The 13th Century Life of St Alban is a history of the Christian martyr from the 3rd or 4th century. It is written in French verse and adapted from a Latin Life of St Alban by William of St Albans, c 1178. Matthew Paris (c. 1200 – 1259) was an English Benedictine monk, chronicler, artist in illuminated manuscripts and cartographer, based at St Albans Abbey in Hertfordshire. He wrote a number of works, mostly historical, which he scribed and illuminated himself, typically in drawings partly coloured with watercolour washes, sometimes called ‘tinted drawings’.