Some reflections on the historical value of the so-called Acta Lanfranci

Abstract

Abstract This article offers the first extended discussion of the Acta Lanfranci, a Latin continuation of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle that is readily and often taken as a reliable narrative because of its close proximity to the events it describes and its transmission within the Parker Manuscript (Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS. 173). By drawing attention, however, to inconsistencies between the Acta's narrative and that required by other evidence, to the selective nature of its reportage and to the palaeographical and internal data that require a somewhat later dating than is usually assumed, this article identifies problems with this position. It argues that the Acta Lanfranci is best understood as propaganda produced in defence of Canterbury's patriarchate, and suggests revisions to the established narrative of the exemption dispute between the archbishopric and St. Augustine's abbey that would permit some of the problems created by the Acta to be resolved.

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