this episode, which he
characteristically omits to record, he remained in the background. The
natural impartiality of his intellect was accentuated by a certain
timidity, which is apparent in his writings no less than in his life.
About 1180 he became dean of St Paul's. In this office he distinguished
himself by careful management of the estates, by restoring the
discipline of the chapter, and by building at his own expense a
deanery-house. A scholar and a man of considerable erudition, he showed
a strong preference for historical studies; and about the time when he
was preferred to the deanery he began to collect materials for the
history of his own times. His friendships with Richard Fitz Nigel, who
succeeded Foliot in the see of London, with William Longchamp, the
chancellor of Richard I., and with Walter of Coutances, the archbishop
of Rouen, gave him excellent opportunities of collecting information.
His two chief works, the _Abbreviationes Chronicorum_ and the _Ymagines
Historiarum_, cover the history of the world from the birth of Christ to
the year 1202. The former, which ends in 1147, is a work of learning and
industry, but almost entirely based upon extant sources. The latter,
beginning as a compilation from Robert de Monte and the letters of
Foliot, becomes an original authority about 1172, and a contemporary
record about 1181. In precision and fulness of detail the _Ymagines_ are
inferior to the chronicles of the so-called Benedict and of Hoveden.
Though an annalist, Diceto is careless in his chronology; and the
documents which he incorporates, while often important, are selected on
no principle. He has little sense of style; but displays considerable
insight when he ventures to discuss a political situation. For this
reason, and on account of the details with which they supplement the
more important chronicles of the period, the _Ymagines_ are a valuable
though a secondary source.

See W. Stubbs' edition of the _Historical Works_ of Diceto (Rolls ed.
1876, 2 vols.), and especially the introduction. The second volume
contains minor works which are the barest compendia of facts taken
from well-known sources. Diceto's fragmentary Domesday of the
capitular estates has been edited by Archdeacon Hale in _The Domesday
of St Paul's_, pp. 109 ff. (Camden Society, 1858).

DICEY, EDWARD (1832- ), English writer, son of T. E. Dicey of Claybrook
Hall, Leicestershire, was born in 1832. Educated at Tri