The History of the Kings of Britain

Written in the twelfth century, this Latin prose history traces the rulers of Britain from the Trojan exile Brutus through a line of invented and borrowed kings to Cadwallader. Geoffrey of Monmouth supplies the stories of Lear and his daughters, Belinus and Brennius, Caesar's invasions, and, at the centre, Merlin, Uther, and Arthur's wars against the Saxons and the Roman emperor. Geography is recast as a dynastic map of Loegria, Cambria, and Albany. The work is a legendary national origin-history, not a chronicle grounded in contemporary record and not a later romance of the Grail.

Quarter black leather binding with a design in gold by Louis Dodd, red cloth boards. Map endleaves. Gold slipcase.