A Book of British Kings : 1200 BC - 1399 AD

His editorial conservatism, mani- fested in the course on Diplomatics which he taught at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies and in the University of Toronto's Centre for Medieval Studies, is one of the foundations of the TMLT's principle of respect for a single manuscript. [...] The Harley Epitome and the Metrical History are manifestations of the influence of Geoffrey of Monmouth, the habit of abbreviation, and political-historical poetry. [...] There were verses to help memorize the sacraments, the sin§, the calendar of saints, canon law, and grammar and metre.7 Alexander of Ashby states specifically that his poem on the saints, in the order of the calendar, was to make them easily memorable.8 We know from contemporary sources that the vic- ars choral of the cathedral at York were required to be able to 'repeat the histories,' that is, t [...] In the section from the end of the reign of William I to the middle of that of Stephen (between C/526 and 579) the text of HE is seriously flawed: it is likely that Ur-HE had a gap here, which the poet and the scribes of HE and WC attempted to fill in various ways. [...] To achieve this, the author of HE records the death of Cadwaladr and the futile resistance of Yvor and Yni, and then jumps straight to the royal line of Wessex.