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Histoire de l'empire de Constantinople sous les empereurs francois by VILLEHARDOUIN, Geoffroi de
Book Description
1657. First collected edition. Folio (360 x 240 mm.). Two parts in one volume. [xxviii], 370, [8, index]; [xii], 332, 86 [Recueil] pp. Printer's device on title page. Contemporary mottled calf, expertly rebacked with original spine laid down (one panel missing and supplied), gilt board edges, newer endpapers. Small piece out of lower margin of title page replaced (not affecting text). A very good copy; clean, complete, well-margined and in a handsome contemporary binding. Geoffrey of Villehardouin (c1154-c1218) was one of the leaders of the Fourth Crusade and its best known chronicleer. Born into a noble family, he became the Marshal of Champagne in 1185 (even though he was not the oldest son) and he led an army on the Fourth Crusade. He "took the cross" in 1199 and fought well, saving the Frankish army after the failed siege of Adrianople. After the Crusade ended in 1207, he started to write his history [presented here]. It concerns the fall of Constantinople in 1204 following the second siege by the Frankish Crusaders. Villehardouin used his own recollections plus accounts from other participants as his sources. Villehardouin's history is the earliest known example of prose history in French, and served as a model for all later military historians. The Conquest of Constantinople is Villehardouin's only known work. Written in clear prose, it stresses the overall campaigns of the Fourth Crusade rather than individual exploits. The author never knowingly lied in his chronicle, but he attempted to justify the crusade's deviations from its original objectives in Egypt and Jerusalem.
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