Jerusalem medieval narrative

Suzanne M. Yeager052187792X, 9780521877923, 9780511483400

During the early medieval period, crusading brought about new ways of writing about the city of Jerusalem in Europe. By creating texts that embellished the historical relationship between the Holy City and England, English authors endowed their nation with a reputation of power and importance. In Jerusalem in Medieval Narrative, Suzanne Yeager identifies the growth of medieval propaganda aimed at rousing interest in crusading, and analyzes how fourteenth-century writers refashioned their sources to create a substantive (if fictive) English role in the fight for Jerusalem. Centering on medieval identity, this study offers new assessments of some of the fourteenth century’s most popular works, including English pilgrim itineraries, political treatises, the romances Richard, Coeur de Lion and The Siege of Jerusalem, and the prose Book of Sir John Mandeville. This study will be an essential resource for the study of medieval literary history, travel, crusade, and the place of Jerusalem.

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Table of contents :
Cover……Page 1
Half-title……Page 3
Series-title……Page 4
Title……Page 5
Copyright……Page 6
Contents……Page 7
Acknowledgments……Page 8
Abbreviations……Page 10
Introduction: texts and contexts……Page 13
Imagining Jerusalem in fourteenth-century England……Page 14
English pilgrims and the negotiations of Jerusalem travel……Page 16
English crusading identities: origins and contexts……Page 18
The holy city as guarantor of sacral identity: the Jerusalem relation……Page 21
Negotiating the past: remembering Jerusalem, refining history……Page 23
Virtual travel to Jerusalem in the middle ages……Page 25
Past scholarly approaches: the context……Page 27
CHAPTER 1 Pilgrimage to Jerusalem: three accounts by English authors……Page 29
Who were the writers?……Page 32
Textual community in English pilgrim accounts: sharing the sources……Page 33
Wey’s methodology: creating a user-friendly guide……Page 35
Writing travel: what to expect on pilgrimage……Page 36
Writing Jerusalem: memorializing the heart of the pilgrimage……Page 40
Developing Christian communitas: cultural interactions with the other……Page 46
Tourism and pilgrimage: situating Jerusalem in later accounts……Page 55
CHAPTER 2 Craving heritage: portrayals of Richard I and the English quest for Jerusalem in Richard, Coer de Lyon……Page 60
The background of Richard’s romance……Page 63
Richard’s historical character and involvement in the Third Crusade……Page 65
Reinventing the past: the poetic Richard, cannibal, and “Christianissimus rex”……Page 66
The construction of Richard’s Jerusalem relation……Page 75
The unfavorable portrayal of Philip: questioning French kingship……Page 77
Ownership of Jerusalem: the test and sign of divine favor……Page 83
Jerusalem and France as English inheritance……Page 87
CHAPTER 3 The crusade of the soul in The Siege of Jerusalem……Page 90
Religious identity in the Siege: portraying Jews and Romans creatively……Page 91
Rome: toward a literal reading of the Siege……Page 93
Typology and the Christian assimilation of Josephus: crusade as prophecy fulfillment……Page 99
Shifting cultural identities: from Jerusalem to Rome……Page 102
Exegetical influences in England: interpreting the historical siege of Jerusalem……Page 104
The Siege as Devotional and Political Text for Affective Use……Page 114
Saving the Jewish City, Saving the Christian Soul……Page 118
CHAPTER 4 The Book of Sir John Mandeville: text of pilgrimage and spiritual reform……Page 120
Textual background: Mandeville’s identity and the Book’s “English” reception……Page 121
The role of Jerusalem in the Book: sacred object and religious center……Page 123
Geographic centrality and its relation to religious devotion……Page 128
The Book of John Mandeville and regaining the center……Page 130
Conquering Jerusalem: tactical strategies and the Book……Page 137
Re-reading Mandeville: the Book as cure for the soul……Page 141
Pilgrimage and crusade of the soul: the importance of place……Page 144
CHAPTER 5 Beyond the Celestial and Terrestrial Jerusalem: the Promised Land in western Christendom……Page 147
Guillaume de Deguileville’s Jerusalem as an internal destination of private peace……Page 150
Reifying the Jerusalem pilgrimage: progressing by disposition, transcending landscape……Page 162
Philippe de Mézières’ Jerusalem as an external destination and end to the war……Page 165
Conclusion……Page 176
INTRODUCTION: TEXTS AND CONTEXTS……Page 185
1. PILGRIMAGE TO JERUSALEM: THREE ACCOUNTS BY ENGLISH AUTHORS……Page 189
2. CRAVING HERITAGE: PORTRAYALS OF RICHARD I AND THE ENGLISH QUEST FOR JERUSALEM IN RICHARD, COER DE LYON……Page 196
3. THE CRUSADE OF THE SOUL IN THE SIEGE OF JERUSALEM……Page 204
4. THE BOOK OF SIR JOHN MANDEVILLE: TEXT OF PILGRIMAGE AND SPIRITUAL REFORM……Page 212
5 . BEYOND THE CELESTIAL AND TERRESTRIAL JERUSALEM: THE PROMISED LAND IN WESTERN CHRI STENDOM……Page 223
CONCLUSION……Page 227
PRIMARY SOURCES……Page 231
SECONDARY SOURCES……Page 242
Index……Page 260