Cover not available
Part of
Latin Literatures of Medieval and Early Modern Times in Europe and Beyond: A millennium heritage
Edited by Francesco Stella
[Comparative History of Literatures in European Languages XXXIV] 2024
► pp. 337–362

Chapter 16
The Middle East

| Università Suor Orsola Benincasa

Literary Latin production of the Middle East during the Crusader period (eleventh-fifteenth century) is surely not extensive, but it exists and is important. Of course, some literary genres in the “Latin East” survive only in French (epic, legal texts, etc.), but several other genres were composed in Latin, such as historiography, theology, poetry, geography and other ones (scientific translations from oriental languages, etc.).

Keywords: Middle East, Latin East, Outremer, Latin literature, crusades
Article outline
  • Historiography and chronicles
    • Gesta Francorum et aliorum Hierosolymitanorum
    • Fulcher of Chartres († 1127?)
    • Raymond of Aguilers
    • Ralph of Caen († post-1130)
    • Walter the Chancellor
    • Historia Balduini Nicena vel Antiochena
    • William of Tyre († circa 1186)
    • Itinerarium Peregrinorum et Gesta Regis Ricardi
    • Libellus de expugnatione Terrae Sanctae per Saladinum
    • Jacques de Vitry († 1240)
    • Fidentius of Padua († post-1291)
    • William of Saint Stephen
  • Theology, sermons
    • Gerard of Nazareth
    • William of Tripoli
    • William of Sandwich
    • Ricoldus de Monte Crucis († 1320)
  • Poetry
    • Achard of Arrouaise († 1137)
    • Godfrey of Jerusalem
    • Albert of Tarsus († post-1204)
    • Aymar the Monk († ca. 1202)
  • Geography: Descriptiones Terrae Sanctae
    • Rorgo Fretellus
    • Burchard of Mount Sion
    • Riccoldo of Monte Croce
  • Hagiography
    • Gerard of Nazareth
    • Inuentio patriarcharum Abraham, Isaac et Iacob (BHL 9)
    • Philippe de Mézières († 1405)
  • Medicine
    • Stephen of Antioch
    • Benevenutus Grapheus (or Grassus) of Jerusalem († ca. 1290)
  • Other literary genres
    • Sortes regiae Amalrici
    • Adelard of Bath († 1152)
    • Philip of Tripoli
    • Legend of Bahira (Latin version)
    • De constructione castri Saphet:
    • Relatio de rege Dauide
  • Conclusions
  • References
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
References

Sources

De expugnatione Terrae Sanctae per Saladinum libellus
. In Chronicon anglicanum, De expugnatione Terrae Sanctae libellus, Thomas Agnellus de morte et sepultura Henrici regis Angliae junioris, Gesta Fulconis filii Warini, Excerpta ex otiis imperialibus Gervasii Tileburiensis ed. by J. Stevenson, 209–262. London: Longman 1875.Google Scholar
Der Rithmus de expeditione Ierosolimitana des sogenannten Haymarus monachus Florentinus: ein Augenzeugenbericht über die Belagerung Akkons (1189–1101) während des dritten Kreuzzugs
, S. Falk, A. Placanica (eds.) Firenze: SISMEL Edizioni del Galluzzo 2006.Google Scholar
Galterii Cancellarii Bella Antiochena
, H. Hagenmeyer (ed.) Innsbruck: Verlag der Wagnerischen Universitäts-Buchhandlung 1896.Google Scholar
Guilielmi de Sanvico De multiplicatione religionis Carmelitarum per provincias Syriae et de perditione monasteriorum Terrae sanctae
AASS, Mai III, lx–lxiv.
Historia Balduini Nicena vel Antiochena
. In Recueil des historiens des croisades. Historiens occidentaux. vol 5. Paris: Imprimerie Impériale 1889,139–185.Google Scholar
Inuentio patriarcharum Abraham, Isaac et Iacob
(BHL 9). In Recueil des historiens des croisades. Historiens occidentaux. vol. 5. Paris: Imprimerie Impériale 1889, 302–314Google Scholar
Itineraria et alia geographica
. Turnhout: Brepols 1965.Google Scholar
Jacques de Vitry, Historia Orientalis
, J. Donnadieu (ed.) Turnhout: Brepols 2008.Google Scholar
Peregrinatores Medii Aevi Quatuor
, J. C. M. Laurent (ed.) Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs 1873Google Scholar
Petri Blesensis tractatus duo: Passio Raginaldi principis Antiochie, Conquestio de dilatione vie Ierosolimitane
, Robert B. C. Huygens (ed.) Turnhout: Brepols 2002.Google Scholar
Radulphi Cadomensis Tancredus
, E. D’Angelo (ed.) Turnhout: Brepols 2011.Google Scholar
Ricardus (Canonicus Sanctae Trinitatis Londoniensis)
, The Chronicle of the Third Crusade: The Itinerarium Peregrinorum et Gesta Regis Ricardi, H. J. Nicholson (ed.) Ashgate: Routledge 1997Google Scholar
Riccoldo de Monte Crucis
, Pérégrination en Terre Sainte et au Proche Orient. Paris: Champion 1997.Google Scholar
Rorgo Fretellus
, Descriptio Terrae Sanctae, P. C. Boeren (ed.) Amsterdam: North-Holland Publishing Co 1980.Google Scholar
Wilhelm von Tripolis, Notitia de Machometo, De statu Sarracenorum: kommentierte lateinisch-deutsche Textausgabe Guilelmus 〈Tripolitanus〉
P. Engels (ed.) Würzburg: Echter Verlag 1992.Google Scholar

Secondary literature

Balard, Michel
2006 Les Latins en Orient (Xe-XVe siècle), Paris: Presses Universitaires de France. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Boase, T. S. R.
1938 “The Arts in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem.” Journal of the Warburg Institute 2: 1–21. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Burnett, Charles
1995 “The Institutional Context of Arabic-Latin Translations of the Middle Ages: A Reassessment of the School of Toledo.” In Vocabulary of Teaching and Research Between Middle Ages and Reinassance, Weijers, O. (ed.), 215–235. Turnhout: Brepols. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1998/1999 “The Sortes Regiae Amalrici: An Arabic Divinatory Work in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem?” Scripta Mediterranea 19/20: 229–237.Google Scholar
2003 “The Transmission of Arabic Astronomy via Antioch and Pisa.” In The Enterprise of Science in Islam: New Perspectives, J. P. Hogendijk, A. I. Sabra (eds.), 23–51. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
2006 “Antioch as a Link between Arabic and Latin Culture in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries.” In Occident et Proche-Orient: contacts scientifiques au temps des Croisades, I. Draelants, A. Thion, B. Van den Abeele (eds.), 1–78., Turnhout: Brepols.Google Scholar
Ciggaar, Krijnie N.
1996 “Manuscripts as intermediaries: The Crusader States and Literary Cross-Fertilization. In East and West in the Crusader States. Context – Contacts – Confrontations, Krijnie N. Ciggaar, Adelbert Davids, Herman G. Teule, (eds.), 131–151. Leuven: Peeters Publisher.Google Scholar
Ciggaar, Krijnie N.
2010 “Cultural Identities in Antioch (969–1268): Integration and Disintegration.” In Hybriden Kulturen in mittelalterlichen Europa, M. Borgolte, B. Schneidmuller (eds.), 105–122. Berlin: Akademie Verlag. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
D’Angelo, Edoardo
2009a “La fondazione dell’Ospedale di Gerusalemme e gli orizzonti mediterranei della cultura di Amalfi medievale,” In Parva pro magnis munera. Etudes de littérature tardo-antique et médiévales offertes à François Dolbeau par ses élèves, Goullet, M. (ed.), 357–396. Turnhout: Brepols.Google Scholar
2009b “La Passio Raginaldi principis de Pedro de Blois (siglo XII),” In La biografìa griega y latina como género literario. De la Antegüedad al Renacimiento. Algunas calas, V. Valcarcel Martínez (ed.), 307–317. Vitoria-Gasteiz: Universidad del País Vasco.Google Scholar
2015 “Angeli e diavoli alle Crociate.” Micrologus 23: 351–363.Google Scholar
2016 “Terrasanta senza miracoli.” In Aspetti del meraviglioso nelle letterature medievali. F. E. Consolino, F. Marzella, L. Spetia (eds.), 59–68. Turnhout: Brepols. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2017 “La battaglia del Campo del Sangue (1119): « Dieu non volt? »” In Il favore di Dio. Metafore d’elezione nelle letterature del Medioevo, F. Mosetti Casaretto (ed.), 95–109. Alessandria: Edizioni dell’Orso.Google Scholar
2018 “A Latin School in the Norman Principality of Antioch?” In People, Texts and Artefacts. Cultural Transmission in the Medieval Norman Worlds, D. Bates, E. D’Angelo, E. van Houts (eds.), 77–88. London: University of London Press.Google Scholar
D’Onofrio, Giulio
2012 “Quando la metafisica tornò in Occidente. Ugo Eteriano e la nascita della theologia.” Aquinas 55: 67–106.Google Scholar
De Prisco, Antonio
1991 Il latino tardoantico e altomedievale. Roma: Jouvence.Google Scholar
Edbury, Peter W.
2013 “The Assises d’Antioche: Law and Custom in the Principality of Antioch.” In Norman Expansion: Connections, Continuities and Contrasts, K. Stringer, A. Jotischky A. (eds.), 241–248. Ashgate: Routledge.Google Scholar
Edbury, Peter W., Jaroslav Folda
1994 “Two thirteenth-century Manuscripts of Crusader Legal Texts from Saint-Jean d’Acre.” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 57: 243–254. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Edbury, Peter W. and J. G. Rowe
1988 William of Tyre: Historian of the Latin East. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Edgington, Susan B.
2006 “Antioch: Medieval city of Culture,” In East and West in the Medieval Eastern Mediterranean, vol. 1: Antioch from the Byzantine reconquest until the End of the Crusader Principality, K. N. Ciggaar, M. Metcalf M. (eds.), 247–259. Leuven: Uitgeverej Peeters.Google Scholar
Eldredge, L. M.
1988 “A Thirteenth-Century Ophthalmologist, Benvenutus Grassus: His Treatise and its Survival”. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine 91: 47–52. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Folda, Jaroslav
1976 Crusader Manuscript Illumination in Saint-Jean d’Acre. 1275–1291. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
1995 The Art of the Crusaders in the Holy Land. 1098–1187. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
1997 “I manoscritti miniati degli stati crociati.” In Le crociate. L’oriente e l’occidente da Urbano II a San Luigi 1096–1270, Monique Rey-Delque (ed.), 299–305, Milan: Electa.Google Scholar
2005 “Skriptorien und Malerwerkstätten: Schreiber und Maler in den Kreuzfahrerreichen Syriens und Palästinas im 13. Jahrhundert.” In Saladin und die Kreuzfahrer. Begleitband zur Sonderausstellung, A. Wieczorek, M. Fansa, H. Meller (eds.), 205–216. Mainz: Zabern.Google Scholar
Galubovich, G.
1906–1927 Bibliotheca bio-bibliographica della Terra Santa e dell’Oriente francescano. Quaracchi: Collegio di s. Bonaventura.Google Scholar
Giardini, M.
2016 Figure del regno nascosto. Le leggende del Prete Gianni e delle dieci tribù perdute d’Israele fra Medioevo e prima età moderna. Florence: Leo S. Olschki Editore.Google Scholar
Gillingham, John
1971 “Raymond d’Aguilers, historien de la prèmière croisade.” Journal des Savants 1971, n.3: 206–212.Google Scholar
Grabois, Aryeh
1997 “La bibliothèque du noble d’ “Outremer” à Acre dans la seconde moitié du XIIIe siècle.” Le Moyen Age 103: 53–66. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hamilton, Bernhard
1980 The Latin Church in the Crusader States: The Secular Church. London: Variorum Publications.Google Scholar
2000 The Leper King and His Heirs: Baldwin IV and the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2006 “Aimery of Limoges, Latin Patriarch of Antioch (c.1142–c.1196), and the Unity of the Church.” In East and West in the Medieval Eastern Mediterranean. vol 1. Antioch from the Byzantine reconquest until the End of the Crusader Principality, K. N. Ciggaar, M. Metcalf (eds.) 1–12. Leuven: Uitgiverej PeetersGoogle Scholar
Hiestand, Rudolph
1984/1985 “Il cronista medievale e il suo pubblico. Alcune osservazioni in margine alla storiografia sulle crociate.” Annali della Facoltà di Lettere dell’Università di Napoli 27: 207–227.Google Scholar
1988 “Plange, Syon et Iudea – Historische Aussage und Verfasserfrage.” Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch 23: 126–142.Google Scholar
1994 “Un centre intellectuel en Syrie du Nord? Notes sur la personnalité d’Aimery d’Antioche, Albert de Tarse et Rorgo Fretellus.” Le Moyen Age 100: 7–36.Google Scholar
1997 “Ein unbekanntes Privileg Fürst Bohemunds II. von Antiochia für das Hospital vom März 1127 und die Frügeschichte der antiochenischen Fürstenkanzlei.” Archiv für Diplomatik 43: 27–46.Google Scholar
Huygens, R. B. C.
1962 “Guillaume de Tyr étudiant.” Latomus 21: 811–829.Google Scholar
1965 “Un nouveau texte du traité De constructione castri Saphet.” Studi Medievali 6: 355–387.Google Scholar
Issa, M.
2007 “La conception de la croisade dans l’Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum de Guillaume de Tyr et dans L’Estoire d’Eracles.” Mélanges de l’Ecole Française de Roma. Moyen Ages 119: 347–359. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jotischky, Andrew T.
1995 “Gerard of Nazareth, John Bale and the Origins of the Carmelite Order.” Journal of Ecclesiastical History 46: 1–23. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1997 “Gerard of Nazareth, Mary Magdalene and Latin Relations with the Greek Orthodox in the Crusader East in the Twelfth Century.” Levant 29: 217–226. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kedar, Benjamin Z.
1983 “Gerard of Nazareth, a Neglected Twelfth-Century Writer in the Latin East. A Contribution to Intellectual and Monastic History of the Crusader States.” Dumbarton Oak Papers 37: 55–77. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kedar, Benjamin J.
1995 “Benvenutus Grapheus of Jerusalem, an Oculist in the era of the Crusades.” Israel Journal of the History of Medicine and Science 11: 14–41.Google Scholar
Kedar, Benjamin Z.
2016a “The Eastern Christians in the Frankish Kingdom of Jerusalem: An Overview.” In Crusaders and Franks: Studies in the history of the Crusades and the Frankish Levant, Z. Kedar Benjamin, 143–153. Abingdon: RoutledgeGoogle Scholar
2016b “Problems in the Study of Trans-cultural Borrowing in the Frankish Levant,” In Crusaders and Franks: Studies in the history of the Crusades and the Frankish Levant, Z. Kedar Benjamin, 277–285. Abingdon: RoutledgeGoogle Scholar
Kohler, Ch
1896 Ch., “Un nouveau récit de l’invention des patriarches Abraham, Isaac et Iacob à Hebron.” Revue de l’Orient Latin 4: 477–502.Google Scholar
1897 “Rerum et personarum quae in Actis Sanctorum Bollandistis et Analectis Bollandianis obviae ad Orientem Latinum spectant index analyticus.” Revue de l’Orient Latin 5: 460–561.Google Scholar
Le Goff, Jacques
1957 Les Intellectuels au Moyen Age. Paris: Éditions du Seuil.Google Scholar
Lehmann, Paul
1941 “Die mittellateinischen Dichtungen der Prioren des Tempels von Jerusalem Acardus und Gaufridus.” In Corona Quernea. Festgabe Karl Strecker zum 80. Geburtstag dargebracht, E. E. Stengel (ed.), 296–330. Leipzig: Hiersemann Verlag.Google Scholar
Loud, Graham A., J. W. Cox
2006 “The Lost Autobiographical Chapter of William of Tyre’s Chronicle (book XIX.12).” In The Crusades: An Encyclopedia vol 4, Alan V. Murray (ed.), 1305–1308. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO.Google Scholar
Madureira, M.
2008 “Le chroniqueur et son public: Les versions latine et française de la Chronique de Guillaume de Tyr.” In The Medieval Chronicle vol 5 Kooper, E. (ed.), 161–174. Leiden: Brill. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mayer, Hans E.
1962 Das Itinerarium peregrinorum. Eine zeitgenössische englische Chronik zum dritten Kreuzzug in ursprünglicher Gestalt. Stuttgart: Verlag Hiersemann.Google Scholar
1993 “Die Kanzlei von Fürsten von Antiochia.” In. Varia Antiochena. Studien zum Kreutzfarfürstentum Antiochia im 12. und fruhen 13. Jahrhundert. 75–109. Hannover: Hahnsche Buchhandlung.Google Scholar
Micheau, François
2000 “Les médecins orientaux au service des princes latins.” In Occident et Proche-Orient: contacts scientifiques au temps des croisades, A. Tihon, I. Draelants, B. van den Abeele B. (eds.), 95–115. Turnhout: Brepols. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Minervini, Laura
1999 “Produzione e circolazione di manoscritti negli stati crociati: biblioteche e scriptoria latini.” In Medioevo romanzo e orientale. Il viaggio dei testi, A. Pioletti, F. Rizzo Nervo (eds.), 79–96. Soveria Mannelli: Rubettino.Google Scholar
2001 “Outremer,” In Lo spazio letterario del Medioevo. Il Medioevo volgare, vol 1/2: La produzione del testo, Piero Boitani, Mario Mancini, Alberto Vàrvaro (eds.), 611–648. Roma: Salerno Editrice.Google Scholar
2002 “Modelli culturali e attività letteraria nell’Oriente latino.” Studi Medievali 43: 337–348.Google Scholar
2005 Lingue, regno di Gerusalemme, in Enciclopedia Federiciana, vol. 2, 186–187. Rome: Istituto dell’Enciclopedia Italiana.Google Scholar
Mohring, H.
1984 “Zu der Geschichte der orientalischen Herrscher des Willelm von Tyrus.” Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch 19: 170–183.Google Scholar
Murray, Allan V.
1997 “How Norman was the Principality of Antioch? Prolegomena to the Study of the Origins of the Nobility of a Crusader State.” In Family Trees and the Roots of Politics, K. S. B. Keats-Rohan (ed.), 349–359. Woodbridge: Boydell Press.Google Scholar
Paravicini Bagliani, Agostino
1991 Medicina e scienze della natura alla corte dei papi nel Duecento. Spoleto: Centro Italiano di Studi Sull’Alto Medioevo.Google Scholar
Prawer, Joshua
1972 The Crusaders’ Kingdom: European Colonialism in the Middle Ages. New York: Praeger Publishers.Google Scholar
Richard, Jean
1994 “L’Orient latin et le mond des missions.” In Hagiographies vol. 1, G. Philippart (ed.), 189–198, Turnhout: Brepols.Google Scholar
Roggema, B.
2009 The Legend of Sergius Bahira. Eastern Christian Apologetics and Apocalyptic in Response to Islam. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Rubin, J.
2014 “Burchard of Mount Sion’s Descriptio Terrae Sanctae: A Newly Discovered Extended Version.” Crusades 13: 173–190. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2018 “A Missing Link in European Travel Literature: Burchard of Mount Sion’s Description of Egypt.” Mediterranea: International Journal for the Transfer of Knowledge 3: 55–90. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rubin, J., C. Linde
2014 “Western Medicine for the Masters of Damascus: Benvenutus Grapheus’s Experimenta.” Al-Masāq 26: 183–195. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Russo, Luigi
2002 “Il Liber di Raimondo d’Aguilers e il ritrovamento della Sacra Lancia d’Antiochia.” Studi Medievali 47: 785–837.Google Scholar
Simonelli, Fabio
1997 “Fidenzio da Padova.” In Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani vol 47, 412–414. Rome: Istituto dell’Enciclopedia Italiana.Google Scholar
Smet, J.
1954 The Life of St Peter Thomas by Philippe de Mézières. Rome: Edizioni Carmelitane.Google Scholar
Spreckelmeyer, G.
1974 Das Kreuzzugslied des lateinischen Mittelalters. München: Wilhelm Fink Verlag.Google Scholar
Steele, R.
1920 Secretum Secretorum cum glossis et notulis. Tractatus brevis et utilis ad declarandum quedam obscure dicta fratris Rogeri. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Stella, Francesco
2008 “Le versificazioni latine della vita di Maometto. Dall’antiagiografia al romanzo picaresco.” In Dichten als Stoff-Vermittlung. Formen, Ziele, Wirkungen. Beiträge zur Praxis der Versifikation lateinischer Texte im Mittelalter, P. Stotz (ed.), 119–149. Zurich: Chronos Verlag.Google Scholar
Stotz, Peter
2013 Il latino nel Medioevo. Guida allo studio di un’identità linguistica europea. Serena Pirrotta, Luigi Ricci (trans.). Firenze: SISMEL-Edizioni del Galluzzo.Google Scholar
Tessera, Maria R.
1999 “Guglielmo di Tiro e Bernardo di Clairvaux: Uno sguardo da oltremare sulla seconda crociata.” Aevum 73: 247–272.Google Scholar
2000 “ ‘Prudentes homines’: Ricerche sul lessico del potere nell’ Historia Hierosolymitana di Guglielmo di Tiro.” Aevum 74: 493–510.Google Scholar
Vessey, D. W. T. C.
1973 “William of Tyre and the Art of Historiography.” Mediaeval Studies 35: 433–455. DOI logoGoogle Scholar