Gesta Francorum
It narrates the events of the First Crusade from the inception in November 1095 to the Battle of Ascalon in August 1099. The name of the author is unknown, but he was a member of the crusading party, either Norman or Italian, recruited by Bohemund of Taranto in 1096 from the duchy of Apulia. His narrative of the trip to Jerusalem, initially under the leadership of Bohemond and then Raymond of Toulouse, was composed and written during the journey. He had the help of a scribe who made occasional edits of his own, and thus the chronicle provides invaluable viewpoints of a knight who was not a high level leader or cleric.
The most important historical contribution is the day to day events of the journey: tactical operations, provisionings, changing moods of the crusaders, the anti-Greek prejudice, progress of each day.
Literary speaking, the anonymous author was to his contemporaries a "rustic". Guibert of Nogent wrote his Dei gesta per Francos (1108) based on it, saying the original "frequently left the reader stunned with its insipid vacuity"". Robert the Monk of Rheims was later commissioned to re-write the entire work for literary and historical improvements while Baudri of Dol also later re-wrote a version of "this rustic little work". However the original has persisted and today it remains one of the most valuable contemporary sources of the First Crusade.
References
- Louis Brhier (ed. and trans.), Gesta Francorum et aliorum Hierosolimitanorum, 1964. Translation.
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