Rewriting the First Crusade - (Crusading in Context) by Thomas W Smith (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

An exploration of the letters from the First Crusade, yielding evidence for a number of reinterpretations of the movement.

The letters stemming from the First Crusade are premier sources for understanding the launch, campaign, and aftermath of the expedition. Between 1095 and 1100, epistles sustained social relationships across the Mediterranean and within Europe, as a mixture of historical writing, literary invention, news, and theological interpretation. They served ecclesiastical administration, projected authority, and formed focal points for spiritual commemoration and para-liturgical campaigns.

This volume, grounded on extensive research into the original manuscripts, and presenting numerous new manuscript witnesses, argues that some of the letters are post hoc "inventions", composed by generations of scribe-readers who visited crusading sites from the twelfth century on, adding new layers of meaning in the form of interpolations and post-scripts. Drawing upon this new understanding, and blurring the distinction of epistolary "reality", it rewrites central aspects of the history of the First Crusade, considering the documents in a new way: as markers of enthusiasm and support for the crusade movement among monastic clergy, who copied and consumed them as a form of scribal crusading. Whether authentic letters or literary "confections", they functioned as communal sites for the celebration, commemoration and memorialisation of the expedition.

Review Quotes

Smith makes an important contribution to our understanding of the manuscript milieu that conveyed these narratives, and to the process of reassessing how historians should be reading and teaching them now.-- "American Historical Review"

This industrious monograph, drawing from an impressive array of historiography, and combining historical studies with philology and the fields of medieval manuscript culture and diplomatics, is a most welcome contribution to the field, and is accessible for students and specialists alike."-- "The Journal of Religious History, Literature and Culture"

Smith convincingly demonstrates how to approach the letters not only as a source of factual information, but as a source revealing the interaction of medieval epistolary culture with the First Crusade and the Crusader movement in general.

Smith přesvědčivě demonstroval, jak k dopisům přistupovat nejen jako ke zdroji faktických informací, ale jako k prameni odhalujícímu interakci středověké epistolární kultury s první křízovou výpravou a křizáckým hnutím obecně.-- "ČESKÝ ČASOPIS HISTORICKÝ"

Das vorliegende Buch ist ein hervorragender Beweis dafür, wie unverzichtbar die Historischen Grundwissenschaften, besonders Paläographie und Diplomatik, für die Geschichtswissenschaft sind. ...Das Buch sei daher nicht nur Mediävisten, sondern auch Literaturwissenschaftlern zur Lektüre empfohlen, da es in die Methoden historischer Quellenkritik und Rezeptionsforschung einführt und wertvolle Ergebnisse zur mittelalterlichen Briefkultur und Mentalitätsgeschichte beisteuert."
(The present book is an excellent testament to the indispensable role of the auxiliary historical sciences, especially palaeography and diplomatics, in the study of history. ...It is therefore recommended not only to medievalists but also to literary scholars, as it provides an introduction to the methods of historical source criticism and reception studies, while offering valuable insights into medieval letter culture and the history of mentalities.)-- "FRANCIA RECENSIO"