Historia Regum


The Historia Regum is a historical compilation attributed to Symeon of Durham and Byrhtferth of Ramsey, which presents material going from the death of Bede until 1129. It survives only in one manuscript compiled in Yorkshire in the mid-to-late 12th century, though the material is earlier. It is an often-used source for medieval English and Northumbrian history.

Manuscripts and authorship

The full text survives in one manuscript, Cambridge, [Corpus Christi College, MS 139], at folios 51v–129v, written down in the late 12th century. An abbreviated copy is also found in Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS nouv. acq. lat. 692. Even though the Cambridge manuscript names Symeon as the author in an incipit and an explicit, Symeon's authorship of the work is often doubted by modern historians. Besides not being an original historical work, reasons of internal evidence make it highly unlikely that the Historia Regum was written by the same author as the Libellus de exordio, which is generally accepted to have been authored by Symeon.

Editions