Gerald of Wales's Topographia Hibernica: Dates, Versions, Readers

This article provides dates for the Topographia Hibernica's five versions based on manuscript information and internal textual analysis. The results correct the assumption that Gerald of Wales revised the Topographia intermittently until the end of his life. Instead, the versions are placed within concrete contexts as both reactive to specific events and received by specific audiences: Version I (and to an extent II) can be located in the Angevin court prior to Henry II's death, while Versions II, III, and IV are directed at a clerical audience. A letter accompanying many Version III texts directs it to William de Vere, bishop of Hereford, while a new discovery of extracts from the Topographia in William de Montibus's Similitudinarium links Version IV with the pastoral care movement at Lincoln during Gerald's first “retirement” there. Version V was again directed at the Angevin court, to King John around 1209, urging renewed action in Ireland.