GESTA ROMANORUM, a Latin collection of anecdotes and tales, probably compiled about the end of the 13th century or the beginning of the 14th; one of the most popular books of the time, and the source, directly or indirectly, of later literature, in Chaucer, Gower, Shakespeare and others. Of its authorship nothing certain is known ; but it was evidently intended as a man ual for preachers. The name, Deeds of the Romans, is only par tially appropriate to the collection, since it comprises fragments of very various origin, oriental and European. The style is bar barous, and the narrative ability of the compiler seems to vary with his source; but he has managed to bring together a consider able variety of excellent material. He gives us, for example, the germ of the romance of "Guy of Warwick"; the story of "Darius and His Three Sons," versified by Occleve; part of Chaucer's "Man of Lawe's Tale"; and a tale of the emperor Theodosius, the same in its main features as that of Shakespeare's Lear. Owing to the loose structure of the book, it was easy for a transcriber to insert any additional story into his own copy, and consequently the mss. of the Gesta Romanorurn exhibit considerable variety. The earliest editions are supposed to be those of Ketelaer and de Lecompt at Utrecht, of Arnold Ter Hoenen at Cologne, and of Ulrich Zell at Cologne—all of uncertain date.
An English translation, probably based directly on the ms. Harl. 5,369, was published by Wynkyn de Worde about 1510-15, the only copy of which now known is preserved in the library of St. John's college, Cambridge. In 1577 Richard Robinson published a revised edition of Wynkyn de Worde, and the book proved highly popular. Between 1648 and 1703 at least eight impressions were issued. In 1703 appeared the first volume of a translation by B. P., probably Bartholomew Pratt, "from the Latin edition of 1514." A translation by the Rev. C. Swan forms part of Bohn's antiquarian library and was re-edited by Wynnard Hooper in 1877. Critical editions of the Latin text have been produced by A. Keller (Stuttgart, 1842) and Oesterley (Berlin, 1872). See also Wanton, "On the Gesta Romanorum," dissertation iii., prefixed to the His tory of English Poetry; Douce, Illustrations of Shakespeare, vol. ii. ; F. Madden, Introduction to the Roxburghe Club edition of The Old English Versions of the Gesta Romanorurn (1838) ; Gesta Romanorum, trans. by C. Swan (1924) ; Tales of the Monks from the Gesta Romanorum, ed. M. Komroff (1928).