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I'm trying to remember the author of a quotation, where the author addresses the reader in the far future. It's says something like "if you are reading this in 100 or perhaps 1000 years I hope the reader forgives me my foibles". I think it's in the epilogue of the book.

I thought it was Henry of Huntingdon or Gerald of Wales but cannot find anything like that. Probably a British medieval author, but I'm starting to wonder if I've totally misremembered.

Anyone have any idea? Thanks!

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    Are you absolutely sure it's a medieval book author and not, say, an Edwardian poet?
    – shoover
    Commented Dec 21, 2019 at 20:24
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    Are you sure it isn't Nostradamus, who lived during the Renaissance?
    – Denis de Bernardy
    Commented Dec 21, 2019 at 22:57
  • There's also the fictionalized Claudius who opens Robert Graves' I, Claudius that way.
    – Luke Sawczak
    Commented Dec 22, 2019 at 12:53

1 Answer 1

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You're thinking of Henry of Huntingdon, a 12th century historian. The quote begins, "Now I speak to you who will be living in the third millennium..."

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    A source (namely Historia Anglorum) would improve this answer.
    – Denis de Bernardy
    Commented Dec 22, 2019 at 8:34
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    The quote in question was initially part of an Epilogue to his Seventh Book of History, which was then followed by an Eighth Book, containing three of his Letters; then by a Ninth Book of Miracles, taken from Bede; and by a Tenth Book, ending in a line introducing an Eleventh Book, itself followed by what appears to be just that. Modern scholarship, however, seems to have discarded the portions between the Seventh and Tenth Books as insertions, renumbering the latter as the Eighth, and regarding the Eleventh Book as the work of a later author.
    – Lucian
    Commented Dec 29, 2019 at 9:53
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    Four relevant links supporting my previous comment.
    – Lucian
    Commented Dec 29, 2019 at 10:18
  • It was Henry of Huntingdon! Fantastic stuff, thank you!
    – Jetpac
    Commented Dec 29, 2019 at 13:52

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