GIRALDUS CAMBRENSIS (GERALD DE BARRI) (c. 1146-1220), mediaeval historian, was born at Manorbier Castle, Pembrokeshire, the son of William de Barri. He studied at Paris until 1172 when he was appointed to collect tithe in Wales. In 1175 he became archdeacon of Brecon, and on the death of his uncle in the following year, an attempt was made to elect him bishop of St. David's, but Henry II. was unwilling to see anyone with powerful native connections a bishop in Wales. After three more years of study at Paris, Giraldus in 118o was made com missary to the bishop of St. David's, and in 1184 one of the king's chaplains. While accompanying Prince John to Ireland he wrote his interesting Topographia Hibernica, and his Expurgatio Hibernica, a strongly prejudiced history of the conquest. In 1188 he went with the primate, Baldwin, to Wales to preach the third crusade, and while there acquired material for his famous Itinerariunn Cambrense. He then set out for the Holy Land, but in 1189 was sent back to Wales by the king to keep order. Having successively refused the sees of Bangor and Llandaff, he retired to Lincoln from 1192-98 and wrote his Gemma ecclesiastica and Vita S. Remigii. In 1198 he was elected bishop of St. David's, but Archbishop Hubert's objection necessitated three visits to Rome and a violent indication of the independence of St. David's from Canterbury. In the end, the pope ordered a new election, the prior of Llanthony being elected in 1202. Giraldus spent the rest of his life in retirement, and produced the Descriptio Carnbriae, De rebus a se gestis, his autobiography, De Instructione principis, and the Vita.Galfridi Archie piscopi Eborecensis.
Giraldus was an excellent Latinist, well versed in the social and intellectual life of his day. His eloquence, his humour and naive vanity, his keen, though impressionistic, observation of cus toms, traditions, scenery, etc., and his friendships with his great contemporaries, such as Innocent III., Richard Coeur-de-Lion, King John, Stephen Langton, St. Hugh of Lincoln and Grosse teste, all contribute to making him one of the most vivid and enterprising of writers. As historical material, however, his works must be estimated both in the light of his violent party spirit and of his intense patriotism.
His writings were edited by J. S. Brewer, J. F. Dimock and G. F. Warner in the Rolls series (1861-91) 8 vols. with valuable introduc tions. The De Invectionibus has recently been edited by W. S. Davies in I' Cymmrodor, vol. xxx. (1920) . The Topographia, the Expugnatio, the Itinerarium and the Descriptio were translated in Bohn's Library series (1863) and the last two again in Everyman's Library (1908) with a good introduction by W. Llewelyn Williams.