SOURCE: Roberts, Brynley F. Gerald of Wales, pp. 45-89. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1982.

In the following excerpt, Roberts offers a survey of Gerald's major and minor works.

These years had been the most active of Gerald's career. On the one hand he had spent his time gathering up evidence and preparing legal argument, he had persuaded and cajoled, and on the other hand there had been a great deal of travelling. His journey to Rome in the winter of 1202 had been fraught with real physical danger and his escape from England had been that of a fugitive. The return was just as eventful; penniless and in debt, he was imprisoned at Châtillon-sur-Seine for a while and for the first time he sank to the depths of despair, able neither to take food nor to sleep. He was consoled by philosophical sentences, and upon his release he...