Editing Ambroise

{{Short description|Norman poet and chronicler}}
{{other uses}}
'''Ambroise''', sometimes '''Ambroise of Normandy''',<ref>This form appeared first in {{emc1|Marianne Ailes|Ambroise of Normandy|34-35}}</ref> (flourished {{circa|1190}}) was a [[Normans|Norman]] poet and chronicler of the [[Third Crusade]], author of a work called ''{{lang|fro|L'Estoire de la guerre sainte}}'', which describes in rhyming [[Old French language|Old French]] verse the adventures of {{lang|fr|[[Richard I of England|Richard Cœur de Lion]]}} as a [[crusade]]r.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Ambrose (Poet)|display=Ambrose|volume=1|page=798|first=Henry William Carless|last=Davis|authorlink=Henry William Carless Davis}}</ref>

== Life ==
The credit for detecting its value belongs to [[Gaston Paris]], although his edition (1897) was partially anticipated by the editors of the ''{{lang|la|[[Monumenta Germaniae Historica]]}}'', who published some selections in the twenty-seventh volume of their Scriptores (1885). Ambroise followed Richard I as a [[noncombatant]], and not improbably as a court-[[minstrel]]. He speaks as an eyewitness of the king's doings at [[Messina, Italy|Messina]], in [[Cyprus]],  at the [[siege of Acre (1189–1191)|siege of Acre]], and in the abortive campaign which followed the capture of that city.<ref name="EB1911"/>

== Commentary on his work ==
Ambroise is surprisingly accurate in his [[chronology]]; though he did not complete his work before 1195, it is evidently founded upon notes which he had taken in the course of his [[pilgrimage]].  He shows no greater political insight than we should expect from his position; but relates what he had seen and heard with a naïve vivacity which compels attention. He is by no means an impartial source: he is prejudiced against the [[Saracens]], against the French, and against all the rivals or enemies of his master, including the ''Polein'' party which supported [[Conrad of Montferrat]] against [[Guy of Lusignan]]. He is rather to be treated as a [[biographer]] than as a historian of the Crusade in its broader aspects. Nonetheless, he is an interesting primary source for the events of the years 1190–1192 in the [[Kingdom of Jerusalem]].<ref name="EB1911"/>

Books 2–6 of the ''[[Itinerarium Regis Ricardi]]'', a Latin prose narrative of the same events apparently compiled by Richard, a canon of Holy Trinity, London, are closely related to Ambroise's poem. They were formerly sometimes regarded as the first-hand narrative on which Ambroise based his work, but that can no longer be maintained.<ref name="EB1911"/>

=== History of the poem ===
The poem is known to us only through one [[Vatican Library|Vatican]] [[manuscript]], and long escaped the notice of historians.<ref name="EB1911" />

==Published edition==

* Ambroise, ''L´Estoire de la guerre sainte''. Paris, 1897: http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6517331f.r
* Ambroise, ''Itinerarium regis Ricardi''. London, 1920: https://archive.org/details/itinerariumregis00richuoft
* Ambroise, ''The History of the Holy War'', translated by Marianne Ailes, Boydell Press, 2003.

==See also==
*[[Anglo-Norman literature]]
*[[Norman language]]

==Notes==
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{{Authority control}}

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[[Category:12th-century deaths]]
[[Category:Anglo-Norman literature]]
[[Category:Medieval writers about the Crusades]]
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]
[[Category:12th-century French poets]]
[[Category:Christians of the Third Crusade]]
[[Category:Year of death unknown]]