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A page from a 13th-century chronicle by Matthew Paris in England shows Noah’s ark resting on a stumpy mountain, visual evidence of one of Armenia’s most striking claims to Judeo-Christian centrality, as the final resting spot of the floating menagerie atop Mount Ararat.

Chronicler Matthew Paris's epitaph reflects the contempt with which John was widely held - but could also be a nod to his unpleasant demise.

The latest addition was a full-sized elephant presented by the King of France, and specially drawn for the record by the indefatigable news-hawk, Matthew Paris.

The standard of the chronicles rapidly declined and the best chronicler of the fourteenth century was not a monk like Matthew Paris, but a secular, a wanderer, a hanger-on of princes, Froissart.

If Matthew Paris’ account of his procedure be true it would seem almost to rival the behaviour of Layton and Legh, however different the character and motive which inspired it.