The Itinerarium Regis Ricardi (in full, Itinerarium Peregrinorum et Gesta Regis Ricardi) is a Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 prose narrative of the Third Crusade

Third Crusade

The Third Crusade , also known as the Kings' Crusade, was an attempt by European leaders to reconquer the Holy Land from Saladin...

, 1189-1192. The first part of the book concentrates on Saladin's conquests and the early stages of the crusade, with a long description of the expedition of the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. The rest of the book describes King Richard I of England

Richard I of England

Richard I was King of England from 6 July 1189 until his death. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Count of Nantes, and Overlord of Brittany at various times during the same period...

's participation in the crusade.

The Itinerarium was formerly attributed to Geoffrey de Vinsauf, and was said to be a first-hand narrative. In fact, it was apparently compiled by Richard de Templo, a canon of Holy Trinity, London, in the early 1220s, on the basis of at least two lost contemporary memoirs. The first part is similar to the so-called Latin Continuation of William of Tyre

William of Tyre

William of Tyre was a medieval prelate and chronicler. As archbishop of Tyre, he is sometimes known as William II to distinguish him from a predecessor, William of Malines...

, which seems to be a reworked version of the Itinerarium . The second part, in particular, is closely related to an Anglo-Norman

Anglo-Norman language

Anglo-Norman is the name traditionally given to the kind of Old Norman used in England and to some extent elsewhere in the British Isles during the Anglo-Norman period....

 poem on the same subject, Ambroise

Ambroise

Ambroise was a Norman poet and chronicler of the Third Crusade, author of a work called L'Estoire de la guerre sainte, which describes in rhyming Old French verse the adventures of Richard Coeur de Lion as a crusader...

's L'Estoire de la Guerre Sainte. It is not clear whether or not Richard de Templo went on the Third Crusade, but some of the differences between his text and Ambroise's Estoire indicate that he was writing from first-hand knowledge.

Stubbs's

William Stubbs

William Stubbs was an English historian and Bishop of Oxford.The son of William Morley Stubbs, a solicitor, he was born at Knaresborough, Yorkshire, and was educated at Ripon Grammar School and Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated in 1848, obtaining a first-class in classics and a third in...

 edition of the Itinerarium (Rolls Series

Rolls Series

The Rolls Series, official title The Chronicles and Memorials of Great Britain and Ireland during the Middle Ages, is a major collection of British and Irish historical materials and primary sources, published in the second half of the 19th century. Some 255 volumes, representing 99 separate...

, 1864) appeared before the manuscript of Ambroise's poem was discovered. Hans E. Mayer published an edition of an earlier version of the text in 1962, and Helen J. Nicholson translated Stubb's edition in 1997.

Editions

• William Stubbs (ed.), Itinerarium Peregrinorum et Gesta Regis Ricardi (1864), available at Google Books.
• Hans E. Mayer, Das Itinerarium Peregrinorum. Eine zeitgenössische englische Chronik zum dritten Kreuzzug in ursprünglicher Gestalt. Stuttgart: Anton Hiersemann, 1962.
• Helen J. Nicholson, The Chronicle of the Third Crusade: The Itinerarium Peregrinorum et Gesta Regis Ricardi. Aldershot: Ashgate, 1997.
• Anon. translation, Itinerary of Richard I and others to the Holy Land (Cambridge, Ontario, 2001) (pdf)