ABSTRACT
Robert Mannyng is the author of two extant works, his better-known penitential handbook Handlyng Synne, which he translated from the Anglo-Norman Manuel des Pechiez, and largely ignored Chronicle which he says he made 'not for þe lerid bot for þe lewid', those who could understand neither Latin nor French nor over-elaborate English composition. The Chronicle is a close translation from earlier French sources: its first half is heavily dependent on Wace's Brut, and its second half based on Peter of Langtoft's Chronicle. The first half therefore deals with the history of Britain until death of Cadwallader in 689, and the second with what Mannyng punningly called 'English geste', deeds later English history. He mentions also spending some time in Sixhills priory, seventeen miles to north-west of Lincoln, where he worked on his Chronicle, completing it on Friday, 25 May 1338. The Chronicle exists in whole or in part in five extant MSS, the earliest of which is Lambeth Palace 131.
