The Conquest of Santarém and Goswin’s Song of the Conquest of Alcácer do Sal: Editions and Translations of De expugnatione Scalabis and Gosuini de expugnatione Salaciae carmen

201 Pages·2021·3.615 MB·English

by  Jonathan Wilson

The Conquest of Santarém and
Goswin’s Song of the Conquest
of Alcácer do Sal
Achieved at the height of the Crusades, the Christian conquests of Santarém in
1147 by King Afonso I, and of Alcácer do Sal in 1217 by Portuguese forces and
northern European warriors on their way by sea to Palestine, were crucial events
in the creation of the independent kingdom of Portugal. The two texts presented
here survive in their unique, thirteenth-century manuscript copies appended to a
codex belonging to one of Europe’s most important monastic library collections
accumulated in the Cistercian abbey of Alcobaça, founded c. 1153 by Bernard
of Clairvaux. Accompanied by comprehensive introductions and here translated
into English for the first time, these extraordinary texts are based on eyewitness
testimony of the conquests. They contain much detail for the military historian,
including data on operational tactics and the ideology of Christian holy war in
the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. Literary historians too will be delighted
by the astonishing styles deployed, demonstrating considerable authorial
flamboyance, flair and innovation. While they are likely written by Goswin of
Bossut, the search for authorship yields an impressive array of literary friends and
associates, including James of Vitry, Thomas of Cantimpré, Oliver of Paderborn
and Caesarius of Heisterbach.
Jonathan Wilson (PhD, Liverpool) is a Researcher in the Institute of Medieval
Studies (IEM), Universidade Nova, Lisbon, and Research Fellow in the project
Cistercian Horizons (IEM Nova, University of Évora, Catholic University of
Portugal, Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal, Monastery of Alcobaça) financed by
the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), Portugal.
Crusade Texts in Translation
Editorial Board
Peter Edbury (Cardiff), Norman Housley (Leicester),
Peter Jackson (Keele)
The crusading movement, which originated in the 11th century and lasted beyond
the 16th, bequeathed to its future historians a legacy of sources which are unrivalled
in their range and variety. These sources document in fascinating detail the
motivations and viewpoints, military efforts and spiritual lives, of the participants
in the crusades. They also narrate the internal histories of the states and societies
which crusaders established or supported in the many regions where they fought.
Some of these sources have been translated in the past but the vast majority have
been available only in their original language. The goal of this series is to provide
a wide-ranging corpus of texts, most of them translated for the first time, which
will illuminate the history of the crusades and the crusader-states from every angle,
including that of their principal adversaries, the Muslim powers of the Middle East.
Titles in the series include
The Conquest of Santarém and Goswin’s Song of the Conquest of Alcácer
do Sal
Jonathan Wilson
History of the Dukes of Normandy and the Kings of England by the
Anonymous of Béthune
Paul Webster
Ibn Naẓīf’s World-History: Al-Tā’rīkh al-Manṣūrī
David Cook
Chronicles of Qalāwūn and his son al-Ashraf Khalīl
David Cook
Baybars’ Successors
David Cook

Figure 1 Detail. Alc.415 fol. 147r. (All plates showing folios of Alc.415 appearing herein
are supplied by, and used with kind permission of, Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal,
Lisboa.)
The Conquest of Santarém and
Goswin’s Song of the Conquest
of Alcácer do Sal
Editions and Translations of
De expugnatione Scalabis and Gosuini
de expugnatione Salaciae carmen
Jonathan Wilson
First published 2021
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2021 Jonathan Wilson
The right of Jonathan Wilson to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Wilson, Jonathan (Charles Jonathan), author.
Title: The conquest of SantareŁŁm and Goswin’s song of the conquest of
Alcácer do Sal : editions and translations of De expugnatione Scalabis
and Gosuini de expugnatione Salaciae carmen / Jonathan Wil
Other titles: 02 De expugnatione Scala
Description: 1 Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2 |
Includes bibliographical references and index
Identifiers: LCCN 2020052309 (print) | LCCN 202005 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780367753818 (hardback) | ISBN 9781003162292 (ebook)
Subjects:
Classification: LCC D151 .W55 2021 (print) | LCC D151 (ebook) |
DDC 946.9/02—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020052309
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020052310
ISBN: 978-0-367-75381-8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-75382-5 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-16229-2 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
for June Wilson

Contents
List of figures xi
List of maps xii
Acknowledgements xiii
List of abbreviations xiv
General introduction 1
PART I
De expugnatione Scalabis 3
The road to Santarém 7
The Scalabis and Liturgy 24
The Scalabis and Rhetoric 43
The glory of kings 51
Previous editions and translations of De expugnatione
Scalabis 59
De expugnatione Scalabis, Latin text with English translation 60
PART II
Gosuini de Expugnatione Salaciae Carmen 73
SUERIUS commissioner of the Carmen, and the ‘First
Portuguese Crusade’ 75
In search of the author, GOSUINUS 97
Gosuini de expugnatione Salaciae carmen, Latin text with
English translation 141