix ad Rogeri de Wendover Flores Historiarum. Londini [London]: Sumptibus Societatis [English Historical Society], 1841-44. First edition thus. Five volumes, 8vo (22 cm) in period calf, rebacked with original spines laid down.

Text in Latin with notes and a preface in English. Complete with the fifth volume comprising Matthew Paris's additions to Wendover's Chronicle. Rubbing and scuffing to the boards, wear to the edges and spine with all but one spine label lost; vol. I title-page with closed tear to top margin; text block of vol. III bumped at the lower fore-corner; a few occasional small spots or touches of soiling; otherwise clean and sound, firmly bound. With the bookplates of the Oxford and Cambridge University Club Library on the front paste-downs and its ink stamp on the reverse of the title-pages; no other library marks. A solid set, and rather uncommon.

Roger of Wendover "(he probably hailed from Wendover, Buckinghamshire) was a monk at St Albans Abbey, where he compiled a chronicle, the Flores Historiarum (Flowers of History), extending from the Creation to 1235… The work's real importance lies in its coverage of events from about 1200 – the events of Roger's own times – however, during the Anglo-Saxon period Roger seems to have preserved nuggets from now lost sources. Roger's death is dated to 6th May 1236 by his rather more illustrious successor as St Albans' historiographer, Matthew Paris. Matthew revised Roger's chronicle, and extended it to 1259 (in which year he apparently died) – producing a large work, appropriately called the Chronica Majora (Great Chronicle). Whether Roger had, similarly, assimilated the work of a previous St Albans historiographer whose name was not recorded, or whether he was the originator of the Flores Historiarum, is a question that has divided scholars' opinions over the years" (Stephen J. Murray, From Dot to Domesday). While often criticized for his shortcomings as a historian, Wendover's candor in treating the "abominable misrule" of King John's reign is noteworthy.