The first translation of Baldric's
Historia Ierosolimitana
, a spirited account of the First Crusade, into modern English.
The
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 Francorum
for 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 worthy account of the miraculous events it describes.
This volume provides the first modern-language translation of the
, 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.