--The Ecclesiastical History of Ordericus is divided into
parts: the first portion contains an epitome of the sacred and profane
history of the world, beginning with the incarnation, and ending with
Pope Innocent IInd. The second, and more important division, contains
the history of Normandy, from the first invasion of the country, down
to the year 1141.--Though professedly an ecclesiastical historian, yet
Ordericus Vitalis is exceedingly copious in his details of secular
events; and it is from these that his chronicle derives its importance
and curiosity. It was first published by Duchesne, in his collection of
Norman historians, a work which is now of rare occurrence, and it has
never been reprinted.
Valuable materials for a new edition were, however, collected early in
the eighteenth century, by William Bessin, a monk of St. Ouen; and
these, before the revolution, were preserved in the library of that
abbey. Bessin had been assisted in the task by Francis Charles Dujardin,
prior of St. Evroul, who had collated the text, as published in the
collection of Norman historians, with the original manuscript in his own
monastery, to which latter Duchesne unfortunately had not access, but
had been obliged to content himself with a copy, now in the Royal
Library at Paris.
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