[1] A translation into French was done more than 170 years ago by F.
Guizot, in v. 9 of his *Collection des mémoires rélatifs a
l'histoire de France*, Paris, 1825.
[2] John Benton, *Self and Society in Medieval France*, New York,
1970; Guibert de Nogent, *Autobiographie*, edited and translated
by Edmond-René Labande, Paris, 1981; Paul J. Archambault, *A
Monk's Confessions*, University Park, 1995. The *Monodiae*,
however, was also not popular in its own time. No medieval writer
mentions the work, and no manuscript has survived. See Labande's
edition, pp. xxiii-xxviii, for a discussion of the editorial problems
that stem from being compelled to work from BN. f.l. Baluze 42. For
recent discussion of Guibert, see M.D. Coupe, "The personality of
Guibert de Nogent reconsidered," *Journal of Medieval History* IX,
no. 4 [Dec. 1983], pp. 317-329, which supplies summary and judgement
of the work of J. Kantor, Benton, and others. See also Jacques
Charaud, "La conception de l'histoire de Guibert de Nogent,"
*Cahiers de civilisation médiévale* VIII (1965), pp.
381-395, and Klaus Schreiner, "Discrimen veri ac falsi," *Archive
fur Kulturgeschicht* XLVIII (1966), pp. 1-51. Both Charaud and
Schreiner are concerned to demonstrate the degree to which Guibert's
vision of history is ruled by theology, and tropology in particular;
both articles can be read as respectful corrections of Bernard Monod,
"De la méthode historique chez Guibert de Nogent," *Revue
historique* 84 (1904), pp. 51-70. Unfortunately, Laetitia Boehm's
thesis, *Studien zur Geschichtschreibung des ersten Kreuzzuges
Guibert von Nogent*, Munich, 1954, has remained unpublished. Georg
Misch also makes an attempt to characterize Guibert, for the most
part on the basis of Book One of the *Monodiae*, in
*Geschichte der Autobiographie*, vol. 3, part two, first half,
Frankfurt, 1959, pp. 108-162
[3] Early in the *Memoirs* Guibert says that his father died
eight months after his own birth; later he gives the time between his
birth and his father's death as scarcely six months; in both
instances he neglects to give the year.
[4] Characteristics at work also in his other writings; see Guibert's
*De pignoribus sanctorum* (Migne PL 156.607-684) for an extended
attack on those who believe in the wrong relics.
[5] *Journal of Medieval History* 2 (1976), p. 299 (of pp.
281-303).
[6] See Louis Bréhier's edition and translation, *Histoire
anonyme de la première croisade*, Paris, 1924; for a later
edition, see Rosalind Hill, *Gesta Francorum*, London, New York,
1962.
[7] Baldric of Dole and Robert the Monk also insistently added to the
story of the First Crusade what Riley-Smith (pp. 135-153) calls
"theological refinement."
[8] Bréhier 119-125.
[9] Bréhier 155.
[10] Brehier 133-135.
[11] For a preliminary study of Guibert's diction, see Eitan Burstein,
"Quelques remarques à propos du vocabulaire de Guibert de Nogent,"
*Cahiers de civilisation médiévale*, XXI (1978), pp.
247-263.
[12] *La tradition manuscrite de Guibert de Nogent*, The Hague,
1991, p. 20. Last year, however, in a note informing me of the
impending publication of his edition of the <Gesta Dei>, Professor
Huygens reported that he has changed his mind. The latest modern
edition is more than 100 years old, *(Recueil des Historiens des
Croisades, Historiens Occidentaux* IV, Paris, 1879, pp. 115-263),
and Professor Huygens, the latest reader of the eight surviving
manuscripts of the *Gesta Dei per Francos*, finds the edition
pretentious, orthographically aberrant, and of no philological value
whatever.
[13] Guibert perhaps has some support for this preference: In Praeloq.
2.30 212A Rather of Verona quotes Ambrose on interpreting the
difficulties of scripture: *quod difficilius invenitur, dulcius
tenetur*."
[14] 339, n. 3
[15] 1973 613.
[16]p. 255.
[17] *De Moribus et Actis primorum Normanniae Ducum*, ed. Jules
Lair, Caen, 1865.
[18] (eds.) J. Olrik and H. Raeder, *Saxonis Gest Danorum*, 1931,
1957, Hauniae, 2 vols. *The History of the Danes*, translated by
Peter Fisher, ed. H.E. Davidson, Totowa, 1979, 1981, 2 vols.
[19] For the significance and influence of Martianus, see W.H. Stahl,
R. Johnson, and E.L. Burge, *Martianus Capella and the Seven
Liberal Arts*, NY, 1971; Danut Shanzer, *A philosophical and
literary commentary on Martianus Capella's De Nuptiis Philologiae et
Mercurri, book one*, Berkeley, 1986.
[20] For a densely compacted discussion of this hypothesis, see
Herbert Grundmann, *Geschichtsschreibung im Mittelalters*,
Göttingen, 1965. For a more extensive, lavishly detailed
discussion, see Bernard Guenee, *Histoire et culture historique
dans l'occident médiéval*, Paris, 1980. In English, the
argument was popularized by R.G. Collingwood, *The Idea of
History*, Oxford, 1946; p. 258 gives a useful formulation.
[21] Aimon's early eleventh-century rewriting of both Gregory of
Tours sixth-century text and the eighth-century *Liber Historiae
Francorum* is only roughly comparable, since he was much further
removed in time from the authors whose work he was correcting. See
Gregory of Tours, *Historiae Francorum*, edited by W. Arndt and
Bruno Krusch, *Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores Rerum
Merovingicarum*, vol. I, Hanover, 1885; Aimon, *De Gestis
Francorum*, pp. 20-143 of *Recueil des historiens des Gaules et
de l France*, ed. M. Bouquet, vol. III, 1869, pp. 20-143; Bruno
Krusch, *Fredegarii et Aliorum Chronica; Monumenta Germaniae
Historica*: Scriptorum Rerum Merovingicarum, Hanover, 1888.
[22] Two editions are available: *Recueil des Historiens des
Croisades, Historiens Occidentaux* III, Paris, 1866, pp. 319-585;
*Fulcheri Carnotensis Histori Hierosolymitana*, ed. Heinrich
Hagenmayer. Heidelberg, 1913.
[23] A judgement contained within the less sardonic assessment,
almost nine hundred years later, by Ernest Baker, who called Fulcher,
"a kindly old pedant," in the *Encyclopaedia Britannica*, 11th
edition, Cambridge, 1910.
[24] Guibert decision to insert verses of his own composition, in a
variety of meters, some unusual, in his predominantly prose text,
also seems to be an attempt to outdo Fulker, who had chosen to
compose occasional verse for his predominantly prose text, although
he limited himself to hexameters and elegaics.
[25] Quod ego Fulcherus Carnotensis, cum ceteris iens peregrinis,
postea, sicut oculis meis perspexi, diligenter et sollicite in
memoriam posteris collegi. (RHC.HO III.327) The case for the
*Gesta Francorum* as a text composed by an eye-witness is
inferential only.
[26] Isidore of Seville, *Etymologies*, I, XLI, ed. W.M Lindsay,
Oxford, 1911. See also Bernard Guenée on the topos of the
eye-witness, in *Histoire et culture historique dans l'occident
médiéval*, Paris, 1980. For a paradigmatic example of the
difficulties generated by trying to determine whether a medieval text
of an historical nature is the product of an eyewitness, see Stubbs'
argument (Rolls Series 38.1) that the *Itinerarium Regis Ricardi*
is the product of an eyewitness of the Third Crusade, then Gaston
Paris' argument that *L'Estoire de la guerre sainte*, Paris, 1897
is the eye-witness account that the author of the *Itinerarium*
was translating, and then Hans Eberhard Mayer, *Das Itinerarium
peregrinorum*, Stuttgart, 1962, for the argument that neither is an
eye-witness account; see also the discussion in M.R. Morgan, *The
Chronicle of Ernoul and the Continuations of William of Tyre*,
Oxford, 1973, pp. 61 ff..
[27] See E.R. Curtius, *European Literature and the Latin Middle
Ages*, New York, 1953, pp. 83-85.
[28] Translation by Rosalind Hill, London, 1962, p. 44.
[29] Translated by H. Rushton Fairclough, *Horace*, London, 1966,
p. 465.
[30] Guibert's behavior in this respect suggests that the anxiety of
influence which Harold Bloom assigned primarily to the English
Romantic poets existed earlier and more extensively ( *Anxiety of
Influence*, Oxford, 1973).
[31] III Reg xii.10; II Par x.10.
[32] Book VII, p. 239.
[33] See Appendix A.
[34] Jeremiah III.27,28.
[35] A term Paul Zumthor introduced in "Roman et Gothique," in
*Studi in honore di Italo Siciliano*, Florence, 1966, vol. II, p.
1227.
[36] For evidence that Guibert was remarkably fastidious in his
attitude towards his literary production, or at least towards three
of his theological compositions, see Monique-Cecile Garand, "Le
Scriptorium de Guibert de Nogent," *Scriptorium* 31 (1977), pp.
3-29.
[37] See Robert Levine, "Satiric Vulgarity in Guibert de Nogent's
*Gesta Dei per Francos," Rhetorica* 7 (1989), pp. 261-273.
[38] Although he calls the Pope a fine Latinist, instead of giving
Urban's words at Clermont, Guibert rewrites them, *etsi non verbis,
tamen intentionibus*, "not word for word, but according to what he
meant." For an attempt, on the basis of the various surviving
representations of Urban's performance at Clermont, to determine what
the Pope actuually said, see D.C. Munro, "The Speech of Pope Urban II
at Clermont," *American Historical Review* XI (1906), pp. 231-242.
For objections to Munro's technique, see Paul Rousset, *Les
origines et les caracteres de la premiere croisade*, Geneva, 1945,
p. 58.
[39] See W. Porges, "The Clergy, the Poor, and the Non-Combatants on
the First Crusade," *Speculum* 21 (1946), pp. 1-20; Jean Flori,
"Faut-il réhabiliter Pierre l'Ermite?" *Cahier de civilisation
médiévale* XXXVIII (1995), pp. 35-54.
[40] See Appendix A.
[41] Labande, I.xvii, pp. 135 ff..
[42] A task for which Heinrich Hagenmeyer's *Chronologie de la
première croisade*, Hildesheim, 1898-1901, provides a sound
basis.
[43] Whenever possible, the modern spellings are taken from the
Gazetteer provided in *A History of the Crusades*, ed. by
Kenneth M. Setton and M.W. Baldwin, Madison, 1969, vol. I, pp.
626-666.
[44] *paregorizantis*, "curative," a rare word, used by Augustine.
[45] Horace AP 105.
[46] One of the names of Mars.
[47] Literally, never goes beyond Mercurial moderation.
[48] An area in northeast Persia, but used as a general term for the
Near East by the Western chroniclers of the First Crusade.
[49] Gnaeus Trogus Pompeius, a contemporary of Livy, wrote 44 books,
of which only an epitome by Justin survives.
[50] I Kings xii.10; II Chronicles x.10.
[51] Translation by J.D. Duff, *Lucan*, Cambridge, 1969. "of
one's own blood," is the more literal translation.
[52] Lucan I. 8,9,12.
[53] Albert of Aix uses the same comparison several times within one
paragraph to describe the joys of the Crusaders about to attack
Ascalon: they are *tanquam ad convivium pergentes laetati*, then
the pagan prefect of Ramna, noticing that the Christians are singing
and rejoicing, *tanquam ad epulas omnium deliciarum invitati
essent*, remarks: Miror, et sufficienter mirari nequeo unde populus
hic in tanta laetitia et voce exultationis glorietur, quasi ad
convivium iturus. (RHC IV.492)
[54] That is, children.
[55] Proverbs xxx.27.
[56] The first printed edition offers *genuinae*, where MS A
offers *geminae*.
[57] That is, Helena.
[58] Psalm 63.7
[59] Genesis III.17,18.
[60] Died c. 336 A.D..
[61] Died c. 274 A.D.
[62] Ephesians 5.27.
[63] A.D. 249-251.
[64] buccella intinctio.
[65] Iznik (Turkish).
[66] abortivis? _________
[67] Jacob V.4.
[68] Psalm 80.13.
[69] Psalm 9.21
[70] Psalm 146 (147)20
[71] Robert I, count of Flanders, 1071-1093. The letter is printed in
*Epistulae et chartae ad historiam primi belli sacri sectantes*,
edited by Heinrich Hagenmayer, Innsbruck, 1901, pp. 129-136
[72] Michael VII Ducas, Parapinaces, 1071-1078.
[73] He was the son of Eucherius, master of Lageri.
[74] Elected abbot of Cluny in 1049.
[75] Odo, nephew of Urban II.
[76] Stephen II, 752-757; Zacharias, 741-752.
[77] Pepin compelled Astolphus to restore Ravenna and other cities to
Stephen in 755.
[78] Last Lombard king, 756-774.
[79] A reference to the struggle between Emperor Henry IV and Gregory
VII; see Uta-Renate Blumenthal, *The Investiture Controversy*
Philadelphia, 1988.
[80] Paschal came to France in 1107, with Philip I on the throne.
Isidore of Seville (IX.ii.101) offers two derivations for "Franks."
*Franci a quodam proprio duce vocari putantur. Alii eos a feritate
morum nuncupatos existimant* The archdeacon of Mainz clearly was
referring to their animal-like behavior.
[81] Jeremiah III.27,28.
[82] An error by Guibert or by the scribe; the council of Clermont
began 18 November, 1095.
[83] Sidonius Apollinarus uses *piperata facundia* in Book VIII,
epistle xi, of the *Poems and Letters*, ed. W.B. Anderson,
Cambridge, 1984, vol I.
[84] Mathew 27.53.
[85] Isaiah 11.10.
[86] Eccl. 1.7
[87] II Thess. ii.4
[88] II Thess ii.3
[89] Luke xxi.24.
[90] John VII.6
[91] II Thess ii.3.
[92] Isaiah 43.5.
[93] Presumably Peter and Paul.
[94] Psalm 47.8.
[95] Psalm 77.7.
[96] These seven elegiacs are the first verses Guibert inserts in the
*Gesta Dei*.
[97] Rom X.2
[98] Classical Latin for a conical column.
[99] In French, *moisson* means "harvest."
[100] Izmit, on the sea of Marmara. The *Gest Francorum* begins
here. A more specific account of the difficulties that produced the
separation from the Franks can be found in Albert of Aix, RHC IV.284.
[101] Franci a quodam proprio duce vocari putantur. Alii eos a
feritate morum nuncupatos existimant. Sunt enim in illis mores
inconditi, naturalis ferocitas animorum. The French are thought to
derive their name from one of their leaders. Others think that they
derive their name from the ferocity of their behavior. For they are
naturally fierce. (Isidore of Seville, Etymologies, ____________ ed.
W.M. Lindsay, Oxford, 1962, vol. 2).
[102] Asia Minor, or the entire Byzantine empire.
[103] Xerigordo, according to Anna Comnena; today, Eski-Kaled.
[104] September 29, 1096.
[105] Guibert here rejects the perhaps more pathetic scene in the
*Gesta Francorum* (Brehier 8): *alii mingebant in pugillo
alterius et bibebant*.
[106] Eight elegiacs.
[107] Ten elegiacs.
[108] Sometimes given the epithet, *sine habere*, "the Penniless."
[109] Gemlik, now abandoned.
[110] Iznick, on the lake of the same name.
[111] Twelve Asclepiadeans. At this point, the *Gest Francorum*
gives only *quemdam sacerdotem missam celebrantem, quem statim
super altare martirizaverunt*, "a priest celebrating mass, whom
they immediately martyred on the altar."
[112] Two dactyls, the second line borrowed from Horace, Sat I.97.
[113] Durazzo.
[114] This single elegiac may contain a scribal error, confusing
Alemannus with Lemanus (Lake Geneva). The epitaph reads: Hic terror
mundi Guiscardus, hic expulit urbe Quem Ligures regem, Roma,
Alemannus habet. Parthus, Arabs, Macedumque phalanx non texit Alexim,
At fuga; sed Venetum, nec fuga, nec pelagus.
[115] A single dactylic hexameter.
[116] In the Latin, *de prima civitate Richardum*, glossed (p.
152) as *Richardum de Principatu, vel Principem*.
[117] Edirne (Turkish) in Bulgaria.
[118] Today, the Vardar.
[119] Ash Wednesday.
[120] Today, Ruskujan.
[121] "outside of the city wall" is my version of *brugo*,
uninhabited land, a field not under cultivation.
[122] Suetoniuis, Caesar 80: Gallias Caesar subegit, Nicomedes
Caesarem.
[123] For whatever facts can be assembled about the siege, see R.
Rogers, *Latin Siege Warfare in the Twelfth Century*, Oxford,
1992, pp. 16-25.
[124] Four dactylic hexameters.
[125] Tomyris dips Cyrus' head in a bag of blood in Herodotus I CCV.
Tibullus (IV.i.143 ff.) alludes to the story, and Valerius Maximus
(IX.x) uses the story to illustrate vengeance.
[126] 99 Adonic verses kata stichon, followed by 13 dactylic
hexameters.
[127] Lamentations II.9
[128] Matthew XX.12.
[129] Two dactylic hexameters.
[130] Three dactylic hexameters.
[131] Fourteen elegiacs.
[132] The *Gesta Francorum* had given the number as 360,000,
Anselm of Ribemont as 260,000. (Brehier 49).
[133] An elegiac couplet.
[134] Deut XXXII.30.
[135] Kilidj-Arslan
[136] one hexameter.
[137] Spikes of cactus, perhaps, or making flour?
[138] Konya (Turkish).
[139] Ereghli (Turkish)
[140] One dactylic hexameter.
[141] Paul.
[142] Adana.
[143] Mamistra (medieval), Mopsuestia (classical), Msis (Armenian),
Misis (Turkish).
[144] Thoros.
[145] Selevgia (West Armenian), Silifke (Turkish).
[146] Horace *Ars Poetica* 180-181.
[147] John III.32
[148] Kayseri
[149] Placentia, or Comana.
[150] Goksun.
[151] Riha, perhaps.
[152] Rouveha, perhaps.
[153] Marash
[154] Oct 21, 1097
[155] Aregh
[156] Sallust, Jugurtha 85.
[157] Aleppo.
[158] Eleven stanzas of sapphics.
[159] Lucan I.135.
[160] i.e., become emaciated
[161] Fourteen heptameters.
[162] Juvenal 6.443.
[163] Fourteen dactylic hexameters."
[164] Seven dactylic hexameters.
[165] February 9.
[166] Two dactylic hexameters.
[167] Rom X.2.
[168] Sultan.
[169] Psalm 81.8.
[170] Psalm 78.6.
[171] Psalm 92.3.
[172] Romans 9.25
[173] I Mac. v.62.
[174] Acts IX.25; II Cor XI.33
[175] Sixteen dactylic hexameters.
[176] One dactylic hexameter.
[177] Scatter them that they may know that no other than you, our
Lord fights for us. Scatter them by your power, and destroy them,
our protector, Lord. (Eccl. xxxvi.1)
[178] Iskenderum.
[179] Aksehir.
[180] Hebrews XII.6.
[181] Or "miracle" in B.
[182] Miraculous intervention at this point is reported also in the
*Gesta Francorum*, (Brehier 154), and in a letter published by
Hagenmayer (*Epistulae et Chartae* 167), but neither Raymond nor
Fulcher mention it.
[183] Malach.III.10
[184] August 1, 1098.
[185] IV Kings.v.12
[186] At this point manuscript I adds: Jerome says, in the fifth book
of his explication of Isaiah, that Antioch was the city of Reblata,
in which king Nabugodonosor tore out the eyes of king Sedechia, and
killed his sons.
[187] Latin for "red."
[188] Ma'arrat-an-Nu'man.
[189] Kafartab.
[190] Rafaniya.
[191] Abou Ali Ibn Ammar.
[192] Raymond, vicount of Torena.
[193] Job 2.4
[194] Latakia.
[195] Djebali
[196] Among the Romans, *iustitium* was a day on which no
business can be undertaken due to natural disaster
[197] Judges XVII.6.
[198] Manassas II of Chatillon died in 1106. Anselm's letters have
survived and appear in *Epistulae et chartae ad historiam primi
belli sacri spectantes*, ed. Heinrich Hagenmeyer, Innsbruck, 1901,
pp. 144-146 and 156-160.
[199] October 31.
[200] Botron.
[201] Jubail.
[202] Nahir-Ibrahim.
[203] Saida.
[204] I Kings 17.9.
[205] Tyre.
[206] Ramla.
[207] I Kings I.
[208] Robert, a Norman cleric.
[209] Psalm 21.30.
[210] John IX.7.
[211] Guibert has elided the assertion in the *Gest Francorum*
that the Arabs had poisoned the wells, substituting instead these
remarks sympathetic to the class from which he sprung.
[212] Joshua VI.20.
[213] The author of the *Gesta Francorum* gives his name as
Gaston Bearn.
[214] Part of a dactylic hexameter couplet.
[215] Three elegiac lines.
[216] Two dactylic hexameters.
[217] Psalms 121.1.
[218] 48 iambic trimeters.
[219] Guibert multiplies the single *nuntius* of the *Gesta
Francorum* into *legati*.
[220] Sichem, then Flavia Neapolis, then Nabulus.
[221] Arnulf of Martirano.
[222] The *Gesta Francorum* reports the presence of the animals
without attributing them to any Arabian design.
[223] One dactylic hexameter.
[224] Two dactylic hexameters.
[225] Psalm 92.4.
[226] Three dactylic hexameters.
[227] Isaiah 43.5.
[228] Zech 12.2.
[229] Galatians 2.2.
[230] Zechariah 12.2.
[231] Zechariah 12.3.
[232] Zechariah 12.3.
[233] Luke 21.24.
[234] Ezekiel 29.18.
[235] Zechariah 12.4.
[236] Zechariah 12.4.
[237] Zechariah.12.5.
[238] Zechariah 12.6.
[239] Zechariah 12.6.
[240] Zechariah 12.7
[241] Zechariah 12.8.
[242] Zechariah 12.8.
[243] Zechariah 12.9.
[244] Psalm 2.8.
[245] Apoc 2.27; 19.15.
[246] Zecharia 12.10.
[247] 5.5.
[248] It is not clear what this province is. The RHC editor
tentatively suggests "Isauria."
[249] Judges VI, VII, VIII.
[250] Terence *Eunuch* 4.6.6.
[251] Hebrews 13 II.
[252] Three times in the course of the last book of the *Gesta
Dei* Guibert finds something positive in the absence of Western
kings on the expedition to Jerusalem. Among the practical reasons
for their absence: (1) Philip I and the Holy Roman Emperor were
excommunicate at the time; (2) William Rufus was anticlerical and
otherwise occupied; (3) the Italian rulers were absorbed with local
problems.
[253] Lucan I.135.
[254] Ecclesiasticus 11.5.
[255] Horace, Ars Poetica 97.
[256] Robert the Monk, RHC.HO III, p. 794, provides a longer passage
on Gualo.
[257] In Terence's *Eunuch* (I.ii.105), the slave Parmeno says he
can keep silent about the truth, but must immediately speak (or leak)
what is a lie.
[258] RHC IV 149F.
[259] 1066-1118.
[260] 1104.
[261] One dactylic hexameter.
[262] Numbers XX.2-13; XXIII.38.
[263] Fulker.
[264] In RHC, p. 333, Fulker mentions 600,000.
[265] Luke 12.32.
[266] The *Gesta Francorum* gives his name: Gervais de Bazoches.
The Deeds of God through the Franks
(C)1997 by Robert Levine