A monk of Christ Church, Canterbury, and the closest companion of St Anselm, Eadmer (c.1060–c.1126) witnessed the archbishop's disputes with William II and Henry I and accompanied him twice into exile. This edition of Anselm's biography, which Eadmer began to write during those years of exile, was published by the Rolls Series in 1884. With English side-notes to the main Latin text, it includes the Historia novorum, remarkable for its use of direct speech in relating the life of Anselm and his controversial relations with the monarchy. The Vita is a record of his private conversations, to which Eadmer attached a series of posthumous miracles. Eadmer was ordered to destroy the manuscripts by Anselm around 1100, but fortunately he retained his notes. The work is the best contemporary life of the saint, but also offers a history of Canterbury and a zealous defence of Anglo-Saxon tradition.
