The late fifteenth-century Middle English manuscript Oxford, Trinity
College, MS 29 contains a universal history of the world, which begins
with the creation and covers large swathes of biblical and ancient
history up to the time of Hannibal. Compiled from diverse printed and
manuscript sources by a single compiler-scribe, the text forms an
intricate network of sources which provides extensive material for the
study of history writing and compilation in fifteenth-century England.
Only very brief excerpts from this text have previously appeared in
print. Volume I (MET 63) contains the first complete edition of this
history of the world, together with a textual apparatus. The present
volume consists of an introduction with a comprehensive discussion of
the manuscript, its language and provenance, the source texts, the
compiler's method, and six illustrations, as well as a detailed
commentary and glossary.