The invention of crusading had a profound effect on medieval Europe. Not only did its warriors, ever fearful for their immortal souls, now have an avenue for salvation that did not necessitate giving up their proclivity for violence, but the success of the First Crusade (1095–9) in capturing Jerusalem and other nearby cities, and through this the formation of the eastern Mediterranean polities known as the Crusader States, provided the impetus for powerful cultural forces to grow. Two of the most significant of these forces were the vast outpouring of literary works, including historical texts, poems, lyrics and chansons, and the westward spread from the Holy Land of relics and other material objects that commemorated the region’s distinct spiritual importance, as well as its status as a site of military-religious heroism.

The book reviewed here represents an important window on to both. Quomodo Sancta Crux ab Antiochia allata sit in Broniense cenobium, or How the Holy Cross came from Antioch to Brogne, is not a text that will be familiar to many. As the authors even acknowledge, outside of a small band of enthusiastic Belgians, the manuscripts containing it have gone largely unnoticed in modern scholarship (p. 34). Nevertheless, Quomodo details an important story, that being the journey of the Flemish nobleman Manasses of Hierges to the Crusader States, where he spent some years during the 1140s and 1150s supporting the kingdom of Jerusalem and its queen, Melisende, who also happened to be his cousin. During this time, Manasses travelled north to Antioch to provide military aid, and in return was granted a piece of the True Cross, which was later given – despite a dispute with Manasses’s heirs – as a gift to the monks of Brogne, a foundation in the county of Namur. It is to the benefit of all who are interested in the history of the crusading movement, and the deep-running cultural tendrils it elicited, that this work is now available in a reliable edition and translation.

In the introduction, the authors provide useful information regarding the wider context of Brogne, the county of Namur and the abbey’s relationship to local noble houses, including that of Hierges (pp. 1–35). Brogne itself was not an especially important foundation and appears only rarely in surviving documentation; with Manasses’s donation of the True Cross relic, first promised upon the death of his wife and then reconfirmed on his own deathbed in 1177, it now became home to one of Christendom’s most potent religious objects. This, it seems, inspired two literary works. The first, written shortly after the relic’s arrival at Brogne, was the Qualiter lignum domini delatum ab Antiochia locatum fuerit per Manasse de Hierge in Broniensi ecclesia (How the Wood of the Lord was taken from Antioch and placed in the Church of Brogne by Manasses of Hierges); it survives only in a fragment that is also transcribed and translated here. The second, the Quomodo, was composed in 1211 by an anonymous monk, probably of Brogne, by which point the relic had been the source of several reported miracles, each of which is detailed in the text.

As with any anonymous source, efforts to establish authorial identity rely on a level of detective work, particularly the close reading of allusions to eyewitness experience, local signifiers and, to a lesser extent, the relationship of the narrative to other works. In addition to tying the Quomodo to Brogne, or nearby Lobbes, the editors are able to demonstrate that the monastic author was one well versed in ancient authors, including Ovid and Juvenal, the Church Fathers and Scripture, with the influence of some of these works overtly traced in an appendix. They also seek to showcase the author’s knowledge of more closely contemporary literary works, including tales surrounding the King Arthur legends, but also the First Crusade account of Robert the Monk and the story of the Swan Knight, which suggests engagement with the body of Old French songs known as the Old French Crusade Cycle (pp. 27–8).

A suggestion that the text also retains echoes of eyewitness reflections from Manasses himself, though far from implausible, is less convincingly made. Partly this is due to the evidence of the text, most especially the failure to mention Melisende by name and the erroneous suggestion that she was Manasses’s aunt, but also because the authors’ argument partly relies on the inclusion of the Latin term Apuleus when describing the Jerusalemite nobleman Philip of Nablus. In the introduction and footnotes to the translation, it is speculated that this is a garbled form of pullanus, or poulain, a term used for Latin settlers in the Holy Land, at least by the thirteenth century, albeit principally in a derogatory fashion by those in the Latin West (pp. 26–7, 77). However, in the translation itself it is given as ‘of Apulia’, which seems the more likely reading.

Quomodo is clearly a rather idiosyncratic text to work with, partly due to its complex transmission. The authors are to be lauded for being able to provide a clear and understandable translation of its Latin, one that is supported by useful apparatus, including textual variants, wider contextual details in the footnotes, and direct signposting to biblical references. The appendices likewise provide additional translated material, including the aforementioned Qualiter and copies of direct textual borrowings made by the Quomodo author, but also charter material indicating Manasses’s earlier relationship with Brogne. This book will thus allow readers from undergraduate to academic level the ability to engage with this largely unknown text. Were I to have a criticism, it is that it would have been of real interest for the introduction to have spent more time contextualising the text against other contemporary narratives and sources, and so to do more to signpost to readers the real value that this might have as a ‘new’ source for the study of the crusading movement. Nevertheless, this can now be the task of others, thanks to this well-produced edition and translation.