Editing Matthew Paris (section)

==Life and work==
[[File:Henry1.jpg|thumb|[[Henry I of England]] from British Library MS Cotton Claudius D VI|left|261x261px]]
In spite of his surname and knowledge of the French language, Paris was of English birth, and is believed by some chroniclers to be of the Paris family of [[Hildersham]], [[Cambridgeshire]].<ref>{{cite book|title=The history of the county of Cambridge|publisher=S. &. R. Bentley|author=Edmund Carter|year=1819|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_QTQQAAAAYAAJ|author-link=Edmund Carter (topographer)}}</ref> He may have studied at Paris in his youth after early education at [[St Albans School, Hertfordshire|St Albans School]], however this is simply conjecture. The first we know of Matthew Paris (from his own writings) is that he was admitted as a monk to [[St Albans Cathedral|St Albans]] in 1217. It is on the assumption that he was in his teens on admission that his birth date is estimated; some scholars suspect he may have been ten years or older; many monks only entered monastic life after pursuing a career in the world outside. He was clearly at ease with the nobility and even royalty, which may indicate that he came from a family of some status, although it also seems an indication of his personality. His life was mainly spent in this religious house. In 1248, Paris was sent to [[medieval Norway|Norway]] as the bearer of a message from [[Louis IX of France|Louis IX]] to [[Haakon IV of Norway|Haakon IV]]; he made himself so agreeable to the Norwegian sovereign that he was invited to superintend the reformation of the [[Order of Saint Benedict|Benedictine]] [[Nidarholm Abbey]] outside [[Trondheim]].[[File:Edward the Confessor Ee.3.59 fol.11v (part2).jpg|thumb|Coronation of [[Edith of Wessex|Queen Edith]], the wife of King [[Edward the Confessor]] ([[Cambridge University Library]], Ee.3.59, fo. 11v)]]

Apart from these missions, his known activities were devoted to the composition of history, a pursuit for which the monks of St Albans had long been famous. He inherited the mantle of [[Roger of Wendover]], at that time the abbey's foremost chronicler, after Wendover's death in 1236. Paris revised Wendover's work, a chronicle covering Creation to 1235 known as the ''[[Flores Historiarum]]'', and added new material of an annalistic nature from 1236 onwards which Paris sustained until his death in 1259. This work, known as the ''[[Chronica Majora]],'' was thus not only useful to readers of Paris's time, and has been used by modern historians as a source document for the period between 1235 and 1259. While this makes Paris's ''Chronica'' currently his most famous work, within the first few hundred years after Paris's death this was not the case. Paris scribed 2 major abridgements of his ''Chronica'': his ''Historia Anglorum'', and a work named like that of Wendover, the ''[[Flores Historiarum]]''. This manuscript, unlike his ''Chronica'', was copied multiple times and at multiple places and within 250 years of the writing of Paris's ''Flores'', over 20 copies were made. Paris also is known for his illustrations and cartographic ability, often found as marginalia however sometimes being given full pages.

The Dublin MS (see below) contains interesting notes, which shed light on Paris's involvement in other manuscripts, and on the way his own were used. They are in French and in his handwriting:
*"If you please you can keep this book till Easter"
*"G, please send to the Lady Countess of Arundel, Isabel, that she is to send you the book about [[Thomas Becket|St Thomas the Martyr]] and [[Edward the Confessor|St Edward]] which I copied [translated?] and illustrated, and which the [[Richard of Cornwall#Wives and progeny|Lady Countess of Cornwall]] may keep until [[Whitsun]]tide"
* "In the Countess of Winchester's book let there be a pair of images on each page thus": (verses follow describing thirteen saints)

It is presumed the last relates to Paris acting as commissioning agent and iconographical consultant for the Countess with another artist.

The lending of his manuscripts to aristocratic households, apparently for periods of weeks or months at a time, suggests why he made several different illustrated versions of his Chronicle.