Excerpt from Chronicon Galfridi Le Baker De Swynebroke: Edited With Notes The authorship of the chronicle and 'chroniculum' which are printed in this volume is disclosed in the colophon of the smaller work (p. I73). The writer, Geoffrey le Baker, of Swinbrook, an Oxford shire village lying two miles east of Burford, there tells us that he wrote, or rather finished writing, this little chronicle at Osney on Friday, the festival of St. Margaret [20th July], 1347; and that the work was done at the request of sir Thomas de la More, knight. The 'chroniculum has no other historical importance. It is a jejune record of events, beginning with the Six days of creation, the ages of the world, and a few notes of early history, and proceeding with two short series in chronological sequence: the first from the birth of Our Lord to the year 1320, touching chie y on matters of ecclesias tical history and ending with the succession of bishops of certain English sees (pp. 158 the other beginning with the death of Augustus, but immediately passing on to events in English history. Down to the year 1336 - 7 (pp. 164 - i73). The dates of the entries in both series are calculated both in the ordinary manner by the year of Our Lord, and also back from the year of compilation, 1347. Baker styles himself clericus but by this term he probably does not mean that he was a canon of Osney. Had he been one of the brethren of that house, we might expect that he would have found room in his brief record for more notes connected with the abbey than he has done. Only in two places does he mention Osney: the one referring to the benefactions of John de Pagham, bishop of Worcester (p. The other to the burial of Ela, countess of Warwick (p. I69). About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."