Joinville and Villehardouin. Chronicles of the Crusades, trans. Margaret R.B.Shaw.
Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1963. [Provides two vivid narratives: Villehardouin’s exculpatory
account of the Fourth Crusade and Joinville’s laudatory biography of Louis IX.]
Odo of Deuil. De profectione Ludovici VII in Orientem, ed. and trans. Virginia G.Berry. New York:
Columbia University Press, 1953. [A detailed, insightful account of Louis VII’s failed Second
Crusade.]
Housley, Norman. The Avignon Papacy and the Crusades, 1305–1378. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1986.
Powell, James, ed. Muslims Under Latin Rule, 1100–1300. Princeton: Princeton University Press,
1990.
Prawer, Joshua. Histoire du royaume latin de Jerusalem, trans. G.Nahon. 2 vols. Paris: CNRS,
1969–70. [The most wideranging study of the most important of the crusader states.]
Richard, Jean. Louis IX: Crusader King of France, ed. Simon Lloyd, trans. Jean Birrell.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.
Riley-Smith, Jonathan. The Crusades: A Short History. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987.
[The best single-volume survey.]
Setton, Kenneth M., ed. A History of the Crusades. 2nd ed. 6 vols. Madison: University of
Wisconsin Press, 1969–89.
CUNAULT
. The town of Trèves-Cunault (Maine-et-Loire) owes its origin to the monks of
Noirmoutier, who, taking refuge from the Normans, settled in Cunault (846–57). The
priory, established around the turn of the millennium, flourished in the 12th century
thanks to the political and economic importance of the north bank of the Loire and an
influx of pilgrims venerating the reputed marriage band of the Virgin. The oldest part of
the church of Notre-Dame de Cunault is the mid-11th-century bell tower. Supported by
four pillars, joined by arches, it has an octagonal cupola. The square upper portion is
ornamented with a series of blind arches interspersed with Romanesque pilasters and
colonnettes and is crowned by a 15th-century spire. The chevet (ca. 1140) is the oldest
part of the church proper. Here, an ambulatory with three radiating chapels encircles a
blind apse. The building’s long nave is flanked by aisles whose first three bays carry
eight-branch, 13th-century Angevin vaults. Sculpted capitals with interlaced vegetal
designs and images of monsters and chimeras cap columns throughout the church. A
formerly painted and gilded wooden shrine (13th c.) holds the relics of St. Maxenceul. In
the tympanum on the façade sits a Virgin flanked by two angels (possibly late 13th c.).
Nina Rowe
[See also: ANGERS]
Brincard, Baronne. Cunauh:ses chapiteaux du XIIe siècle. Paris: Picard, 1937.
Rhein, André. “Cunault.” Congrès archéologique (Angers et Saumur) 77 (1910):138–47.
Herbécourt, Pierre d’. Anjou roman. La Pierre-qui-vire: Zodiaque, 1959.
Mussat, André. Le style gothique de l’ouest de la France (XIIe-XIIIe stècles). Paris: Picard, 1963.
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