TheRecueil des historiens des croisades (trans:Collection of the Historians of the Crusades) is a major collection of several thousand medieval documents written during theCrusades. The documents were collected and published in Paris in the 19th century, and include documents inLatin,Greek,Arabic,Old French, andArmenian.[1] The documents cover the entire period of the Crusades, and are frequently cited in scholarly works, as a way of locating a specific document. When being quoted in citations, the collection is often abbreviated asRHC orR.H.C..
Images of the documents can be viewed in some major libraries. The 1967 reprint of the entire collection byGregg Press can also be found in major libraries, and there are also full-text PDF files available online, which have been made available by theBibliothèque Nationale de France Gallica project. Documents can be downloaded in their entirety, or stepped through page by page, with both the original text, and a French translation.
According to the introductory Report[2] to the first volume of theWestern Historians, this collection brings up to date the previous collection published in 1611 byJacques Bongars under the titleGesta Dei per Francos,[3] due to "the discovery of many literary and historical monuments which Bongars could not have suspected the existence", including those published in the collections of Duchesne, Archery, Mabillon, Martène and many other foreign compilers.
The editors of this collection have chosen to consider 1291 as the end date of the Crusades, since thefall of Saint-Jean-d'Acre completed the ruin of Christian institutions in Palestine. So historians posterior to the middle of the fourteenth century are not included. Were also excluded works more literary than historical, like novels on the Crusades, and also the narration related to theconquest of Constantinople by the French and the Venetians, because they did take almost no part in the events of Palestine. Neither was includedJoinville'sHistoire, because the commission of theAcadémie des inscriptions et belles-lettres did class this author among France's general historians.
The RHC is divided into five series:
- Lois ("RHC Lois"; theAssizes of Jerusalem)
- Historiens occidentaux ("RHC Oc" or "RHC Occ"; Western European texts in Latin and Old French)
- Historiens orientaux ("RHC Or"; Arabic texts)
- Historiens grecs ("RHC Grec"; Greek texts)
- Historiens arméniens ("RHC Arm"; Armenian texts)
Full title:Assises de Jérusalem ou Recueil des ouvrages de jurisprudence composés pendant le XIIIe siècle dans lesroyaumes de Jérusalem etde Chypre, parM. Le Comte Beugnot
- Introduction to the Assizes of theHaute Cour (by Beugnot)
- Table des matières
- Introduction to the Assizes of the Cour des Bourgeois (by Beugnot)
- I. Livre des Assises de la Cour des Bourgeois
- II. Abrégé du Livre des Assises de la Cour des Bourgeois
- III. Bans et Ordonnances des rois de Chypre
- IV. Formules
- Appendix
- I. Documents relatifs à la successibilité au trône et à la régence
- II. Document relatif au service militaire
- III. LesLignages d'Outremer
- IV. Charters
- Glossary
- Table of contents.
Historiens occidentaux (1844–1895)
[edit]- First part
- Report on the publication of the Recueil des historiens des croisades
- Preface
- Notice on the general map of the theatre of the crusades
- William of Tyre's Chronique,Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum, in Latin, up to book 23
- Second part (p. 703)
- William of Tyre's Chronique,Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum, in Latin, Rest
- Ernoul's Chronique,L’estoire de Eracles empereur, translation in old French of the former
- Variantes Lectiones
- Index Generalis
- Preface
- Description of the manuscripts
- Table of contents of the second volume
- Corrections and additions
- L'estoire de eracles émpereur (continuation; in Old French) Book 23 to 34
- Continuation of William of Tyre from the so-called"Rothelin manuscript"
- Chronological analysis of William of Tyre and his continuators
- Glossary
- Table
- Preface
- I.Petri Tudebodi seu Tudebovis, sacerdotis Sivracensis, historia de Hierosolymitano itinere
- II.Gesta Francorum et aliorum Hierosolymitanorum, seu Tudebodus abbreviatus (Expeditio contra Turcos)
- III.Tudebodus imitatus et continuatus, ex codice bibliothecae casinensis qui inscribitur, Historia peregrinorum euntium Jerusolymam ad liberandum Sanctum Sepulcrum de potestate ethnicorum, et a cl. Viro Mabillone editus est in Musaeo italico
- IV.Raimundi de Aguilers, canonici Podiensis,historia Francorum qui ceperunt Iherusalem
- V.Historia Iherosolymitana. Gesta Francorum Iherusalem peregrinantium, ab anno Domini MXCV usque ad annum MCXXVII, auctore domnoFulcherio Carnotensi
- VI.Gesta Francorum Iherusalem expugnantium
- VII.Secunda pars historiae Iherosolimitanae
- VIII.Gesta Tancredi in expeditione Hierosolymitana, auctoreRudolfo Cadomensi, ejus familiari
- IX.Roberti Monachi historia Iherosolimitana
- X.Stephani, comitis Carnotensis, atqueAnselmi de Ribodi Monte epistolae
- Index generalis quo nomina quae ad res, locos et homines pertinent, comprehenduntur
- Preface
- I.Baldrici, episcopi Dolensis, Historia Jerosolimitana
- II.Historia quae dicitur Gesta Dei per Francos, edita a venerabili DomnoGuiberto, abbate monasterii Sanctae Mariae Novigenti
- III.Alberti Aquensis Historia Hierosolymitana
- Index generalis quo nomina quae ad res locos, homines, pertinent, comprehenduntur
- Preface
Historiens orientaux (1872–1906)
[edit]- Introduction
- Summary of the history of the Crusades, taken from theConcise History of Humanity ofAbu'l-Feda (Arabic/French)
- Autobiography of Abu'l-Feda, extract from his chronicle
- Extract fromThe Complete History byibn Athir (Arabic/French)
- Appendix
- Notes and corrections
Volume 2, part 1 (1887)
[edit]- Advertisement
- Extract fromThe Complete History by ibn Athir (continuation) (Arabic/French)
- Extracts fromThe Necklace of Pearls byBadr al-Din al-Ayni (Arabic/French)
- List of chapters from the extract ofThe Complete History by ibn Athir
- Index
Volume 2, part 2 (1876)
[edit]- History of the Atabegs of Mosul by ibn Athir (Arabic/French)
- List of chapters
- Index
- Anecdotes and good habits of the life of the Sultan Youssof (Saladin) of Abu’l-Mahāsin (Arabic/French)
- Notice onBeha Ed-Din Abou’L-Mehacen Ibn Cheddad, Extract from the Dictionary ofIbn Khallican (Arabic/French)
- Extracts from the Autobiography ofAbd al-Latif (Arabic/French)
- Voyage byibn Jubayr (Arabic/French)
- Extracts from ibn Muyessar (Arabic/French)
- Extracts from theNodjoum az-Zahireh of Abu’l-Mahāsin (Arabic/French)
- Extracts from theMirat az-Zeman ofSibt ibn al-Jawzi (Arabic/French)
- Extracts from theChronicle of Aleppo byKamal ad-Din (Arabic/French)
- Extracts from the biographical dictionary of Kamal ad-Din (Arabic/French)
- The Book of the Two Gardens, History of the Two Kingdoms, that ofNur ad-Din and that ofSaladin (13 June 1146 – 29 January 1191), byAbu Shama (Arabic/French)
- Tables des Matières
- Publications
- The Book of the Two Gardens, History of the Two Kingdoms, that of Nur ad-Din and that of Saladin (continuation)
- Index
Historiens grecs (1875–1881)
[edit]- Preface
- Variantes lectiones e codice Florentino
- I. Scriptores Graeci Bellorum a Francis dei signa sequentibus in Syria susceptorum (Michael Attaliata,Psellus), Annotationes Historiae et philologicae ad partem primam
- II. Scriptores Graeci Bellorum a Francis dei signa sequentibus in Syria Susceptorum. Pars secunda (Anna Comnena)
- III. Scriptores Graeci Bellorum a Francis dei signa sequentibus in Syria Susceptorum. Pars tertia. Transitio. (Cinnamus,Nicetas)
- IV. Scriptores Graeci Bellorum a Francis dei signa sequentibus in Syria Susceptorum. Pars quarta (Nicetas)
- V. Scriptores Graeci Bellorum a Francis dei signa sequentibus in Syria Susceptorum. Pars quinta. (Nicephorus Gregoras,Ioannes Phocas, Neophytus,Georgius Agropolita De Syria Expugnata. (Ephraemius)
- Addenda et corrigenda
- Preface
- Scriptores Graeci Bellorum a Francis dei signa sequentibus in Syria Susceptorum. Adnotationes Historicae et philologicae ad partem secundum.
- Scriptores Graeci Bellorum a Francis dei signa sequentibus in Syria Susceptorum. Adnotationes Historicae et philologicae ad partem tertiam.
- Scriptores Graeci Bellorum a Francis dei signa sequentibus in Syria Susceptorum. Adnotationes Historicae et philologicae ad partem
- Scriptores Graeci Bellorum a Francis dei signa sequentibus in Syria Susceptorum. Adnotationes Historicae et philologicae ad partem quintam.
- Scriptores Graeci Bellorum a Francis dei signa sequentibus in Syria Susceptorum. Appendix (Theodore Prodromos)
- Index Graecitatis
- Addenda et corrigenda
Documents arméniens (1869–1906)
[edit]- Preface
- ^Recueil des historiens des Croisades publié par les soins de l'Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres, 16 vols (Paris: Imprimerie royale, 1841-1906).
- ^Rapport sur la publication du Recueil des historiens des croisades, 1844 (read on Gallica).
- ^Catalogue BnF.
