Nicholas Trivet was an English Dominican friar
best known as a chronicler, though his story of
Constance became the source of CHAUCER’s MAN
OF LAW’S TALE, and his commentary on BOETHIUS’s
CONSOLATION OF PHILOSOPHY was one of the texts
Chaucer used in making his own translation of
Boethius, known as the Boece.
Trivet was the son of a judge named Thomas
Trivet, who lived either in Norfolk or Somerset.
Nicholas became a Dominican in London, and
studied at Oxford and later in Paris, and it may
have been there where he became interested in
chronicles, both in English and French. He wrote
commentaries on a number of classical texts, including
one on Boethius and significant commentaries
on Seneca and on St. AUGUSTINE’s CITY OF
GOD. He also composed theological tracts on the
Bible and the Mass, and commentaries on other
medieval theologians.His scholarly reputation enabled
him to secure a position teaching at Oxford,
while his competence and theological wisdom
helped him become prior of his Dominican order
in London.
But Trivet’s reputation rests chiefly on his
three chronicles: the Historia ab orbe Condita ad
Christi Nativitatum (History from the creation
of the world to the birth of Christ) (1327–28), a
worldwide encyclopedic chronicle (a precursor of
HIGDEN’s POLYCHRONICON) based largely on Vincent
of Beauvais; the Annals of Six Kings of England
(ca. 1320), for which he was best known
and which covers the period 1135–1307—from
Stephen through Edward I, the latter of whose
reign is a particularly important part of Trivet’s
book; and the Anglo-Norman Chronicle (ca.
1320), a history from the creation of the world to
1285. The latter survives in some eight manuscripts,
and contains the story of the saintly Constance,
whose constant faith in the face of
persistent adversity made hers an inviting story to
retell in verse for both John GOWER, who includes
it in his CONFESSIO AMANTIS, and Chaucer, whose
Man of Law’s Tale is certainly the best-known version,
though his ultimate source for the story was
Trivet’s chronicle.
Bibliography
Block, Edward A. “Originality, Controlling Purpose,
and Craftsmanship in Chaucer’s Man of Law’s
Tale,” PMLA 68 (1953): 572–616.
Paull,Michael R.“The Influence of the Saint’s Legend
Genre in the Man of Law’s Tale,” Chaucer Review
5 (1971):179–194.