Hugh Candidus

Hugh Candidus (c. 1095 – c. 1160) was a monk of the Benedictine monastery at Peterborough, who wrote a Medieval Latin account of its history, from its foundation as Medeshamstede in the mid 7th century up to the mid 12th century.

Life Hugh Candidus was a monk of Peterborough Abbey from early boyhood. He was brought into the community by his elder brother, "Reinaldus Spiritus", or "Reginald Spirit", a sacrist there during Abbot Ernulf's tenure, 1107–1114. Hugh was a very sickly child, and, though he lived to a good age, he was never strong. He was called "Hugo Albus", meaning "Hugh White", from the paleness and beauty of his countenance; later writers called him "Hugo Candidus", "candidus" having a similar meaning to "albus". John Leland translated "Candidus" as if it were a surname, calling him "Hugh Whyte."

Hugh's chief teachers were Abbot Ernulf and his brother Reginald; he wrote of both in terms of warm affection later in his life.

It is sometimes thought that Hugh also wrote the concluding portions of the Peterborough Chronicle, a local version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which, like his history, comes abruptly to an end with Abbot William of Waterville's election. This has been rejected on the basis that, according to one writer, Hugh failed to understand the English of the Chronicle fully. An abridged translation of parts into Norman-French verse is printed in the same collection, as well as a continuation up to 1246, both from another manuscript dating from the 1250s, which is now kept in the Manuscript Room of Cambridge University Library, and is called the "Book of Robert of Swaffham." However, the earliest surviving version of Hugh's history is in a transcript made in the 17th century, from a manuscript which was lost when part of the Cotton library was destroyed by fire in 1731. The most recent edition of Hugh's history, in which the three Medieval Latin versions are edited together so as to indicate their internal differences, is that of W.T. Mellows, which was published in 1949. An English translation by C. and W.T. Mellows, edited by W. T. Mellows, was first published in 1941, but a third, revised edition was published in 1980.