Read the text (PDF)

Introduction to the Text

This text is the prologue to a long work of history compiled in Northern France in the first third of the thirteenth century CE. The history was intended to be universal: spanning the creation of the world, through the ancient civilisations of Assyria, Greece and Rome, via the age of migrations in Europe, to the rise of powerful medieval kingdoms. However, the history was not completed and in fact only recounts as far as the Roman emperor Julius Caesar, hence the title commonly given to the work: Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César (<span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">“</span>Ancient History until Caesar<span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">”</span>).

Despite being unfinished, the work was immensely popular in medieval Europe, and seventy-four copies survive of the first redaction (the first version, before the text was revised). These manuscripts were produced in places as far apart as Paris, Venice, and Acre (a crusader city in what is now Israel). It is often found in combination with another work of ancient history, the Faits des Romains (<span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">“</span>Deeds of the Romans<span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">”</span>), which indicates the great interest that medieval audiences had in ancient history.

The prologue has been included in the Global Medieval Sourcebook because it summarises the entire work (including the unfinished parts) and shows how medieval people in Western Europe wove together Biblical stories with the histories of pre-Christian empires.

Although the prologue is in rhymed verse, the main body of the history is in prose, with interspersed sections of verse offering moral lessons drawn from the historical content. However, when the text was recopied, these verse sections (including the prologue) were often omitted. This may suggest that audience expectations about works of history were changing, preferring the voice of the author - or the moral interpretation - to be less prominent.

Credits

Transcription by Paul Meyer, Translation by Mae Velloso-Lyons, Encoded in TEI P5 XML by Mae Velloso-Lyons