Robert Mannyng of Brunne, a Gilbertine Monk, provides a surprising amount of information about himself in his two known works, Handlyng Synne and a Chronicle. Mannyng himself tells of residencies at the Gilbertine houses of Sempringham, near Bourne, and Sixhills, and also at the Gilbertine priory at Cambridge, St. Edmund’s.
Handlyng Synne is a twelve thousand line devotional or penitential piece, written in Middle English rhymed couplets, deriving many of its exempla from the Anglo-NormanManuel des Peches. The Chronicle, supposedly completed in 1338, translates Wace's Roman de Brut for British history, before translating Piers Langtoft's Chronicle for English and Norman history.
From his own account he entered the house of the Gilbertine Canons at Sempringham in 1288 and at some period in his life he was with Robert Bruce at Cambridge.
Mannyng is much more of a story-teller than a poet, he interpolates tales of his own and illustrates those of his original from the English life of his day.
When Mannyng comes to the reign of Edward I he inserts a good deal of matter which has some independent historical value.
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