Many of the best-known sources of the crusades have been subjected to significant re-evaluation in recent years. The chronicles of the First Crusade have come under considerable scrutiny, [1] while the fidelity of formerly canonical texts, such as the well-known epistolary evidence of the early crusading movement, has been convincingly called into question. [2] Alongside these welcome investigations, there has been a flourishing of publications and projects concerned with materials that are often overlooked. Liturgical texts, material culture and Arabic poetry--to name only three resources among many--have been the focus of ground-breaking, recent studies. [3] Likewise, Linda Paterson's Singing the Crusades sheds new light on a resource that is sometimes marginalised by scholars of the crusading movement: the lyric verses of troubadours and trouvères, who composed in Occitan and Old French respectively.
This valuable book analyses many of the surviving Old French and Occitan lyrics that offer insights into medieval attitudes towards the crusades. It makes use of the works of thirty-seven trouvères and seventy-five troubadours--over 200 lyrics in total--and it is one output to have emerged from a collaborative project involving an international team of researchers, editors, translators and writers. The critical editions and translations of the texts used by Paterson, many sections of which are printed in this book, are freely available online (another outcome of the project). [4] As was the case with the online editions, and as the authorial component of the work's citation indicates, this book is a collaborative effort; however, it is Linda Paterson who is responsible for the main body of the text.
Paterson's wide-ranging expertise in Occitan social and cultural history is well known, and her many publications on medieval literature have been influential. This book does not, however, expect readers to possess a great deal of pre-existing knowledge. It is aimed at a wide audience, written in a very accessible format and all of the quoted lyrics are accompanied by English translations. Moreover, where the language of literary analysis appears, it is minimal. Paterson's stated goal of making crusade lyrics available to a variety of readers (xiii) has been achieved admirably.
A difficult matter tackled in this study, and in some respects its starting point, is what does and does not constitute a crusade song, which is an issue that resonates with ongoing debates about what does and does not constitute a crusade. In dealing with this, Paterson and her team have adopted an "inclusive" approach, rejecting strict definitions of crusade or crusade song in so doing (6-7). In fact, she voices concerns about the traditional numbering of the crusades--a practice referred to here as both "arbitrary" and "absurd" (23). Nevertheless, this book is structured chronologically, and most chapters focus on one of the 'numbered' crusading expeditions. In addition to the twelve chapters, there are three appendices. The first, written by Marjolaine Raguin-Barthelmebs, is a thematic analysis of the lyrics, the second is a chronology of events and texts, and the final one a list of manuscripts containing melodies. The book also contains five useful maps to help the reader navigate an investigation that traverses multiple regions of Europe and the eastern Mediterranean over a period of two centuries.
One of the great values of this corpus of lyrics, as Paterson argues from the outset, is the insight it offers into the diversity of medieval public opinion on the crusades (1). We find in the surviving verses both ardent support for the crusades and acerbic denunciation of the movement. At the time of the Fourth Crusade, Marquis Boniface of Montferrat was celebrated by Raimbaut de Vaqueiras for his leading role in the venture, while King Philip of France was chastised by Peire Vidal for a lack of action (100-101). Yet when the weapon of crusade was turned on heresy in southern France by Pope Innocent III in the early thirteenth century, troubadours railed in lyric against the Church, urging prominent aristocrats of the region to stand their ground (132-134). Given the fact that the Albigensian Crusade affected them directly, this should be no surprise, but one of the fascinating aspects of the study is a discernible diversity of interests when the lyrics of trouvères and troubadours are compared.
This variation between north and south is a matter to which Paterson returns throughout the book. We see how the "song of departure" was a common aspect of northern French lyrics, while humour often found its way into Occitan verse. The trouvères show almost no interest in warfare in the Iberian Peninsula, yet it is a prominent theme among the verses of troubadours throughout the entire period covered here. After the Third Crusade, and with only a single exception, it would be ten years before any northern French lyricists demonstrated interest in the Holy Land. Meanwhile, many of the verses composed in Occitan during the same period remained focused on crusading matters in the Holy Land and in the Iberian Peninsula (75). These contrasts demonstrate how regional culture and political interest coloured attitudes towards crusading across Europe. As with so much in the medieval world, scholarly focus on the crusades--in this case crusade lyrics--is revealing of social, political and cultural concerns.
The findings of this study also offer important perspectives on several prominent facets in crusade historiography. Few historians of the crusades, for instance, would now ignore frontiers of crusading warfare other than the Holy Land, and it is striking to discover that crusading in Spain was a common theme in lyrics before the Third Crusade. There is also a very useful section on attitudes towards developments in the Latin Empire, established in the wake of the Fourth Crusade and often neglected in crusader scholarship (112-122). A range of other themes are tackled throughout the book, such as audience, contexts of composition, the social status of composers, as well as interactions between them. The chronological approach adopted allows Paterson to track the many developments that emerged in the composition and transmission of lyrics in the two centuries covered by this book.
One concern must be raised. It is surprising to see that Paterson is often reliant on Steven Runciman's famous three-volume study A History of the Crusades when providing context for the lyrics. While Runciman's work remains popular and entertaining, it was published in the 1950s and has been superseded by many publications over the past seven decades, yet Paterson draws on it time and time again. Substantial passages from Runciman appear on occasion, as is the case during a discussion about John of Ibelin (144), and in chapters 1 through 12, he is cited in all but two chapters: 4 and 8. Furthermore, in chapter 7, "Frederick II and the Sixth Crusade," Runciman appears in 26% of footnotes. While this should not detract from the many qualities of this publication, and the book certainly does cite more recent literature, it is an unusual aspect of the work, and readers should be aware of it when making use of Singing the Crusades.
In spite of this consideration, Singing the Crusades is a rewarding read, and the inclusion of so many verses make it a valuable resource for researching and studying the crusading movement. Paterson's expertise in the crusade lyrics used here is always evident, and she has made the subject accessible to a wide audience. It chimes with important facets of crusade historiography, enriching discussion about many of them, and at various points it highlights potential areas for future research. It is hoped that the digital outputs produced by Paterson and her team will remain online for consultation, especially as she directs readers to them on several occasions. However, this book stands on its own without them, and it has much to tell us about medieval attitudes towards the crusading movement.
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Notes:
1. Marcus Bull and Damien Kempf, eds, Writing the Early Crusades: Text, Transmission and Memory (Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 2014).
2. Thomas W. Smith, "First Crusade Letters and Medieval Monastic Scribal Cultures,"Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 71.3 (2019): 484-501.
3. M. Cecilia Gaposhkin, Invisible Weapons: Liturgy and the Making of Crusade Ideology(Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2017); William J. Purkis,https://www.bearersofthecross.org.uk/; Osman Latiff, The Cutting Edge of the Poet's Sword: Muslim Poetic Responses to the Crusades (Leiden: Brill, 2017).
4. http://www.warwick.ac.uk/crusadelyrics and http://www.rialto.unina.it/BdT.htm.