Du Yorkshire à l'Inde : une 'géographie' urbaine et maritime de la fin du XIIe siècle (Roger de Howden?) (review)

This is a valuable and fascinating book but it is not an easy read. The argument is dense, and the language makes no concessions to the reader. Gautier Dalché subjects three texts, the Expositio mappe mundi, Liber nautarum and the De viis maris, to a careful examination and the second half of the book is devoted to an edition of each them. His aim is to show that the author of these texts was Roger of Howden, the scholarly author of the Chronica magistri Rogeri de Howdene and the Gesta Regis Henrici II et Regis Ricardi, whose first-hand knowledge of Western Europe and the Mediterranean had been acquired on the Third Crusade with Richard and Philip Augustus. He had also, while in Sicily, made the acquaintance of the famous admiral and pirate, Margarit, whose own writing about the Mediterranean is incorporated into the text of De viis maris. The book begins with a study of Roger de Howden, one section of which studies the parallels between the texts under discussion and the Chronica and the Gesta. Chapter III discusses the Expositio mappe mundi and compares it with the Hereford map, which, although it dates from a century later, provides a valuable reference point. Chapter IV looks at the Liber nautarum and the De viis maris, which borrows the version of Margarit's treatise and discusses the geographical features which particularly interested the anonymous author. Chapter V tries to assess what the aim of the author might have been and is followed by a brief and balanced Conclusion. It is extremely difficult to disagree with Gautier Dalché's argument that Roger de Howden is by far the most likely candidate. The content of the three books reflects the probable interests of Roger de Howden, and the scholarly approach is consistent with his clerical training. Careful use of the texts under discussion and wide reading in Latin and French support his research and fully justify his argument that texts such as these should not be neglected by medievalists or relegated to the category of minor semi-scientific texts of little value to historians or literary scholars. Gautier Dalché has written an important and original book, and it is therefore all the more disappointing that it is marred by several misprints and no index.