The main subject of the article is the emergence of some new trends in European historical writing of the High Middle Ages. A dramatic expansion of the auditory of historical texts as well as a great social diversification of their authors led to some crucial changes in their style and language. Those new vernacular historical works (the most precocious ones – in Anglo-Norman dialect of Old French) were usually presented as translations, even though many of them were rather free adaptations of Latin originals. At the same time there emerged frequent references to vernacular sources (sometimes obviously fictitious) in Latin texts. Another way to deal with continuously growing body of available historical evidences became compilation of various sources. A powerful tool in that process were some rhetorical techniques, most importantly – a practice of compiling short prefaces to some authoritative texts, so called accessus ad auctores. Those techniques made the process of compilation more manifest and in some cases encouraged comparing and criticism of historical texts. A good example of the latter are conflicting attitudes of some twelfth-century English authors towards Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia regum Britanniae.