The Guildhall Library, Robert Bale and the writing of London history

Abstract

The careers of four of London's late medieval chroniclers – Robert Bale, Richard Arnold, Robert Fabyan and Edward Hall – show the entrée to City administration that facilitated the writing of the City's narrative. More importantly, points of connection among these writers suggest the borrowings, physical and intellectual, that the presence of London's administrative library at the Guildhall made possible. This article focuses in particular on Robert Bale (c.1410–73), correcting some errors in his biography, and on his personal compilation (now Trinity College Dublin, MS. 509), its movements and its possible influence on other London chronicles.