Giraldus Cambrensis Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Henry Owen

Critical Essay by Henry Owen

SOURCE: Owen, Henry. “The Irish Topography,” “The Conquest of Ireland,” “The Itinerary through Wales,” “The Jewel of the Church.” In Gerald the Welshman, pp. 32-67, 81-92. London: Whiting & Co., 1889.

In the following excerpt, Owen summarizes four of Gerald's most important works: the Topographia Hibernica, the Expugnatio Hibernica, the Itinerarium Kambriae, and the Gemma Ecclesiastica.

The Topographia Hibernica was the earliest of Gerald's works. It was the one which he read to the University of Oxford, and the praise of which by Archbishop Baldwin was so pleasing to the author. He seems to have frequently revised it; manuscripts of various editions are in existence in the libraries at Oxford and Cambridge, and at the British Museum and Westminster Abbey. Gerald explains to us why he made this new departure, held to be unworthy of a man of letters, and descended to treat of the scenery and social condition of...
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