Senshu University Library, MS1
Polychronicon

<Description>
Ranulph Higden, the Benedictine monk of Chester, entered St Werburgh's monastry in that city in 1299 and lived there until his death in 1363/4. The Polychronicon, a universal history which occupied him for most of his writing life.

Higden adds various series of dates to the margins of the Polychronicon with: from Abraham to the foundation of the age of the world and the date from the foundation of Rome and the year of the ruler and from the beginning of the Christian era.

Higden’s original aim was to write a history of Britain, but he embraced the whole history of the world from the creation to his own time. The focus remains the British Isles. Books V, VI, and VII give major prominence to the history of these islands from the earliest legendary times to the reighn of Edward III.

The estimated birth date for John Trevisa is 1342. We know he died shortly before May 1402. Trevisa probably became vicar of Berkeley and chaplain to the Berkeley family. The Polychronicon translation was finished in 1387.

<References>
Waldron, Ronald, ed. 2004. John Trevisa’s Translation of the Polychronicon of Ranulph Higden, Book VI. Heidelberg: Universitaetsverlag.
Babington, Churchill, ed. 1865/1975. Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden Monachi Cestrensis; together with English Translation of John Trevisa and of an Unknown Writer of the Fifteenth Century. Nendeln/Liechtenstein: Kraus Reprint.