In diction, syntax, word order, and complexity of expression, Guibert's Latin is more difficult than that of any other Latin historian of the First Crusade. I have tried to preserve as much of the complexity of the syntax as is tolerable in comprehensible English sentences. Guibert's penchant for alliteration, rhyming clausulae, and pithiness must usually be sacrificed. A characteristic example of the sonic loss occurs in my attempt to translate the sardonic description of Arnulf's elevation to patriarch: ...dum vox magis quam vita curatur, ad hoc ut Iherosolimitanus fieret patriarcha vocatur. (RHC 4.233) and since a man's voice is of more concern than the life he has led, he was called to the patriarchy of Jerusalem. I have followed the paragraphs of the latest edition, often longer than those to which twentieth-century readers are accustomed, to allow readers to check the original more easily. Passages which Guibert composed in verse are translated into prose and indented. Guizot's early nineteenth-century French translation, although at times erroneous or misleading, was very helpful. Notes Annotating Guibert's text in a truly satisfying manner would have produced a prologomenon to a synoptic history of the First Crusade. [42] Instead, I have tried to limit myself to providing: (1) information necessary to understand and to clarify the translation; (2) sources for Guibert's Biblical and classical references; (3) modern names of cities and towns mentioned in the text;[43] (4) the names of the meters in which Guibert composes the portions of his text in verse; (5) representative illustrations of the intertextual nature of the Gesta Dei per Francos. Acknowledgements I am grateful to Jessica Weiss for reading through the entire translation and making useful corrections and suggestions, to Mark Stansbury for reading through parts of the translation and making useful corrections and suggestions, and to the staff of The Boston University Office of Information Technology for help in solving problems involving word-processing. Bibliography Albert of Aix, Historia Hierosolymitana, Recueil des Historiens des Croisades, Historiens Occidentaux IV, Paris, 1879, pp. 265-713. Auerbach, Erich, Literary language and its public in late antiquity and in the Middle Ages, translated by Ralph Mannheim, New York, 1965. Baldric of Dole, Historia Hierosolymitana, RHC.HO IV. pp. 1-111. Benton, John, Self and Society in Medieval France, New York, 1970. Boehm, Laetitia, Studien zur Geschichtschreibung des ersten Kreuzzuges Guibert von Nogent, Munich, 1954. Bréhier, Louis (ed. and tr.), Histoire anonyme de l première croisade, Paris, 1924. Bull, Marcus, Knightly Piety and the Lay Response to the First Crusade, Oxford, 1993. Burstein, Eitan, "Quelques remarques à propos du vocabulaire de Guibert de Nogent," Cahiers de civilisation médiévale, XXI (1978), pp. 247-263. Cahen, C., La Syrie du nord, Paris, 1940, pp. 211-218.