Ian Stone

The aim of my doctoral thesis is to produce a critical edition of the Liber de Antiquis Legibus, a thirteenth-century manuscript composed and compiled by the London alderman Arnold fitz Thedmar. My edition will contain a complete transcription of the text; a commentary to the text; a detailed introduction to the work and to the man who produced it; and a study of urban chronicle writing in London, Cologne and Genoa.

Four centuries before Samuel Pepys picked up his pen, another Londoner wrote an extraordinary account of a tumultuous period. Arnold fitz Thedmar lived from 1201-1274, and, like Pepys, held political office and was a participant in the events of which he wrote so much. He was a second generation German immigrant, who rose to the position of alderman and became the spokesman of the German merchants in London

In a great age of monastic writing, his chronicle, The Mayors and Sheriffs of London is a unique lay source; Arnold was the first civic, secular chronicle writer in the British Isles, and one of the first in Europe.  This chronicle, inserted into the Liber, tells in compelling detail the story of the period between Magna Carta and the parliamentary state, when the country was torn apart by civil war, and when London was similarly divided by internal strife and communal revolution. Like Pepys, his work gives us an insight into both the political history of the time, and the social history of London. He was the first person to write such a detailed account of London’s history. His narrative is all the more enthralling as it provides the historian with an almost day-by-day account of the period of Baronial Reform and Rebellion, and evidences not just the importance of London’s role in the tumults of that time, but also the social upheaval then extant in the city, as men from the lower levels of society sought recognition and power.

Medieval history

London

Arnold fitz Thedmar

Manuscript studies

The Middle Ages

Palaeography

Urban history

Latin

I am a Junior Research Fellow at the Institute of Historical Research.

As well as undertaking my own research, I very much enjoy the teaching work that I do.  At King's College London I have worked as a GTA helping to deliver the Medieval Britain course to undergraduates.  At Morley College London I teach courses in Medieval Britain and Europe, as well as in Latin and a history of the Roman Empire.

https://kcl.academia.edu/IanStone