Geoffrey included the PM in his next work, the De gestis Britonum(“On the Deeds of the Britons”, hereafter abbreviated DGB). He had finishedthis work by January 1139 at the latest, when Henry of Huntingdon reports hisastonishment at finding a copy at the abbey of Le Bec.3 The count of survivingmedieval manuscripts of the DGB is now 225, making Geoffrey one of the mostwidely-read secular authors from medieval Britain.4

Until recently, Geoffrey’s history was called the Historia regum Britanniae(“The History of the Kings of Britain”), but Michael D. Reeve’s textual studyhas confirmed that the title used in the earliest manuscripts, and by Geoffreyhimself, was the De gestis Britonum.5 After much debate among contributors,this volume begins the lugubrious process of using the original title in place ofthe received one.