Robert the Monk

Robert the Monk Robertus Monachus, Robert of Reims Date of Birth Unknown; mid-11th century Place of Birth Unknown; probably north-eastern France Date of Death 1122 or soon after (if the identification of the author with Abbot Robert of St-Rémi is accepted) Place of Death Unknown Biography The only information that the text of theHistoria Iherosolimitana itself reveals about its author is that he was named Robert, that he was a monk, almost certainly of the monastery of St-Rémi, Reims in Champagne, and that he attended the Council of Clermont in November 1095. On the basis of this experience, he was invited by an abbot variously rendered in the manuscripts as ‘Bernardus’, ‘Benedic- tus’ or ‘B.’ to write a history of the First Crusade by improving upon a stylistically impoverished base text that had come into his posses- sion. The plot structure and story content of Robert’s narrative reveal that this source text must have been the Gesta Francorum et aliorum Hierosolimitanorum (q.v.). Largely on the basis of an identification of the abbot who commis- sioned Robert’s text as Bernard of Marmoutier, it has usually been supposed that the author was the same Robert who led a rather che- quered career in the northern French monastic world in the late 11th and early 12th centuries. This Robert was a monk first of St-Rémi then of Marmoutier near Tours, before returning to St-Rémi as its abbot in 1096. Coming into conflict with his former abbot, Bernard of Mar- moutier, Robert was excommunicated; his cause attracted a good deal of attention and was taken up by various supporters, including the poet and future historian of the First Crusade, Abbot Baldric of Bour- gueil. His excommunication eventually rescinded but his position at St-Rémi untenable, Robert was demoted to the position of prior of Sénuc in the Ardennes, a dependency of St-Rémi. Little is known of his career thereafter, but accusations of maladministration resurfaced, resulting in his destitution by Pope Calixtus II in 1122. Robert probably died soon thereafter. robert the monk 313 The identification of this historical figure with the author of the Historia, which has been the scholarly orthodoxy since Bongars and Mabillon, and was repeated by Le Bas in his 1866 edition for the RHC, receives some support from the fact that the author says that he wrote the text in a ‘cell’ of St-Rémi, which might be an allusion to the priory of Sénuc. On the other hand, the dates of Abbot Bernard of Mar- moutier’s abbacy and his antagonism towards Abbot Robert of St- Rémi make this strand of the argument hazardous. The identification should be regarded, therefore, as possible but unproven. MAIN SOURCES OF INFORMATION Primary Historia Iherosolimitana Secondary C. Sweetenham, Robert the Monk’s history of the First Crusade. Historia Ihero- solimitana, pp. 1-74 T.M. Buck, ‘Von der Kreuzzugsgeschichte zum Reisebuch. Zur Historia Hierosolymitana des Robertus Monachus’, Deutsche Vierteljahresschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte 76 (2002) 321-55 L. Russo, ‘Ricerche sull’“Historia Iherosolimitana” di Roberto di Reims’, Studi Medievali ser. 3, 43 (2002) 651-91 P.C. Jacobsen, ‘Die Admonter Versifikation der Kreuzzugsgeschichte Rob- erts von St-Remi’, in A. Őnnerfors, J. Rathofer and K. Wagner (eds), Literatur und Sprache im europäischen Mittelalter. Festschrift für Karl Langosch zum 70. Geburtstag, Darmstadt, 1973, 142-72 N. Iorga, Les narrateurs de la première croisade, Paris, 1928, pp. 80-85 F. Kraft, Heinrich Steinhöwels Verdeutschung der Historia Hierosolymitana des Robertus Monachus. Eine literarhistorische Untersuchung, Strasbourg, 1905 Works on Christian-Muslim Relations Historia Iherosolimitana, ‘Jerusalemite History of the First Crusade’ Date c. 1107 Original Language Latin Description Occupying about 160 pages in its RHC edition, the Historia Iherosolim- itana is a Latin history of the First Crusade between the launching of .

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