Politics, Patronage and Medieval Scholarship: Henry Savile’s Rerum Anglicarum scriptores post Bedam (1596) in Context

Abstract

Abstract Henry Savile’s Rerum Anglicarum scriptores (1596), his collection of writings of medieval historians, was essential reading for Britain’s antiquaries for generations. However, it has not generally figured largely in histories of British antiquarianism and its publication has seemed a puzzling episode in Savile’s scholarly career. This article draws on newly-discovered or redated print and manuscript evidence to illuminate the nexus of politics and patronage from which the book emerged. Exploring Savile’s place within British antiquarianism, his practice as an editor of medieval manuscripts, and the volume’s publication in Frankfurt, the essay argues that Savile’s Scriptores constitutes a significant departure from earlier sixteenth-century traditions of medieval textual editing.