Recounting the history of the kings of England from the discovery of the island by Brutus to the reign of Edward III, the Anglo-Norman Prose Brut was one of the most popular texts of its time. Subsisting in fifty manuscripts, the Anglo-Norman Prose Brut has not been the subject of a published edition, despite being the source of the very popular English Prose Brut, one of the first texts to be published by Caxton. Very little of the text can be considered original material; most of the work is a translation of well known sources, such as Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia regum Britanniae, Wace's Roman de Brut, Gaimar's Estoire des Engleis and Langtoft's Chronicle.
While the work originally terminated in 1272 with the death of Henry III, it was the subject of two continuations in the decades that followed. The first continuation is believed to have added an account of the reign of Edward I, ending in 1307, though few manuscripts attest to the work ending at this point. Two separate continuations were added to the text during the reign of Edward III (1327-1377), updating the work to contemporary times. These two continuations are known for reason of their length as the short and long continuations.
Within the manuscripts of the short version of the Anglo-Norman Prose Brut is found a smaller family of manuscripts, those known as the Anglo-Norman Prose Brut to 1332 and the subject of this thesis. This text is found in three manuscripts: London, British Library, Harley 200, used as the base text, Oxford, Bodleian Library, Douce 128 (21702) and Cambridge, Trinity College, R.5.32 (723). These manuscripts were felt to be an interesting subject for an edition because of their unique manuscript context and their textual anomalies.
Along with the edited text are presented explanatory notes, a glossary of unusual terms and an index of proper names. The introduction to the text includes a discussion of the evolution of the work, its author and its literary significance. An evaluation of the language used in the text is also found in the introduction.