A Latin prose chronicle composed around 1146, commissioned by King Baldwin III of Jerusalem. Its anonymous author, who wrote in Outremer, used the account of the First Crusade (1096-1099) given by Robert of Rheims, then drew on Fulcher of Chartres for the early history of the kingdom of Jerusalem up to 1123.
The work opens with a verse prologue describing all the rulers of Jerusalem up to Baldwin III. The narrative commences just prior to the Council of Clermont (chapters 1-3), traces the course of the First Crusade (chapters 4-60), and briefly covers events in Outremer up to the capture of Baldwin II by the Turks in 1123 (chapters 61-80). The author relies heavily on his sources, repeating them almost verbatim, but instead of embellishing, omits all rhetorical flourishes. The prologue reveals the author’s attitudes: he greatly admired the prowess of Godfrey of Bouillon and Baldwin I, but had little to say about their successors.
-Deborah Gerish
Bibliography
Fulcher of Chartres, Historia Hierosolymitana, ed. Heinrich Hagenmeyer (Heidelberg: C. Winter, 1913).
Gerish, Deborah. “Shaping the Crown of Gold: Constructions of Royal Identity in the First Kingdom of Jerusalem” (Ph. D. diss., University of California, Santa Barbara, 1999).
“Historia Nicaena vel Antiochena,” in Recueil des Historiens des Croisades. Historiens Occidentaux, 5 vols. (Paris: Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, 1844-1895), 5: 136-185.
World History
