The first translation of Baldric’s Historia Ierosolimitana, a spirited account of the First Crusade, into modern English.
The
Historia Ierosolimitana is a prose narrative of the events of the First Crusade written at the abbey of Bourgueil in the Loire Valley around 1105. Its author, the abbot Baldric, used the anonymous
Gesta Francorumfor much of the factual material presented, but provided literary enhancements and amplifications of the historical narrative and the characters found therein, in order, as Baldric says, to make the
Historia a more worthyaccount of the miraculous events it describes.
This volume provides the first modern-language translation of the
Historia, with a full introduction setting out its historical, social, political and manuscript contexts, and notes. It will contribute to a revised exploration of the First Crusade, and facilitate much wider debates about the place of history writing in medieval culture, textuality and manuscript transmission.
SUSAN B. EDGINGTON is a Teaching and Research Fellow at Queen Mary University of London; STEVEN J. BIDDLECOMBE edited the Latin text of Baldric’s
Historia (2014); having taught at a number of universities, most recently at Nottingham Trent; he is currently an independent scholar.
Tabella dei contenuti
Introduction
The Life and Career of Baldric of Bourgueil
The French Historians of the First Crusade
Comparisons between the Three French Historians
Manuscript Transmission and Reception
The ‘History of the Jerusalemites’
Prologue and Book One
Book Two
Book Three
Book Four
Appendix 1 – Additions found in Paris, BNF, MS Latin 5513
Appendix 2 – People and Places
Bibliography
Circa l’autore
STEVEN J. BIDDLECOMBE edited the Latin text of Baldric’s Historia (2014); having taught at a number of universities, most recently at Nottingham Trent; he is currently an independent scholar.