Features
- Cover Type: Paperback with 336 pages
- Published by: University of Pennsylvania Press; Second Edition edition June 18, 1998
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 0812216563
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-0812216561
-
Book Dimensions:
9.1 x 6.1 x 1 inches
- Weighs: 1.1 pounds
Product Description
The First Crusade received its name and shape late. To its contemporaries, the event was a journey and the men who took part in it pilgrims. Only later were those participants dubbed Crusaders--"those signed with the Cross." In fact, many developments with regard to the First Crusade, like the bestowing of the cross and the elaboration of Crusaders' privileges, did not occur until the late twelfth century, almost one hundred years after the event itself.
In a greatly expanded second edition, Edward Peters brings together the primary texts that document eleventh-century reform ecclesiology, the appearance of new social groups and their attitudes, the institutional and literary evidence dealing with Holy War and pilgrimage, and, most important, the firsthand experiences by men who participated in the events of 1095-1099.
Peters supplements his previous work by including a considerable number of texts not available at the time of the original publication. The new material, which constitutes nearly one-third of the book, consists chiefly of materials from non-Christian sources, especially translations of documents written in Hebrew and Arabic. In addition, Peters has extensively revised and expanded the Introduction to address the most important issues of recent scholarship.
Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Reader ReviewsI'd like to offer a counterpoint to the rather harsh reviews of this book offered elsewhere on Amazon. While the other reviewers' points about the limited scope of Peters's collection and his choice of organization have some basis, they do not significantly weaken his achievement. The introduction is worth the cost of the book itself; in it, Peters gives an excellent summary of the continent-wide debate preceding the First Crusade about killing in a Christian context: in a surprisingly short period, a new idea arose that actually encouraged Christian knights to go on crusade. While killing was normally wrong, avenging the deaths of other Christians and meting out God's justice on earth came to be seen as positively redeeming for Christian soldiers; one result of this was the birth of a new epoch in the West, the Crusades. I cannot think of a better way to characterize the ethos of the half-millennium from 1095 to 1565 (the Christian knights' successful defense of Malta) than to call it the Age of Crusade. The introduction also does a good job of setting up the geopolitical chessboard of the day, explaining some of the political reasons that inspired Urban II to make his seminal speech at Clermont. Peters makes no claim that I can find to being exhaustive; rather, his book is intended to give the average student of the First Crusade a background in the original sources. Surely this is a worthy goal; I would rather have my students read 50 pages of orignal, 900-year-old text than 300 pages of wordy academese or casual potboiler history. Furthermore, this book inspires the reader to seek out complete editions of Fulcher, William of Tyre, and the other writers represented. I can think of no better introduction to the First Crusade than this.
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