Gerald Barry, or Giraldns Cambrensis (Gerald of Wales), a British ecclesiastic and historian, horn about 1146, died about 1220. His father was a Norman baron, his mother a descendant of princes of South Wales, and his uncle, David Fitz-Gerald, was bishop of St. David's. He completed his education in the university of Paris, and returned to that city in 1176, after the king's rejection of his appointment as bis uncle's successor in the see of St. David's, He declined in 1179 a professorship of canon law in the university of Paris and went back to England, where for four years he was administrator of the see of St. David's during a vacancy of the bishopric, and afterward chaplain of the king, and secretary and privy councillor of Prince (afterward King) John during the latter's visit to Ireland. With Archbishop Baldwin he preached in 1188 in Wales in behalf of the crusaders. He was again elected to the see of St. David's in 1199, and according to some authorities finally obtained possession and resigned in 1203; but according to the commonly received account his nomination was not confirmed.

He spent the last years of his life in literary pursuits, and wrote To-pographia Hibernice, in three books; Expug-natio Ililxriiitr, an account of the Norman conquest of Ireland; Itinerarium Cambrice, or account of the itinerary of Archbishop Baldwin through Wales, an English translation of which has been published by Sir Richard Colt Hoare, with annotations and a life of Giraldus ("The Itinerary of Archbishop Baldwin through Wales," 2 vols. 4to, London, 1806);! De Principis Instructione; and many other works, of which the Speculum Ecclesiasticum and De Gestu Giraldi laboriosis are the most remarkable. Most of his works have been printed, either separately or in collections.