The text is at once a crusade narrative, an itinerary of sacred sites, a history of the Holy Land, a treatise on the flora, fauna and peoples of ‘the East’, an anti- Islamic polemic and more besides. It draws on many textual influences, including the works of Augustine of Hippo, Pliny the Elder, Julius Solinus, Isidore of Seville, William of Tyre and, of course, the Old and New Testaments. Moreover, while Jacques’ discussion may reach out to the exoticised fringes of the known world, much like the mappa mundi he tells us he also consulted in the preparation of his narrative, the city of Jerusalem remains firmly positioned at its centre. Although it was composed in the Latin East, it was written for audiences in western Europe, where, as Jessalynn Bird has shown, it proved popular. Jean Donnadieu, the text's most recent editor, has counted no fewer than 124 manuscripts dating from the thirteenth to sixteenth centuries. - [Abstract]

Language: English

Locators: DOI: 10.1017/9781805431510.014