Edgington (trans.), Baldric of Bourgueil, “History of the Jerusalemites”

Until recently, Baldric of Bourgueil's Historia Ierosolimitana (c. 1105)was the most neglected of three Latin histories of the First Crusade composed by northern French Benedictines in the early twelfth century with the ostensible purpose of retelling the story of the first-hand Gesta Francorum in a more polished style. While the study of Robert the Monk's own Historia Iherosolimitana (c. 1110)and Guibert of Nogent's Dei gesta per Francos (1107-8)has benefited from the appearance of new editions, translations, and analyses since the late 1990s, Baldric's Historia received less frequent attention prior to the publication of Steven Biddlecombe's critical edition of the text in 2014, which represents a major improvement on the flawed version printed in the Recueil des historiens des croisades in 1879. In his introduction, Biddlecombe remarked on the curious absence of a complete translation of Baldric's Historia in any modern language and expressed the hope that his edition would "provide the opportunity for scholars to undertake [the] work [of translation] in the knowledge that they have a reliable and thorough critical edition to work from." [1] This hope was echoed by several of the book's reviewers. [2]