The Cambridge Companion to Matthew Paris

A new, interdisciplinary and cutting-edge account of Matthew Paris' life, writing, art and craftwork and their legacy in European culture.

James G. Clark (Edited by)

9781108461764, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 8 January 2026

454 pages
27 x 18 x 2 cm, 0.652 kg

'The Cambridge Companion to Matthew Paris is a wonderful compendium of studies summarizing the scholarship on an extraordinary monk, who was a hagiographer, chronicler, artist and commentator on the perils of the times in England and abroad. The editor has brought together a remarkable team of junior and senior scholars in assembling this collection, and his own contributions (as well as those of a number of others) are notable not merely for their erudition but for their engaging style.' William Chester Jordan, Princeton University

Matthew Paris is one of the most remarkable and renowned figures in the cultural history of medieval England. A career-monk at the influential Benedictine abbey of St Albans, Paris' creative work bears witness to the rich intellectual, artistic, social and political environment of the monasteries and their lasting impact on the wider world. His compelling accounts of recent history and the lives of legendary saints and churchmen are a distinctive and valuable guide to the emergence of the English kingdom and its place in European Christendom. His accomplished and vivid artwork brings into focus both the craft skill and visual sensibility stimulated by the medieval Church. This systematic survey, the first published for almost seventy years, brings together expert scholarship and offers fresh, interdisciplinary perspectives on Paris', his life's work as writer, artist, cartographer and maker of manuscript books, and its enduring legacy.

Preface
1. Introduction: the making of Matthew Paris James Clark
2. Matthew Paris and the Chronica maiora: chronology, truth and the crisis of 1258 David Carpenter
3. Matthew Paris and the Plantagenet regime James Clark
4. Matthew Paris, Europe & Christendom Bjorn Weiler
5. Matthew Paris and the secular church Philippa Hoskin
6. Matthew Paris and the British Isles Andy King
7. Matthew Paris' pictorial life of St Alban Kathryn Gerry
8. The Becket Leaves Cecily Hennessy
9. Manuscript design in production and transmission Jessica Coatesworth
10. Matthew Paris and heraldry Adrian Ailes
11. Matthew Paris and his maps Paul Harvey
12. Matthew Paris as scribe: idiosyncrasy and collaboration Manuel Muñoz Garcia
13. The vernacular culture of Matthew Paris Marianne Ailes
14. Afterlife James Clark
15. Matthew Paris' manuscripts: working books and artefacts in medieval and early modern collections Andrew Dunning
16. Digitising Matthew Paris: challenges, processes and outcomes Estelle Gittins, Alison Ray, Caroline Harding and Claire McNulty
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: British & Irish history [HBJD1]