The ''Canso d'Antioca'' is a late twelfth-century

Occitan Occitan may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania territory in parts of France, Italy, Monaco and Spain. * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania administrative region of France. * Occitan language, spoken in parts o ...

epic poem In poetry, an epic is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants. With regard to ...

in the form of a ''

chanson de geste The , from 'deeds, actions accomplished') is a medieval narrative, a type of epic poetry, epic poem that appears at the dawn of French literature. The earliest known poems of this genre date from the late 11th and early 12th centuries, shortly ...

'' describing the

First Crusade The First Crusade (1096–1099) was the first of a series of religious wars, or Crusades, initiated, supported and at times directed by the Latin Church in the Middle Ages. The objective was the recovery of the Holy Land from Muslim conquest ...

up to the

Siege of Antioch The siege of Antioch took place during the First Crusade in 1097 and 1098, on the crusaders' way to Jerusalem through Syria (region), Syria. Two sieges took place in succession. The first siege, by the crusaders against the city held by the Sel ...

(1098). It survives only in a single manuscript fragment of 707

alexandrine Alexandrine is a name used for several distinct types of verse line with related metrical structures, most of which are ultimately derived from the classical French alexandrine. The line's name derives from its use in the Medieval French '' Ro ...

s, now preserved in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

.Sweetenham, 2.Macé, 145. The ''Canso'' was a reworking of a lost earlier Occitan epic history of the First Crusade written by one Gregory Bechada and commissioned by Bishop Eustorge of Limoges probably between 1106 and 1118.Paterson, 84. Being based partially on eyewitness testimony, the ''Canso'' is as a source for the Occitan participation at Antioch. It emphasises the feats of the knights of southern France and southern Italy, especially Gouffier de Lastours and the

Normans The Normans (Norman language, Norman: ''Normaunds''; ; ) were a population arising in the medieval Duchy of Normandy from the intermingling between Norsemen, Norse Viking settlers and locals of West Francia. The Norse settlements in West Franc ...

under Bohemond of Taranto. In its completed form it may have also told the story of Count

Raymond IV of Toulouse Raymond of Saint-Gilles ( 1041 – 28 February 1105), also called Raymond IV of Toulouse or Raymond I of Tripoli, was the count of Toulouse, duke of Narbonne, and margrave of Provence from 1094, and one of the leaders of the First Crusade from ...

, but he is not mentioned in the surviving fragment. The ''Canso'' also served as the literary model for the early thirteenth-century '' Chanson de la Croisade Albigeoise'' of William of Tudela and for the late thirteenth-century '' History of the War of Navarre'' of William Anelier.Macé, 146. Portions of it were also translated into Castilian for the '' Gran Conquista de Ultramar'', which also contains unique material possibly borrowed from the complete version of the ''Canso'' or from Bechada's earlier epic.

Notes

References

*''The 'Canso d'Antioca': An Epic Chronicle of the First Crusade'', ed. and trans. Carol Sweetenham and Linda M. Paterson. Aldershot and Burlington: Ashgate Publishing, 2003
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. *Paterson, Linda M. "Occitan Literature and the Holy Land." ''The World of Eleanor of Aquitaine: Literature and Society in Southern France between the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries'', edd. Marcus Bull and Catherine Léglu. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2005. . *Macé, Laurent. "Raymond VII of Toulouse: The Son of Queen Joanne, 'Young Count' and Light of the World." ''The World of Eleanor of Aquitaine: Literature and Society in Southern France between the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries'', edd. Marcus Bull and Catherine Léglu. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2005. . {{Authority control Old Occitan literature Crusade poetry Chansons de geste