Despite a frustrated ecclesiastical career - his ongoing failure to secure the See of St David's embittered him - Giraldus Cambrensis (Gerald of Wales Gerald de Barry c. 1146â1220/3) composed many remarkable literary works initially while employed as a royal clerk for Henry II and subsequently in semi-retirement in Lincoln. Eight volumes of his works were compiled as part of the Rolls Series of British medieval material. Volume 1 edited by historian J. S. Brewer (1809â79) and published in 1861 with an introduction in English to the Latin texts consists of Giraldus' polemical-apologetic account of his life and the St David's case and a collection of his letters poems and prefaces. Giraldus is noted for his vigorous Latin and anecdotal style and this volume gives a vivid portrait of medieval Britain and the power struggles of the Angevin court while illuminating nineteenth-century interest in the period. Language: English