Gesta Dei Per Francos, sive Orientalium Expeditionum, et Regni Francorum Hierosolimitani Historia [...]. [Together with] Liber Secretorum Fidelium Crucis Super Terrae Sanctae [...]. Hanoviae: Wechelianis, 1611, thick folio.
-------------------
THE FIRST PRINTED CORPUS OF THE PRIMARY SOURCES FOR THE HISTORY OF THE CRUSADES.
The Gesta Dei per Francos, edited by the French scholar and diplomat Jacques Bongars, brings together for the first time in print a wide corpus of medieval chronicles relating to the First Crusade and the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. Among the texts included are the anonymous Gesta Francorum, alongside redactions and reinterpretations by Robert the Monk, Guibert of Nogent, and Baldric of Dol, culminating in the great historical synthesis of William of Tyre.
Bongars’ editorial work preserves and systematises the narrative tradition of the Crusades, much of which had previously circulated only in manuscripts. The title, consciously echoing medieval formulations, frames the Crusades as providential history- “the deeds of God through the Franks”, while the method is a distinctly modern concern for the collection, comparison, and preservation of texts.
The importance of the edition cannot be overstated: for over a century it served as the principal reference work for the study of the Crusades and remains significant in the historiography of the Latin East. In several cases, Bongars’ publication ensured the survival and wider transmission of texts that might otherwise have remained obscure.
The second work (Liber secretorum fidelium crucis) is also noteworthy. It is a treatise where the author, a 13th-14th century writer named Marino Sanudo, desired to inspire a revival in the Crusades.
The present copy retains its attractive contemporary full vellum binding with blindstamped designs to the boards and a rather attractive title label.
-------------------
Size: 240 x 362 mm (approx.)
Condition:
Contemporary thick full vellum binding, five large raised bands to the spine, retains its title label, small sticker at foot of spine. Binding a little discoloured, a little rubbed, slight wear at extremities, ribbon ties mostly extant with losses. Both boards are securely attached, the binding is secure and stands without shelf lean. Externally very attractive indeed. Small neat ink inscription to head of front free endpaper verso, undated, but plausibly near contemporary. Text block intermittently toned, heavily in places, but toned throughout, associated foxing, also heavily in places, a few small stains sporadically throughout, but with the text legible, split at joint of foldout table. Without the map and five plates, as often, which are occasionally found.
