Between east and west: representing Jerusalem in manuscript traditions of the second half of the twelfth century

The present study aims to add to the growing interest in the textual and manuscript traditions that reflected Western-European response to the establishment and growth of Frankish settlement in the Latin East. By focusing on a group of manuscripts originating in northern France in the second half of the twelfth century, this study aims to show how their scribes adapted textual traditions of the chronicles of the First Crusade, namely those of Robert of Reims, Fulcher of Chartres and the anonymous Gesta Francorum Iherusalem Expugnantium, to changing historical circumstances. To do so, this study analyses the descriptions of the city of Jerusalem contained in these manuscripts, showing how scribal interventions, including structural rearrangements, textual omissions, and paratextual additions, reveal an evolving perception of Jerusalem not only as an eschatological ideal but also as the capital of the Latin kingdom and a realistic urban landscape. The role ascribed to descriptions of Jerusalem reflects responses both to the establishment of the Latin settlements in the Levant and to changing geopolitical circumstances in the mid-twelfth century, such as the loss of Edessa and the call for the Second Crusade.