Gerald of Wales

Abstract

This chapter looks at Gerald of Wales as a historian. Gerald was a prolific writer, and a polymath, and he has seldom been studied as a historian alone. Here the focus will be on Gerald’s historical works, his influences, and methods. The first influence identified is Sallust, whose writings provided an example of the historical monograph, of character descriptions and invented speeches. But Gerald drew on a wide range of pagan Christian writings, and used exempla from their works as a way of interpreting more recent events. Paying special attention to Gerald’s Vita Galfridi and De Principis Instructione, it is argued that Gerald used exempla from earlier histories in a way comparable to a hagiographer: drawing on a repertoire of models and choosing those most appropriate.