Content area
Full text
Susan B. Edgington's translation of Albert of Aachen's Historia represents a major contribution to crusade studies and to medieval historiography generally. For Albert's text is one of the earliest and most detailed treatments to survive of the First Crusade (1095-9), begun perhaps as soon as 1102. Albert, moreover, continues his narrative to the year 1119, making him also a valuable source for the early history of the kingdom of Jerusalem. His battle descriptions are among the most vivid of all the early crusade chronicles, even more so than the better-regarded eyewitness texts of Fulcher of Chartres and the anonymous Gesta francorum. Albert calls attention to a number of crusade participants otherwise unmentioned and to several events (most...