Raimund von Aguilers

Raimund von Aguilers was a chronicler of the First Crusade (1096-1099). He was a priest and the chaplain of Raymond IV of Toulouse , who led the Provencal crusaders to Jerusalem . No further information is available about him from the time after the siege of Jerusalem (1099) and the battle of Askalon (1099) . He wrote his Liber shortly after 1099, perhaps as early as 1099.

As an eyewitness to the events of the First Crusade, he is one of the most important chroniclers , even if he largely describes visions and miracles, such as the discovery of the Holy Lance by Peter Bartholomäus . He mediated between Peter on the one hand and the main authorities in Antioch : Adhemar von Le Puy and Raymond von Toulouse. For this reason his work, the Liber , is not taken very seriously by some modern historians . His description of the siege of Antioch (1097-1098) seems to be the only authentic account. The Liber conveys (like Frutolf and Ekkehard von Aura ) the apocalyptic atmosphere of the crusade; the source also provides important insights into the radical mentality of some of the crusaders, which led to massive atrocities from 1096-1099. Jean Flori renamed Raymond's Liber “Gesta Dei per pauperes”, the deeds of God through the poor.

Works

• Histoire des Francs qui prirent Jérusalem , ed. by François Pierre Guillaume Guizot, (Aux sources de l'Histoire, vol. 5), Rennes 2006.
• Le "Liber" de Raymond d'Aguilers , ed. by John Hugh Hill / Laurita Lyttleton Hill, ( Documents relatifs à l'histoire des croisades , vol. 9), Paris 1969.
• Raymond d'Aguilers. Historia Francorum qui ceperunt Iherusalem , ed. by John Hugh Hill / Laurita Lyttleton Hill, (Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 71), Philadelphia 1968.

literature

• Johannes Madey :  Raimund von Aguilers. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 16, Bautz, Herzberg 1999, ISBN 3-88309-079-4 , Sp. 1311-1312.
• Encyclopedic Dictionary of Religion , 1977, Philadelphia, Washington 1979.
• Christoph Auffarth: "Knights" and "Arms" on the First Crusade. On the problem of domination and religion based on Raymond von Aguilers. In: Saeculum 40 (1989), pp. 39-55.
• Philippe Buc: Martyrdom in the West. Vengeance, Purge, Salvation, and History. In: Nils Holger Petersen, Eyolf Østrem, Andreas Bücker (eds.): Resonances. Historical Essays on Continuity and Change. Brepols, Turnhout 2011, ISBN 2503534937 .
• Jean Flori : Chroniqueurs et propagandistes. Introduction critique aux sources de la Première croisade. Droz, Geneva 2010, ISBN 2600013296 .
• Steven Runciman: History of the Crusades , Volume I, Munich 1957.
• Beate Schuster: The voice of the wrong "pauper". The crusade report of Raimund von Aguilers and the poor question. In: Otto Gerhard Oexle (Ed.): Poverty in the Middle Ages , (lectures and research, vol. 58), Ostfildern 2004, pp. 79–126 ( digitized version ).