Concerning Veritas as an Early Historiographic and Editorial Principle. The Reception of the Arthuriana of abbot Trithemius (d. 1516) in the Latin Glosses of Richard White of Basingstoke (d. 1611)

Abstract

In his multi-volume Historiarum Britanniae libri xi (1597–1607), the English Catholic scholar Richard White of Basingstoke promotes an anachronistic vision of the founding and history of Britain that challenges the analytical and source critical Anglicae historiae libri xxvi (1534ff.) of Polydore Vergil (1534ff.). White, seeking support for his historiographical enterprise, adopts two brief accounts of the life and achievements of King Arthur by the notorious abbot Trithemius (d. 1516), then makes editorial interventions, including repositioning and textual glosses. Veritas is White’s leading historiographical principle, as expressed, for example, when he claims to be able to distinguish between truth and the fabulous in these Arthurian texts by Trithemius. The difficulty—and the irony—are that White, as editor, imposes an unverifiable ethos of veracity upon Trithemius’ Arthuriana. White and Trithemius do concur, in general, on the historicity of King Arthur and the credibility of both the Historia regum Britanniae (circa 1136) of Geoffrey of Monmouth and the Trojan foundational myth promoted therein.