Gerald of Wales writes Topographia Hibernica

1185

Traveling with Prince John's expedition to Ireland, the half-Welsh, half-Norman chronicler Gerald of Wales gathered material for a four-part Latin description of Ireland. The resulting book is vivid, snobbish, credulous, and invaluable as a medieval outsider's view of the Irish world. Gerald described the landscape, wildlife, and customs of Ireland with a mixture of genuine curiosity and colonial condescension that makes his work both fascinating and infuriating to modern readers.