This imaginative history of the Britons, written in the twelfth century, is the first work to recount the woes of Lear and the glittering career of Arthur.
It rapidly became a bestseller in the British Isles and Francophone Europe, with over 200 manuscripts surviving.
Here, an authoritative version of the text is presented with a facing translation, prepared especially for the volume.
It also contains a full introduction and notes.
MICHAEL REEVE is Kennedy Professor of Latin Emeritus at the Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge; Dr NEIL WRIGHT is a Senior Language Teaching Officer at the Faculty of History, University of Cambridge.
Boydell Press The history of the kings of britain: an edition and translation of the de gestis britonum (historia regum brittannie), paperback/geoffrey of monmouth
