HIGDON or HIGDEN, RANULF (c. 1363), Eng lish chronicler, was a Benedictine monk of the monastery of St. Werburg in Chester, in which he lived, it is said, for 64 years, and died "in a good old age," probably in 1363. Higdon was the author of the Polychronicon, a summary of general history popu lar in the 15th century. More than a hundred mss. of it exist. Higdon's part of the work is said to go no farther than 1326 or 1327 at latest, after which time it was carried on by two continu ators to the end. Three early translations of the Polychronicon exist. The first was made by John of Trevisa, chaplain to Lord Berkeley, in 1387, and was printed by Caxton in 1482 ; the second by an anonymous writer, was written between 1432 and 145o; the third, based on Trevisa's version, with the addition of an eighth book, was prepared by Caxton.
The Polychronicon, with the continuations and the English versions, was edited for the Rolls Series (No. 41) by Churchill Babington (vols. i. and ii.) and Joseph Rawson Lumby (1865-86).