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The Capture of Constantinople - The "Hystoria Constantinopolitana" of Gunther of Pairis (Paperback)
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The Capture of Constantinople - The "Hystoria Constantinopolitana" of Gunther of Pairis (Paperback)
Series: The Middle Ages Series
Expected to ship within 12 - 17 working days
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The armies of the Fourth Crusade that left Western Europe at the
beginning of the thirteenth century never reached the Holy Land to
fight the Infidel; they stopped instead at Byzantium and sacked
that capital of eastern Christendom. Much of what we know today of
those events comes from contemporary accounts by secular writers;
their perspective is balanced by a document written from a monastic
point of view and now available for the first time in English. The
Hystoria Constantinopolitana relates the adventures of Martin of
Pairis, an abbot of the Cistercian Order who participated in the
plunder of the city, as recorded by his monk Gunther. Written to
justify the abbot's pious pilferage of scared relics and his
transporting them back to his monastery in Alsace, it is a work of
Christian metahistory that shows how the sack of Constantinople
fits into God's plan for humanity, and that deeds done under divine
guidance are themselves holy and righteous. The Hystoria
Constantinopolitana is one of the most complex and sophisticated
historiographical work of its time, deftly interweaving moods and
motifs, themes and scenes. In producing the first English
translation and analysis of this work, Alfred Andrea has captured
the full flavor of the original with its alternating section of
prose and poetry. His introduction to the text provides background
on Gunther's life and work and explores the monk's purpose in
writing the Hystoria Constantinopolitana-not the least of which was
extolling the virtues of Abbott Martin, who was sometimes accuse of
laxity by his superiors in the Order. Gunther's work is significant
for its effort to deal with problems raised by the participation of
monks in the Crusades, making it a valuable contribution to both
crusading and monastic history. The Capture of Constantinople adds
to our knowledge of the Fourth Crusade and provides unusual insight
into the attitudes of the participants and the
cultural-intellectual history of the early thirteenth century.
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