3. Prologue to the Chronica Majora “ The lives and customs of good men from the past are revived here for subsequent imitation; the examples of evil men are not described to be emulated but to be shunned. Moreover, past prodigies and portents, whether they be famine, death, or other scourges of divine punishment, are given as signals to the faithful insofar as their memory is committed in writing so that, if ever similar events occur again, sinners who have incurred God’s wrath may repent and appease him.” –Roger Wendover, trans. Suzanne Lewis
17. “ A magnificent historian and chronicler…an artist unequalled in the Latin world”, “his excellence in . . . painting is clear enough” – Thomas Walsingham, St. Alban’s chronicler (Lewis 15; Vaughan 209) “… not a highly original or forward-looking artist” (Lewis 16) Matthew Paris – which was he? “ When, at the end of his life . . . Matthew found it impossible to continue writing, he handed over his pen to his assistant, whose hand . . . took over the decorative and minor pictorial work . . . clearly what happened was that Matthew called in a helper who . . . executed as best he could the pictorial work” (Vaughan, 215-6)
19. Itineraries and Maps – Mappa Mundi Folio vii V “ . . . Matthew’s scheme appears to have been at least partly dictated by the format of the page, so that the northern and western coasts of Europe are absolutely straight, without attempting to represent the true coastline” (Lewis 372)
