Spartacus Review

Volume 21: 27th June, 2008

Medieval History

Title: The Chronicle of Anonymous of Canterbury 1346-1365

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Publisher: Oxford University Press

Price: £80.00

Bookshop: Amazon

Spartacus Website: Medieval Literature

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This is the first complete edition of the Chronicon Anonymi Cantuariensis, a contemporary narrative that provides valuable insights into medieval war and diplomacy, written at Canterbury shortly after the mid-fourteenth century. The previous edition, published in 1914, was based on a manuscript from which the text for the years 1357 to 1364 was missing. Presented here in full with a modern English translation, the chronicle provides a key narrative of military and political events covering the years from 1346 to 1365. Concentrating principally on the campaigns of the Hundred Years War and their impact upon the inhabitants of south-east England, the author took advantage of his position on the main news route between London and Paris to provide a detailed account of a crucial phase in British and European history.