Walter Map Critical Essay | Critical Essay by A. G. Rigg

Critical Essay by A. G. Rigg

SOURCE: "Walter Map" in A History of Anglo-Latin Literature 1066-1422, Cambridge University Press, 1992, pp. 88-92.

In the following excerpt, Rigg presents an overview of Map's work, focusing on the objects of his satire.

… Walter Map was also born about 1135, and was part-English, part-Welsh. He describes England as his 'mater', but refers to the Welsh as his 'compatriote' and his surname is Welsh for 'son of. For most of his life he lived close to the Welsh border ('marchio sum Walensibus'). He was probably educated first at St Peter's Abbey in Gloucester, and then studied in Paris. He enjoyed the patronage of Henry II and travelled widely with the court, both in England and Europe. He was a king's justice in Wales and the West Midlands (what would until recently have been called a 'circuit judge'). Eventually he became chancellor of Lincoln, and finally, in 1196 or 1197,...
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