Marcus Bull and Damien Kempf, editors. Writing the Early Crusades: Text, Transmission and Memory.

Abstract

This collection of essays explores the narrative corpus of the First Crusade through the twelfth century, where “large gaps and areas of uncertainty” still exist (p. 2). Marcus Bull and Damien Kempf compare this event with the conquest of the New World as a stimulus for historical writing, but argue that the crusades are still marginalized because they are seen as “exotic and tangential” (p. 4) or because they did not result in a lasting historical tradition. The editors' aim is not just to bring sources to historical attention, but also to contribute to wider scholarship on the transmission and reception of texts as cultural artifacts during this important transitional period for the written word. Many of the essays encompass thematic approaches. Nicholas Paul emphasizes the importance of entering the gates of Jerusalem, both earthly and heavenly, in Western liturgy and legend. From a simple reference in the Gesta Francorum, he traces the development of the motif into the more complex exegetical readings presented by Robert the Monk, Albert of Aachen, and later writers. He emphasizes the cyclical nature of First Crusade narratives, and follows the image of the closed gates through the Old French Crusade Cycle as well as twelfth-century dynastic histories. Léan Ní Chléirigh examines the controversial theme of the First Crusade as pilgrimage, and rebuts recent suggestions that the terms peregrinus and peregrinatio might have been used in a non-specific fashion for any traveler or journey. Through a close reading of vocabulary, she argues that most authors recognized the First Crusade as a pilgrimage, if an atypical one, and saw its participants as pilgrims even though they carried arms. Steven Biddlecombe's article is based on his recent edition of the Historia Ierosolimitana and argues that the idea of familia Christi was central to Baldric of Bourgueil's explanation of the spiritual kinship between Western and Eastern Christians, underlining their obligations for mutual protection. Following a succinct appraisal of this theme in other First Crusade narratives, he highlights the unique aspects of Baldric's wholehearted acceptance of the Eastern Christians within his concept of a universal church. William Purkis considers the memory of the First Crusade as it developed throughout the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, exploring the notion of its innovation or “first-ness” (p. 143). The crusade influenced writing about the past not only after the event, but also before it occurred, through the retrospective creation of proto-crusade imagery in relation to King Arthur and Charlemagne. However, by the thirteenth century, Purkis argues that the Third Crusade, rather than the first, became the cultural reference point for some writers.