Welsh Journals

bibliography. But the book is a clear and interesting survey of the period from one who has made such a deep study of its government and has written so illuminatingly for so long on its developments and problems. A. R. MYERS. Liverpool COLLECTED PAPERS OF N. DENHOLM-YOUNG. University of Wales Press, Cardiff, 1969. Pp. 317. 84s. ( £ 4-20). The publication of Mr. Denholm-Young's collected papers is perhaps an occasion to recall his contribution to the progress of medieval studies over a period of more than thirty years. As the papers in this collection show, his interests have ranged over several fields, but a principal strength of the present volume lies in its author's interest in manuscript problems, and in his ability to unravel difficult technical problems in order to illustrate the intellectual and social life of medieval England. Although many of the papers in this volume are already well known, it is worth observing on the basis of these studies that Mr. Denholm-Young has few equals in the art of historical detection. Whether he is unravelling the intricacies of the Winchester-Hyde chronicle, or discussing the question of the number of knights in thirteenth-century England, he handles his material with a certain touch. In particular, the problems connected with manuscript sources, whether these be concerned with the text of Fleta, the provisions of Westminster, or the chronicle of Thomas Wykes, are clearly formulated. Mr. Denholm-Young is particularly good on the difficult problem of identification, putting forward in different essays convincing reasons for ascribing Fleta to Matthew Cheker, and the Vita Edwardi Secundi to John Walwyn. It is especially interesting to have in this collection Mr. Denholm-Young's original paper on the Vita. The chronicle, although it lacks six leaves covering the period March 1322- November 1324, is one of the best accounts of Edward II's reign, and it was almost certainly the work of a contemporary. John Walwyn, D.C.L., clerk to the earl of Hereford, Mr. Denholm-Young's candidate as author, seems as likely a possibility as any. A feature of this volume is its treatment of literary sources. Mr. Denholm-Young is perhaps one of the few medievalists of his day to have given as much critical attention to the literary as to the record sources of history. Technically satisfying as his treatment of the problems concerning these sources is (and we can. in fact, read many of these essays for the treatment of the technical problem alone), his underlying concern almost always seems to be to illustrate the intellectual interests and the ethos of the ecclesiastical and lay sides of medieval society. The ideas and the outlook of these two sections of medieval society come