Flavius Josephus, a Jewish priest of aristocratic descent and a Pharisee, was appointed military commander of Galilee during the revolt of Judaea (A.D. 66-70). The Jewish revolt was crushed by Vespasian, and Josephus - basically pro-Roman and without sympathy for extreme Jewish nationalism - settled in Rome where he became a Roman citizen and where he wrote the two works contained in the volume. Although his chronology is faulty and his facts somewhat exaggerated, he manages to unite in one person the tradition of Judaism and Hellenism, providing a connecting link between the secular world of Rome and the religious heritage of the Bible.

The works of Josephus were much appreciated by the Church Fathers and were well known in England during the Middle Ages. The scriptorium at which this manuscript was produced is not known, but M.R. James conjectured from a defaced ex libris that it had once been in the possession of Reading Abbey. Its large size suggests that it was possibly meant for reading aloud in a monastic refectory. Beautifully written in a stately display script, the manuscript also contains a number of magnificent Romanesque initials of twisting foliage and fantastic beasts. In the initial 'A' shown below (folio 136r), the shafts and cross pieces of the letter are made from the body and neck of a dragon combined with a section of a panel or column. These initials in tandem with the rubrication, paraph markers and marginal glosses would contribute to the layout of the manuscript and were incredibly important in helping readers navigate through a long text.
 

Henry states in the prologue that he was commanded to write his history of the English at the command of Bishop Alexander the Magnificent. He based his text upon Bede, but also drew upon a wide range of other sources such as the Anglo-Saxon chronicles, Geoffrey of Monmouth and Nennius. After 1127, however, his narrative is probably original, written contemporaneously with the events described. The first version of the work ends at 1129, but Henry continued to add to it at various times, resulting in a number of variant 'editions' or versions of the text. This fourteenth century copy describes events up to 1146 (version 4). Annotated throughout by fifteenth and sixteenth century readers, a note at the end remarks that the text is incomplete, lacking details of Henry II's reign. Later versions of the work take the narrative up to 1154, the year of Stephen's death. In this copy, spaces have been left for larger initials to be added to mark the beginning of sections but these have never been filled in (see folios 1r and 1v for examples).

While the history was written both to inform and reform its readers, Henry also sought to entertain and move his audience. The description of Cnut attempting to rule the waves (vi, 17) - shown here on folio 71v - is one instance of a story so capturing the imagination of succeeding generations that it passed into the mythology of English history.

This copy belonged to William Cecil, Lord Burghley (1520-1598).
 

The prose Brut chronicle is a comprehensive history of England from its first discovery and settlement to what were, for its original readers, modern times. In both the Middle Ages and the early Renaissance it served as the standard account of English history, and it is often cited as being the most popular secular work of the fifteenth century. Much of its appeal has been attributed to its dramatic style; chivalric in tone, there are many descriptions of vivid battle scenes and elaborations on the mythical elements of history. Over 240 manuscript copies of the work are still extant and versions exist in Latin, Anglo-Norman French and English. In its original form, the chronicle ended with the death of Henry III in 1272, but the work was constantly rewritten and updated: the final 'continuation' (printed by William Caxton in 1480 as the Chronicles of England) ends with the death of Henry VI in 1461. Rather than working as a factual account of English history, these later versions are imbued with the political and social characteristics of the fifteenth century: key facts are often omitted or facts distorted to present a view of events in line with the writer's beliefs.