The following translation is founded on the Latin text printed by Henry Thomas Riley under the title Gesta abbatum monaster sancti Albani and published in the Rolls Series between 1867 and 1869. Riley drew his text from the two manuscripts then known to scholars, compiled respectively by Matthew Paris in the mid-thirteenth century (now BL, MS Cotton Nero D I, fos. 25v–26v, 30r–69r [N]), and Thomas Walsingham at the end of the fourteenth century (now BL, MS Cotton Claudius E IV, fos. 97v–321r [C]). For the first section of the narrative, down to the end of the account of Abbot John de Hertford, Riley used N as his base text; for the remainder he used C as his base. For the narrative down to Abbot John de Hertford, Riley collated his text with the text printed by William Wats in 1639 (Vitae duorum Offarum sive Offanorum Merciorum regum coenob sancti Albani fundatorum et viginti trium abbatum sancti Albani una cum libro additamentorum per Matthaeum Parisiensem (London, 1639), pp. 35–145), which incorporated alternative readings Wats had drawn from a manuscript in the possession of Sir Henry Spelman [S]. A precis close in date to N is found in BL, MS Cotton Julius D VII, fos. 115v–121v [J]. A copy of the narrative down to the end of the account of Abbot John de Maryns, which dates from the first half of the fourteenth century, first brought to focused attention by Richard Vaughan in the course of his studies of Matthew Paris’ writings, carries a further alternative version of the text (now BL, MS Add. 62777, fos. 91r–152r [A]).

This translation records the alternative readings of each version: N, C, S and A. It also presents additional passages added to the account of John de Maryns in a copy apparently made at the dependent priory of Wymondham, Norfolk (Oxford, Magdalen College, MS Lat. 53, pp. 1–5); reference is also made to a brief digest of the Deeds down to the abbacy of John de Hertford preserved in a mid-thirteenth-century manuscript (now BL, MS Cotton Vitellius A XX, fo. 74ra–b [V]). A translation of this digest is printed in a full as an appendix to the main text.