record, Devizes' account is now being read as an elegant satire and a challenge of contemporary Christian myths against the Jewish community and its mores; particularly those of ritualistic murders of Christian boys by the Jews of Winchester. It is however by no means a defence of the Jewish community. Others have seen the author as intensely conservative, steeped in the prejudices of his order, and can be seen as being hostile to the Jews and to the chancellor, William Longchamp. Devizes writes in a vivid and epigrammatic style; his Latin shows the effect of the 12th-century Renaissance in its polish and in its reminiscences of classical poets. He describes King John as a raging madman who "emitted foam from his mouth". The editions of the Chronicon de rebus gestis Ricardi Primi are: by R. Howlett in Chronicles of the Reigns of Stephen, Henry II and Richard I, vol. iii. (Rolls Series, 1886); the Annales de Wintonia in HR Luard's Annales Monastici, vol. ii. (Rolls Series, London, 1864–69); by John T. Appleby in The chronicle of Richard of Devizes of the time of King Richard the First (Thomas Nelson & Sons Ltd, 1963). Notes References External links "Chronicle of the deeds of Richard I" translated by John Allen Giles. English chroniclers English Christian monks 12th-century English historians People from Devizes Year of death unknown Year of birth unknown 12th-century Latin writers