The Illustrated Chronicles of Matthew Paris: Observations of Thirteenth-Century Life

by Matthew Paris

English, Latin (translation)

Genres: History, Amazon, Medieval

224 pages, Paperback

First published October 11, 1979

About the author

born perhaps 1200
died 1259

From the Creation, Chronica Majora of Matthew Paris, English monk and chronicler, traced the history of the world to 1259.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew...

Reviews

[Robert Monk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terrific fun here. Matthew Paris was a fascinating observer of 13th Century life. A British monk, he was worldly, bitchy and opinionated, though his opinions are often hard to really nail down. For example, with regard to the Emperor Frederick II, he sometimes referred to him as "merciless" and "of suspect memory," but he also called him "the greatest of the princes of the earth." He was similarly mixed in his opinions about the Pope at the time, Innocent IV, and his own King, Henry III (whom he knew quite well). One thing he rarely expressed was moderation in his feelings. He was a passionate fellow, and not afraid to express those passions. (To a point. He apparently tried to edit out some of the more flaming sections of his chronicle as he neared the end of his life. The editor of this volume kept those flaming sections in, undoubtedly because they're more entertaining.) This version, rather than attempting to present something like a sampling of the whole chronicle, is four years of it, intact, and including some of Matthew's own charming illustrations. The years Vaughan chose include the Crusade of Louis IX of France (who actually gets pretty approving treatment by Matthew throughout) and the death of Frederick II, but mostly this book is about providing an amusing taste, rather than solidly useful history. And as such, it succeeds quite well.

[Lora Shouse · Rating 4 out of 5]

This excerpt of the Chronicles of Matthew Paris begins with the year 1247. To locate the time in relation to the happenings of other books I have read, this is 43 years after the death of Elinor of Aquitaine and about 80 years before the events described in The Name of the Rose. For my Buddhist friends, it was 6 years before Nichiren Daishonin first chanted Nam Myoho Renge Kyo in April of 1253.

Matthew Paris was a monk in the Benedictine monastery of St. Albans from 1217 to 1259 when he died. He was keeping a more or less official chronicle for the monastery, and so much of what he recorded had to do with the goings-on inside the church. In particular, he documented what looks like a great many invasive demands for money on the various churches by the Pope, the king, various lords, and various Archbishops. The particular problem seemed to be that they would ask, not for a set amount of money, or even for a certain percentage of the church’s income, but for a quarter or half (or some such) of everything the church had. And then come back the next year and ask for a similar amount. You can see where the churches might become irritated when several overlords were acting this way at the same time. At first, Brother Matthew attempts to be tolerant of those asking for what they should reasonably be entitled to. But by the end of 1250, which is the last of the period included in this excerpt, he is denouncing most of those asking for money as desiring it, not for any useful purpose but solely for useless ostentation, or for enriching some foreigners.

The beginnings of the disputes between the various monastic orders (that we saw in The Name of the Rose) can be seen here, as Brother Matthew notes that some Franciscan and other monks are being sent by the pope to various places to extort money for him.

All this church history can be a little dry. The nearest to something exciting was when Brother Matthew reports of himself that he was sent to Norway to attend the coronation of their new king. And then later, he returned to Norway to instruct the brothers at a Benedictine monastery who had never been instructed in the rules of their order.

He is by turns approving and disapproving of the English king. He begins by trying to be approving of the pope but moves to being mostly disapproving of him by the last year. He seems to mostly approve of the king of France, who he perceives as a devout man. He begins by disapproving of Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, the Holy Roman Emperor, who had evidently been excommunicated by the pope. The pope seems to have been frantic to remove Frederick from power. Brother Matthew relates many bad tales of Frederick. But as time passes and the pope grows more and more frantic to discredit the Emperor and wastes a lot of money fighting him, Brother Matthew evidently becomes convinced that Frederick isn’t so bad after all.

The best part of the Chronicle comes in the section for 1250 where he recounts the final outcome of the Crusade of that time; a sad tale of how one person, wanting all the glory for himself, managed to lose what could have been a complete victory if it had been better managed.

The original manuscript was extensively illustrated in its margins, and many of those illustrations are reproduced in this edition.

[Sarah u · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book contains a selection of Matthew Paris' chronicles, which were written during the reign of Henry III (1216-1272) while the writer was a monk at St. Albans. It is not a full chronicle.

The content is nicely edited and features some of Paris' best drawings. A nice addition to a medieval shelf.

[Ned · Rating 3 out of 5]

nice pictures, chronicler's narrative