Download PDF | Alfred J. Andrea - Contemporary Sources for the Fourth Crusade (The Medieval Mediterranean_ Peoples, Economics and Cultures, 400 - 1500) (2008).
361 Pages
PROLOGUE
More years ago than I care to remember, while I was involved in the task of editing, analyzing, and translating into English Gunther of Pairis's Hystoria Constantinopolitana, my friend and colleague Donald Queller suggested that I translate and analyze some of the other ``minor sources'' for the Fourth Crusade.
Given Don's preference (one is tempted to say reverence) for Geoffrey of Villehardouin's La conquête de Constantinople, I was willing to overlook his characterizing Gunther's Hystoria as minor, and given Don's status as the scholar who revolutionized Fourth Crusade studies, I was ¯attered that he asked me. Yet numerous other research and publication projects were on my agenda. Those who knew and loved Don, however, know that he could be quite insistent in his gentle way, and I eventually agreed to begin the project.
It soon became apparent to me that this was not an easy task that could be done in a year or two. One of the chief problems was that a number of the sources desperately needed modern critical editions. To be sure, I was able to prepare and publish in the pages of Historical Re¯ections editions of two quite brief sources, the Devastatio Constantinopolitana and the De terra Iherosolimitana et quomodo ab urbe Constantinopolitana ad hanc ecclesiam allate sunt reliquie by the so-called Anonymous of Soissons, but this hardly made a dent in the problem.The registers of Pope Innocent III, the Gesta Innocentii III., and Count Hugh of Saint Pol's report to the West of all demanded new editions, and of these, the papal registers of Innocent presented an apparently insurmountable task ± given their volume and complexity.
Happily the editorial work of others has relieved me of these burdens. A team of scholars at the Austrian Cultural Institute in Rome, led by Professor Othmar Hageneder, has systematically been editing the registers of Innocent III since . To date, ®ve out of a projected sixteen volumes have appeared (volumes , , , , and ), with a sixth volume (volume ) promised in the near future. As good fortune would have it, all of the extant registered letters of Innocent relating to the Fourth Crusade appear in either the ®ve already edited volumes or the forthcoming volume. During the period -, as I worked to complete this book, one of the editors, Dr. Christoph Egger, sent via e-mail prepublication copies of several key letters that will appear in the forthcoming volume .
What is more, he enthusiastically shared his own insights into these letters. Without his collegial generosity, my work would have been delayed by several years. Editorial work on the early thirteenth-century Gesta Innocentii III. is not yet completed, but given the fact that it is in the capable hands of Professor James M. Powell, who has recently completed a ®rst draft of a translation of the work, I have been relieved of the burden of including that text in this already lengthy book. In the case of Hugh of Saint Pol's letters to the West, Rudolf Pokorny's edition of Count Hugh's letter to R. de Balues has provided me with the key document from which I could construct a comparative analysis of all four extant versions of Saint Pol's letters.
I trust that my notes clearly indicate the debts I owe all of these scholars. It also became apparent that this task afforded me an excellent opportunity to involve my more advanced students in the process of close textual analysis. Here I borrowed a page from Don Queller, who always invited his own students to join in his research. Over the years, Cynthia R. Arthur, Adam J. Gurien, Paul I. Rachlin, and especially Brett E. Whalen have all tied their own research to this project. Cynthia's Master of Arts thesis revolved about a translation and analysis of the Devastatio Constantinopolitana, and although I disagree with several of her core arguments, I have learned much from her work and accept several important insights that she has reached, especially regarding the basic contractual nature of the DC. Adam worked on Hugh of Saint Pol's letter to Duke Henry of Louvain as his senior honors thesis, and Paul prepared a translation and study of the Anonymous of Soissons as his senior honors thesis.
Although I have altered their translations substantially, have disagreed with some of their conclusions, and have added a fair amount to their work, this book owes much to them. More than that, I can never repay the satisfaction, indeed the joy, that I experienced in the years during which I functioned as their mentor and friend. Brett E.Whalen undertook detailed translations and studies of the accounts of Alberic of Trois Fontaines and Ralph of Coggeshall and did so largely on his own after having completed his Master of Arts work under my supervision. In the process of his work, drafts passed between us with great frequency as he translated and wrote and I engaged in the far less demanding task of amending and emending what is now Part III of this book. As a consequence, that portion of the book became our joint production, and it is only ®tting that Brett Whalen's name appears on the title page as a contributor. As is true of Cynthia, Paul, and Adam, I consider Brett much more than a former student; he is a life-long friend, and I have been privileged to work with him. Notes that accompany letters from the registers of Innocent III testify to my debt to Professsor John C. Moore.
In the course of fashioning our collaborative study of the pope's role in the Fourth Crusade, Jack provided me with a number of insights and even delightful turns of phrase. Another colleague who deserves recognition and gratitude is Thomas F. Madden, who read the full typescript of the penultimate draft of this book and made several important suggestions±most of which I have adopted. The only suggestion of his that I have not followed is that I add several letters of Innocent III: namely, the pope's letter of May to the Venetian clergy urging them to prepare for the crusade; his letter to Emeric of Hungary of November and subsequent letters regarding the conquest of Zara; and the entire papal letter of August to the Venetians, in which the pope reproved them for their conduct on the crusade. My failure to heed Tom's advice is no re¯ection on the merit of his excellent suggestion. I can only ascribe the decision not to do so as due in part to my desire to not add to the already considerable length of the book and in part to my hard-headedness. I trust my friend will understand.
Also lending support±of the moral sort±has been Stuart Campbell and the rest of the editorial staff of Historical Re¯ections, in whose pages early translations of the Devastatio Constantinopolitana, and the works of the Anonymous of Soissons and the Anonymous of Halberstadt ®rst appeared. Revised versions of those translations and their accompanying notes and analyses appear in this present book thanks to the generous permission of Historical Re¯ections.
The editorial staff of Brill Academic Publishers has likewise been quite supportive and understanding, and I wish to thank especially Julian Deahl, Marcella Mulder, and Gera van Bedaf for all of their help and kindnesses. Only my wife, Juanita, who has had to endure countless weekends, holidays, and nights as I buried myself in my study, understands how much I owe her. Acknowledging the support of so many colleagues and friends in no way relieves me of the responsibility for whatever errors and oversights I have committed and left uncorrected. AJA 31 December 1999.
Introduction
to the 2008 Reprint Edition Sales of the original printing of Contemporary Sources for the Fourth Crusade have mandated a reprinting, and in a perfect world, recent studies of the Fourth Crusade would have led to my reworking the book’s notes and bibliography. Unfortunately, other projects, which have laid heavy demands on my time, have precluded any such revision.
The only change incorporated into this reprinting, and it is an important one, is my adding as appendices critical editions of the Devastatio Constantinopolitana and the Anonymous of Soissons’ De terra Iherosolimitana. They should have been included in the 2000 printing of the book, but in my misguided attempt to expedite the book’s appearance, they were left out. Mea culpa. Persons interested in the continuing academic dialogue regarding the Fourth Crusade will be pleased to note that James M. Powell’s promised translation of the Gesta Innocentii III. has appeared, and likewise John C. Moore’s new biography of the pope is now in print.1 For essays on some of the persons involved in the crusade, researchers will now want to consult ABC-Clio’s The Crusades: An Encyclopedia. 2 Recent additions to the already rich collection of books on the Fourth Crusade have been offered by Michael Angold, Jonathan Harris, Ralph-Johannes Lilie, Thomas F. Madden, Marco Meschini, and Jonathan Phillips. All appeared in or shortly before 2004, the 800th anniversary of the crusade’s capture of Constantinople.3 AJA March 2008.
INTRODUCTION
Students at all levels, from university undergraduates to professional historians, who desire English translations of the sources for the Fourth Crusade (-) already have access to good English renderings of the eyewitness accounts of Geoffrey of Villehardouin, Robert of Clari, Nicetas Choniates, and the Novgorod Chronicle. Additionally, a translation of Gunther of Pairis's Hystoria Constantinopolitana, an important but highly distorted second-hand account of the crusade adventures of Abbot Martin of Pairis, recently appeared.
In an attempt to add to this canon, I have also published new Latin editions and English translations of the eyewitness Devastatio Constantinopolitana and a second-hand account by the so-called Anonymous of Soissons, as well as a translation of that portion of the Gesta episcoporum Halberstadensium (The Deeds of the Bishops of Halberstadt) that deals with the crusade experiences of Bishop Conrad of Krosigk. Because these three works appeared serially in an academic journal with limited circulation, they have been less than easily accessible to students of the Fourth Crusade and require inclusion in a book.
As important as these translations are, other, yet untranslated sources for the Fourth Crusade demand equal attention. These include: the Gesta Innocentii III. (The Deeds of Innocent III), an account of the ®rst ten years of Innocent III's ponti®cate; the crusade correspondence of that same pope covering the years - contained in his official registers; three letters of - to the West by the crusade's baronial leaders, each of which reported recent twists and turns in the crusade; the March Pact of drawn up between the Venetian and Frankish crusaders; and two secondhand, probably even third-hand, accounts of the crusade in the chronicles of Ralph of Coggeshall and Alberic of Trois Fontaines. Were all of these to be translated into English, essentially all of the major documentary evidence relating to the Fourth Crusade would be available to Anglophone scholars. As noted in the Prologue, Professor James M. Powell is currently working on a new Latin edition and English translation of the Gesta Innocentii III.
It would, therefore, be inappropriate to present here an independent translation and study of that work, but on occasion I shall translate passages in the Gesta that shed light on certain papal letters from the registers. But this still leaves the large body of letters relating to the crusade that Pope Innocent dispatched and received and that were incorporated into his registers, the baronial letters to the West, the March Pact, and the thirteenth-century chronicles of two Cistercian monks ± the Englishman Ralph of Coggeshall and the Frenchman Alberic of Trois Fontaines.
For good measure, updated versions of the not widely known translations of the Devastatio Constantinopolitana, the Anonymous of Sois-sons, and the Gesta episcoporum Halberstadensium also appear on this list of sources that demand inclusion in the present book. These, therefore, are the various perspectives through which we shall view the Fourth Crusade.
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