The Canso d'Antioca An Occitan Epic Chronicle of the First Crusade

The Canso d'Antioca is a fascinating text which deserves more attention than it has received. It is a fragment of a much larger epic describing the events of the First Crusade, related to the Old French Chanson d'Antioca but with many unique features. As such it presents a double interest to scholars of both history and literature. It is a source text for the First Crusade with information not contained in any other source. It is also an early and seminal text for Occitan epic, few examples of which survive. And arguably it represents the first work of vernacular verse history in France, raising fundamental questions about the junction of epic and historiography. This is the first published edition of the text since Paul Meyer's version in 1884. It is based on the single extant manuscript of the Canso found in Roda in Northern Spain and now in Madrid, accompanied by a translation into English on facing pages. The text is supported by detailed notes and a glossary of proper names cross-referenced to all major First Crusade sources. The introduction discusses in detail the history of the text and manuscript, the value of the Canso as a historical document, and its place both within the historical tradition of the Crusade and within Occitan literary tradition and 12th-century vernacular historiography.

Contents: Preface and acknowledgements; Introduction; The textual history of the Canso d'Antioca; The Canso d'Antioca and the vernacular epic tradition of the First Crusade; The Madrid fragment as history; Where history and literature meet: the place of the Canso tradition in vernacular literature; Appendix to chapter 4: The allusions to the Roland tradition in the Madrid fragment; Editorial principles and practices; Text and translation; Explanatory notes; Glossary; Bibliography; Index of proper names in the Madrid fragment.

Linda Paterson is Professor of French at the University of Warwick. Her books include 'The world of the troubadours: medieval Occitan society, c.1100 - c.1300' (CUP, 1993) and 'Marcabru: a Critical Edition', ed. S. Gaunt, R. Harvey and L. Paterson (D.S. Brewer, 2000); she is currently working on an edition of the Occitan tensos and partimens. Dr Carol Sweetenham is a Senior Civil Servant and Associate Fellow of the University of Warwick. Research in progress includes a translation of Robert the Monk's chronicle of the First Crusade (also for Ashgate).