SOURCE: An introduction to The “Historia Regum Britannie” of Geoffrey of Monmouth: I. Bern, Burgerbibliothek, MS. 568, edited by Neil Wright, D. S. Brewer, 1985, pp. ix-lix.

In the following excerpt, Wright discusses the merits and shortcomings of various editions of The History of the Kings of Britain.

… the Present Edition

It is surprising that a work as important and influential as the Historia Regum Britannie has previously been edited on only eight occasions; in view of the plethora of surviving manuscripts, it is less surprising that none of these editions can be considered to fulfill the needs of modern scholarship.¹

Geoffrey's Historia was edited twice in the sixteenth century. The editio princeps was prepared by Ivo Cavellatus, a professor of the College of Quimper in Paris, and printed in Paris by Josse Bade of Asche in 1508.² In his introduction Cavellatus stated that he used four Paris manuscripts for his...