ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates two main points. First, that an examination of possible influences on the style and content of the Vie de Saint Louis reveals John of Joinville to have been a man familiar with literature of many sorts, both secular and spiritual, and that he was ready to use what he knew of their methods to add interest to his own work. Second, there is a preponderence of literary devices recognizable from secular sources, especially chansons de geste and other crusade narratives, in the crusade section of the Vie de Saint Louis. Opinions vary as to why there should be a relative absence of the word 'saint' from the crusade section of Joinville's work. The contrast between the different sections of Joinville's work is undeniably there. In the opening section and, to an even greater extent in the closing section of the Vie de Saint Louis, Joinville's use of written sources is more obvious and extensive.
