The Old French Translation of William of Tyre
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THE OLD FRENCH TRANSLATION OF WILLIAM OF TYRE By Philip David Handyside BA 2006 MA 2009 A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of History, Archaeology and Religion Cardiff University 2012 Summary While the Latin version of William of Tyre’s chronicle of the Latin East, Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum, is a valuable tool for modern historians, it was not particularly well-known during the medieval period with only nine copies surviving. However, William’s history did become extremely popular through a translation of the original into Old French, the so-called L’Estoire de Eracles, with fifty-one surviving manuscripts. The Eracles text has been overlooked by scholars who have assumed that it is a simple translation of William’s text, and there has also been little work in to establishing a provenance for the translation or determining the translator’s motives. This thesis seeks to identify the extent to which the Eracles is a simple translation and assess its importance to historians. While, for the most part, the translator is faithful to William’s text, he made alterations throughout. Many are of a stylistic nature, and the translator did not simply abridge William’s text for a new audience. He made several additions that serve to identify him and his audience. In particular, he regularly added background material on French crusaders, and on events in France, including additional information not found in any other source. On occasion the translator alters William’s criticism of certain individuals and gives a very different version of events that may be more accurate. The major difficulty with studying the Eracles text is the fact that the nineteenth- century editions were reliant upon a limited number of manuscripts. There has been little work on these manuscripts and no clear understanding of the relationships between these manuscripts. This thesis also seeks to tackle this problem by presenting a critical edition of six sample chapters that takes into account all the surviving manuscripts and by establishing the relationships between these manuscripts. Acknowledgements I owe much to my supervisor, Professor Peter Edbury, for his constant support and guidance throughout both the research and writing processes. His advice has been invaluable and prevented me from getting into too many difficulties. I am indebted to Dr. Massimiliano Gaggero for constant aid with the complexities of both Latin and Old French as well deciphering the palaeography of the manuscripts, though any mistakes are my own. He was also very patient with me on my first attempts to produce editions of the sample chapters so that I have, hopefully, presented them in a form that is intelligible to the reader. I would also like to thank Dr. Dirk Krausmuller for aiding me with my Latin and German. In addition, I thank Prof. Jaroslav Folda, Prof. Theodore Evergates, Dr. Carol Sweetenham, and Dr. Piers Mitchell for their advice and aid. Any mistakes are, of course, my own. Finally, I wish to thank my wife, Tiffany, for her constant support. Abbreviations BL – British Library BN – Bibliothèque National de France ODS – Oxford Dictionary of Saints, ed. D. H. Farmer, Fifth Edition (Oxford, 2004). F01-78 – ‘F’ numbers refer to the listing of manuscripts in J. Folda, ‘Manuscripts of the History of Outremer by William of Tyre: A Handlist’, Scriptorium: Revue internationale des études relatives aux manuscrits / International Review of Manuscript Studies, 27:1 (1973), pp. 92-5. Paris – Guillaume de Tyre et ses Continuateurs, ed. P. Paris, 2 Vols. (Paris, 1879-80). RHC – Willermo Tyrensi. ‘Historia Rerum in Partibus Transmarinis Gestarum’, Recueil des Historiens des Croisades: Historiens Occidentaux, vol. 1 (Paris, 1844). RHC Occ. – Recueil des Historiens des Croisades, Historiens Occidentaux, 5 Vols. (Paris, 1844-95). WT – Willelmi Tyrensis. Chronicon, ed. R.B.C. Huygens 2 vols. (Turnholt, 1986). Table of Contents Introduction .......................................................................................................................... p. 1 Historiography .......................................................................................................... p. 7 Medieval Translation .............................................................................................. p. 15 Part I – Comparison of the Editions ................................................................................... p. 19 The First Person ..................................................................................................... p. 22 Classical and Biblical Allusions ............................................................................. p. 30 Terminology ........................................................................................................... p. 35 Lay Interest ............................................................................................................. p. 40 Ecclesiastical Material ............................................................................................ p. 43 Background to French Crusaders ........................................................................... p. 52 Italy and Greece ...................................................................................................... p. 83 The Translator ........................................................................................................ p. 88 The Translator as a Pilgrim .................................................................................... p. 94 Views on the Military Orders ............................................................................... p. 104 Mistakes in the Editions ....................................................................................... p. 112 Dating the Translation .......................................................................................... p. 119 Summary of the Alterations ................................................................................. p. 128 Part II – The Manuscripts ................................................................................................. p. 129 The Manuscript Tradition ..................................................................................... p. 142 Book 7 Chapter 22 ................................................................................................ p. 149 Book 11 Chapter 14 .............................................................................................. p. 163 Book 12 Chapter 1 ................................................................................................ p. 180 Book 15 Chapter 22 .............................................................................................. p. 184 Book 20 Chapter 11 .............................................................................................. p. 201 Book 22 Chapter 6 ................................................................................................ p. 212 Rubrics ................................................................................................................. p. 223 The Continuations ................................................................................................ p. 231 The Manuscript Stemma ...................................................................................... p. 237 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ p. 248 Appendix: Sample Chapters with Full Apparatus ............................................................ p. 259 Bibliography ..................................................................................................................... p. 287 1 Introduction William of Tyre’s history, generally known as the Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum (Historia), has been extensively used by historians studying the crusades and the Latin East. The title is not William’s since it only appears in two of the Latin manuscripts which form a subgroup removed from the rest of the stemma. Instead it appears that it was added to the text in the West since the phrasing of the title implies a western viewpoint of the Latin East.1 Since William himself does not appear to have included a title for this work, the title found in these manuscripts has come to be used for the work as a whole. William’s Latin has been rightly praised for displaying a complex and elegant style beyond that which was found in many contemporary Latin works and older histories of the First Crusade2 while Runciman labelled William ‘one of the greatest of medieval historians.’3 However, it is not simply William’s style of writing which gives his Historia its revered place in the study of the Crusades. The text can roughly be divided into two different parts, in the first of which William was reliant upon previous works and oral traditions. He appears to have used several different works, including Fulcher of Chartres, Raymond of Aguilers and Baldric of Dol. He also made extensive use of Albert of Aix up until just before the capture of Jerusalem in 1099, but then ceases to use this text. It is unknown whether this was because the manuscript, to which William had access, stopped at this point or whether it was because he disagreed with Albert’s more favourable view of Arnulf, who would shortly be elected patriarch of Jerusalem, and Albert’s hostile treatment of the papal legate Daibert of