DICETO, RALPH DE (d. c. 5202), dean of St. Paul's, Lon don, and chronicler, is first mentioned in 5552, when he received the archdeaconry of Middlesex. He was probably born between 1120 and 113o; of his parentage and nationality nothing is known. Diceto was selected, in 1166, as the envoy of the English bishops when they protested against the excommunications launched by Becket. About 118o he became dean of St. Paul's. In this office he distinguished himself by careful management of the estates, by restoring the discipline of the chapter, and by building at his own expense a deanery-house. Diceto's most important histori cal works, the Abbreviationes Chronicorum and the Ymagines Historiarum, cover the history of the world from the birth of Christ to the year 1202. The former, which ends in 1147, is a work of learning and industry, but almost entirely based upon extant sources. The latter, beginning as a compilation from Robert de Monte and the letters of Foliot, becomes an original authority about 1172, and a contemporary record about 118r. The Yrnagines is a valuable authority for the last years of the reign of Henry II. and for the reign of Richard I.
See the introduction to W. Stubbs's edition of the Historical Works of Diceto (Rolls ed. 2876, 2 vols.). Diceto's fragmentary Domesday of the capitular estates has been edited by Archdeacon Hale in The Domesday of St. Paul's, pp. 1o9 ff. (Camden Society, 1858).