Gerald of Wales is known by many names - Giraldus Cambrensis, Gerallt Gymro, Gerald de Barri - and now his importance has been brought to life in the first multi-authored book on one of the world’s most famous medieval writers.

Though he is widely recognised for his innovative ethnographic studies of Ireland and Wales, Gerald authored a range of vastly understudied works giving valuable insights into many aspects of 12th Century life. The essays in this impressive volume reassess Gerald of Wales’s importance as a writer and critic, bringing together a variety of voices and approaches, and shedding a rare light on his lesser-studied works.

Exploring the early manuscripts, Gerald’s place in Welsh history, the possibility that his works were read by the Tudors, and even his sense of humour, the contributing scholars to the book present a broad view which provides a fuller context for the popular, better-studied works of Gerald of Wales, and bring to light new evidence for the rhetorical strategies that he employed, his political positioning, and his use of source material, in attesting to the breadth and depth of his work.

Of particular interest to university students and scholars of Medieval Latin and British history, this book draws Gerald of Wales from the medieval era into the 21st Century.

• Due to be published this month by the University of Wales Press, the book is available in hardback (£90), paperback (£29.99) or as an e-book (£29.99).

About the Editors

A. Joseph McMullen is Assistant Professor in English at Centenary University.

Georgia Henley is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Text Technologies and Digital Humanities at Stanford University.