Lyric Responses to the Crusades in Medieval France and Occitania

The crusades have left a profound and disturbing legacy in inter-cultural and inter-faith relations nationally and world-wide. They continue to be of compelling interest and relevance to students, scholars and the wider public, with crusading rhetoric alive in the global political discourse transmitted daily in the media. Ecclesiastical sources, written in Latin, provide official versions of the preaching, organisation and events of the medieval crusading movement, whereas vernacular literature offers an invaluable secular perspective, whether supporting the Church's agenda, replacing it with its own, or challenging it through ridicule or revolt. The lyric poet-musicians of medieval France, troubadours and trouvères, composing in Occitan and Old French (OF) respectively, present a rich diversity of immediate responses on the part of a secular public, in France, Occitania, Italy, the Iberian Peninsula, Syria and Greece. All this material will be made freely available online in high-quality editions, with translations into both English and Italian, along with professional readings and musical performances. An accompanying monograph, linked to the online texts, will place them in their historical and cultural context. A book publication in Italian is also anticipated, containing a new critical edition of the Old French texts.
The research will explore how these vernacular poet-musicians responded to medieval crusading movements. It will examine the extent to which their responses can enlighten us about the views of their public and contribute to, complement, differ or dissent from the Church's crusading propaganda, both in their concepts of crusade and crusading and in their rhetoric. It will identify the distinct attitudes towards the crusades that emerge from these sources, ways in which their responses vary geographically and chronologically, and the relationship, tense or otherwise, between crusading and secular ideals. It is anticipated that fresh information and insights will emerge from new critical editions of texts hitherto only available in out-of-date or defective editions, from the study of ways in which texts engage in dialogue with each other, and from research into historical circumstances alluded to in the texts, or discoverable from other vernacular or Latin sources and features of the manuscripts in which they have been transmitted. The monograph will provide the first comprehensive, modern analysis of OF and Occitan lyric texts relating to the crusades based on high-quality editions and up-to-date philological tools and historical information.
All outputs will be of a high scholarly standard and will be of interest to scholars and students of medieval history, literature and culture in the English- and Italian-reading world. The monograph with its links to the online collection of texts, translations and performances, will be relevant to teachers of history, music, and medieval culture in higher education institutions and perhaps schools, the online editions supplying a need for affordable (in this case free) access to high-quality, up-to-date editions with reliable translations. The Italian collection of Old French lyrics in book form will fill a gap in the teaching market there, though it may be too costly for the British one. The monograph and online publications will also be intended for the general reader, such as that of Paterson's 'The World of the Troubadours: Medieval Occitan Society c. 1100 - c. 1300', CUP, 1993, diffused in the UK and world-wide in English, with several paperback reprints and translations into Spanish, French, and Italian.
The research will impact on the academic, school and public community through a deeper and more nuanced understanding of the crusades. At the same time it will enhance understanding of medieval literature, particularly the interaction between Old French and and Occitan poet-singers on the one hand, and vernacular poets and ecclesiastical writers on the other.

Potential beneficiaries of the research outside the investigators' professional academic circle include schoolteachers and their pupils, museums and galleries, and the general public, all likely to have heard of the famous trouvère Richard the Lionheart. Schoolteachers of history, French and current affairs will be able to use the online texts with translations, performances and commentaries, in conjunction with a library copy of the monograph, to broaden their own and their pupils' awareness of the crusades and the Middle Ages; to interest them in an important phenomenon that is not only engaging in its immediate appeal (knights and chivalry are a perennial attraction) but highly relevant to the political situation in the world today; to think about responses to contemporary events and diverse types of news-media and propaganda in different epochs; and to use high-quality and entertaining sources that would otherwise be difficult to access. Museums and galleries staging exhibitions concerning the crusades or other aspects of medieval culture, such as history of art, could use the free online material in order to enhance the context of the exhibition. The existence of the 'general reader' has been demonstrated by the dissemination of Paterson's book 'The World of the Troubadours' (CUP 1993) in French, Spanish and Italian and in several English paperback reprints, which has appeared on the shelves of, for example, Waterstones, the Sainte Chapelle in Paris, and the visitors' gift shop in Carcassonne. The benefit to such a reader is, above all, cultural and intercultural: the development of interest in and knowledge of the subject; the mind-broadening that comes from learning about other cultures, whether chronologically or geographically separate from one's own; appreciation of the artistic achievements of the medieval world; and a fuller and deeper knowledge and understanding of a past that resonates powerfully and often disturbingly in a modern multicultural environment. Feedback from readers of 'The World of the Troubadours' suggests that writing that is original and scholarly, but at the same time clear and accessible, can also occasionally be helpful to creative writers, or prompt journalists and television producers to ask for interviews or comment (an interview with Paterson for Channel 4 has been distributed worldwide, and she has been quoted on 'Have I Got News For You').
Methods of making these groups aware of the opportunity to benefit from the research will include book marketing, websites, and other means. As well as the websites at Warwick and Naples containing the online texts, there will be a site dedicated to the project, which will include podcasts of parts of performances accompanied by five-minute talks. Web surfers will have plenty of opportunity to discover these websites on the basis of their interests. University Open Day talks will aim to stimulate interest among UK schools, and talks will be offered to local schools. Warwick University supports a process of research dissemination which involves a full range of digitised materials including online video, audio, blogging and other channels which will be available for the project. Possibilities as yet undeveloped include a Warwick Arts Centre performance to coincide with the musical recordings of Old French lyrics, and the potential involvement of creative writing students and other Warwick students (see Impact Plan).
The research and professional skills developed by staff working on the project could apply to any employment sector that required intellectual acuity, flexibility, judgment and independence, linguistic knowledge, attention to precise detail, awareness of cultural difference, careful reading, interpretation and expression, organisational ability, teamwork, and IT skills.
All online material will be available by