Page:Chronicles Of The Crusades.djvu/5

 Rh  present volume comprises the three most interesting contemporary Chronicles of the Crusades which have been handed down to us; two of them recording very fully the romantic deeds of our lion-hearted Plantagenet; the third the chivalric career of the pious and exemplary Saint Louis of France.

Of the author of the first of these Chronicles, Richard of Devizes, nothing is known beyond what he himself informs us in his preface, by which it appears, that he was in early life a monk of St. Swithin's Priory at Winchester, and subsequently a Carthusian of Witham. Other works have been ascribed to the same writer, but there is great uncertainty as to their authorship. His Chronicle is valuable, because it connects affairs which were passing in England with the events which took place simultaneously in the Holy Land. The original Latin was first published by the English Historical Society, under the editorial care of the Rev. Joseph Stevenson. From that edition, a translation was made by the Rev. Dr. Giles, in 1841, which is here reprinted, with occasional emendations by himself.

The second work in this series is the History of the Expedition of Richard Cœur de Lion to the Holy Land, by Geoffrey de Vinsauf (or Vinosalvo). Little is known of this author, but the peculiarity of his name has given rise to several ingenious conjectures as to its etymology. Some derive it from Vin and sauver, and suppose he may have