Canso d'Antioca

The "Canso d'Antioca" was a late twelfth-century Occitan epic poem in the form of a "chanson de geste" describing the First Crusade up to the Siege of Antioch (1098). It survives only in a manuscript fragment of 707 alexandrines preserved in Madrid.Sweetenham, 2.] Macé, 145.]

The "Canso" was a reworking of an earlier Occitan epic history of the First Crusade written by Gregory Bechada probably between 1106 and 1118.Paterson, 84.] Being based partially on eyewitness testimony, the "Canso" serves as a source in its own right for the Occitan contribution at Antioch. [Sweetenham, 79.] It emphasises the feats of the knights of southern France, especially Gouffier de Lastours, and southern Italy, the Italo-Normans under Bohemond of Taranto. It is sometimes supposed to have also dealt extensively with Raymond IV of Toulouse, but he is not found in the surviving fragments.

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. [Sweetenham, 4.] [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.

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. [http://books.google.ca/books?id=FL3Muhj4YFcC&dq=&pg=PP1&ots=w-p8vTHjbd&sig=oUhZwRltNDwYIB-snEiSe4RuD_0&prev=http://www.google.ca/search%3Fhl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive%26rlz%3D1T4GGLJ_enCA230CA230%26q%3D%2522Canso%2Bd%27Antiocha%2522%26meta%3D&sa=X&oi=print&ct=title#PPP1,M1 Preview.] ISBN 0 75460 410 1.
*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. ISBN 1 84383 114 7.
*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. ISBN 1 84383 114 7.

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