ABSTRACT
St Edmund's abbey is less known as a centre of historiography than St Albans. And yet historical writing started sooner at Bury (in the late eleventh century) and lasted longer (until the late fifteenth century). It produced one masterpiece, Cronica Jocelini de Brakelonda (Chronicle ofjocelin of Brakelond), besides numerous tracts on the abbey's history, and two world chronicles, one of which was widely used in other East Anglian monasteries. The comparatively great number of historical works surviving from Bury makes it possible to determine the motives for historical writing there.
