Read more
This volume offers a literary and cultural history of the idea of crusading over the last millennium.
List of contents
Part I. Genres: 1. Chronicles Elizabeth Lapina; 2. Chansons de geste Marianne Ailes; 3. The troubadours and their lyrics Linda Paterson; Part II. Contexts and Communities: 4. Rome, Byzantium, and the Idea of Holy War Connor Wilson; 5. Women's writing and patronage Helen Nicholson; 6. Reading and writing in Outremer Anthony Bale; 7. Hebrew crusade literature in its Latin and Arabic contexts Uri Zvi Shachar; Part III. Themes and Images: 8. The earthly and heavenly Jerusalem Suzanne Yeager; 9. Orientalism and the 'Saracen' Lynn Ramey; 10. Chivalry, masculinity, and sexuality Matthew Mesley; Part IV. Heroes: 11. Richard the Lionheart and Saladin Christine Chism; 12. 'El Cid' (Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar) Julian Weiss; 13. Charlemagne, Godfrey of Bouillon, and Louis IX of France Anne Latowsky; Part V. Afterlives: 14. Romance and crusade in Late Medieval England Robert Rouse; 15. Renaissance crusading literature Lee Manion; 16. Crusading and medievalism Louise D'Arcens.
About the author
Anthony Bale is Professor of Medieval Studies at Birkbeck College, University of London. His previous publications include a new translation of The Book of Margery Kempe (2015); a translation of John Mandeville's The Book of Marvels and Travels (2012); Feeling Persecuted: Christians, Jews and Images of Violence in the Middle Ages (2010); and as editor St Edmund King and Martyr: Changing Images of a Medieval Saint (2009).
Summary
This volume offers a cultural history of the idea of crusading over the last millennium. Focussing on the literature and culture of Europe, it shows how the Crusades, and the crusaders, were described, remembered, and romanticised by the various communities that have written about them.