The ''Itinerarium Regis Ricardi'' (in full, ''Itinerarium Peregrinorum et Gesta Regis Ricardi'') is a

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

prose narrative of the

Third Crusade The Third Crusade (1189–1192) was an attempt by three European monarchs of Western Christianity (Philip II of France, Richard I of England and Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor) to reconquer the Holy Land following the capture of Jerusalem by ...

, 1189-1192. The first part of the book concentrates on

Saladin Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shadi () ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known by the epithet Saladin,, ; ku, سه‌لاحه‌دین, ; was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from an ethnic Kurdish family, he was the first of both Egypt and ...

's conquests and the early stages of the crusade, with a long description of the expedition of the Emperor

Frederick Barbarossa Frederick Barbarossa (December 1122 – 10 June 1190), also known as Frederick I (german: link=no, Friedrich I, it, Federico I), was the Holy Roman Emperor from 1155 until his death 35 years later. He was elected King of Germany in Frankfurt on ...

. The rest of the book describes King

Richard I of England Richard I (8 September 1157 – 6 April 1199) was King of England from 1189 until his death in 1199. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Aquitaine and Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, and Count of Poitiers, Anjou, Maine, and Nantes, and was ...

's participation in the crusade. The ''Itinerarium '' was formerly attributed to Geoffrey de Vinsauf, and was said to be a first-hand narrative. In fact, it was apparently compiled by Richard de Templo, a canon of Holy Trinity, London, in the early 1220s, on the basis of at least two lost contemporary memoirs. The first part is similar to the so-called ''Latin Continuation of

William of Tyre William of Tyre ( la, Willelmus Tyrensis; 113029 September 1186) was a medieval prelate and chronicler. As archbishop of Tyre, he is sometimes known as William II to distinguish him from his predecessor, William I, the Englishman, a former ...

'', which seems to be a reworked version of the ''Itinerarium ''. The second part, in particular, is closely related to an

Anglo-Norman Anglo-Norman may refer to: *Anglo-Normans, the medieval ruling class in England following the Norman conquest of 1066 * Anglo-Norman language **Anglo-Norman literature * Anglo-Norman England, or Norman England, the period in English history from 10 ...

poem on the same subject,

Ambroise Ambroise, sometimes Ambroise of Normandy,This form appeared first in (flourished ) was a Norman poet and chronicler of the Third Crusade, author of a work called ', which describes in rhyming Old French verse the adventures of as a crusader. ...

's ''L'Estoire de la Guerre Sainte''. It is not clear whether or not Richard de Templo went on the Third Crusade, but some of the differences between his text and Ambroise's '' Estoire '' indicate that he was writing from first-hand knowledge.

William Stubbs William Stubbs (21 June 182522 April 1901) was an English historian and Anglican bishop. He was Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford between 1866 and 1884. He was Bishop of Chester from 1884 to 1889 and Bishop of O ...

's edition of the ''Itinerarium'' (

Rolls Series ''The Chronicles and Memorials of Great Britain and Ireland during the Middle Ages'' ( la, Rerum Britannicarum medii aevi scriptores), widely known as the is a major collection of British and Irish historical materials and primary sources publish ...

, 1864) appeared before the manuscript of Ambroise's poem was discovered. Hans E. Mayer published an edition of an earlier version of the text in 1962, and Helen J. Nicholson translated Stubbs's edition in 1997.

Editions

*William Stubbs (ed.), ''Itinerarium Peregrinorum et Gesta Regis Ricardi'' (1864), available a
Google Books
*Hans E. Mayer, ''Das ''Itinerarium Peregrinorum''. Eine zeitgenössische englische Chronik zum dritten Kreuzzug in ursprünglicher Gestalt''. Stuttgart: Anton Hiersemann, 1962. *Helen J. Nicholson, ''The Chronicle of the Third Crusade: The Itinerarium Peregrinorum et Gesta Regis Ricardi''. Aldershot: Ashgate, 1997. *Anon. translation,
Itinerary of Richard I and others to the Holy Land
' (Cambridge, Ontario, 2001) (pdf) Latin prose texts Crusade literature 13th-century Latin books {{MEast-hist-book-stub