ABSTRACT
In a well-known, William of Tyre gave an account of the origins of the Templars. William’s story is of a small group of knights who in the year 1118 were given the task of protecting pilgrims coming to Jerusalem. Much of the interest in the French version of William of Tyre has hitherto concentrated on the continuations, which extended William’s narrative from 1184 until well into the thirteenth century, and on the illuminations, some of which have been frequently reproduced in illustrated histories of the crusades. In this chapter the translator veered between a close rendering of the Latin text into French and a paraphrase which no doubt was intended to make it more accessible to his audience. Here, at sentence 5, he found it necessary to explain ‘officines’ (Latin: ‘officinarum’) with the phrase ‘qui mestier ont a gent de religion’, and at sentence 7 he added that the brigands ‘granz max (or ’maus’) i soloient fere’.
