Florence of Worcester

Florence of Worcester (d. 1118), English chronicler, was a monk of Worcester, England, who died, as we learn from his continuator, on July 7 1118.

Beyond this fact nothing is known of his life. He compiled a chronicle called Chronicon ect chronicis which begins with the creation and ends in 1117. The basis of his work was a chronicle compiled by Marianus Scotus, an Irish recluse, who lived first at Fulda, afterwards at Mainz. Marianus, who began his work after 1069, carried it up to 1082. Florence supplements Marianus from a lost version of the English Chronicle, and from Asser. He is always worth comparing with the extant English Chronicles; and from 1106 he is an independent annalist, dry but accurate.

Either Florence or a later editor of his work made considerable borrowings from the first four books of Eadmer's Historia novorum. Florence's work is continued, up to 1141, by a certain John of Worcester[?], who wrote about 1150. John is valuable for the latter years of Henry I and the early years of Stephen. He is friendly to Stephen, but not an indiscriminate partisan.

This entry was originally from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.