The Crusades: A Select Bibliography of Secondary Works

Adapted from The Crusades: A Short History by Jonathan Riley-Smith, 1987

General

The best general bibliography is H.E. Mayer, Bibliographie zur Geschichte der Kreuzzüge (1960), supplemented, for works published 1958-67, by Professor Mayer's 'Literaturberichtüber die Geschichte der Kreuzzüge' ,  Historische Zeitschrift Sonderheft 3 (1969) and for works since 1967 by his reviews in Deutsches Archiv für Erforschung des Mittelalters.  These bibliographies, however, concentrate on studies of crusades to the East.  Professor Mayer is compiling the forthcoming bibliographical volume of K.M. Setton (editor-in-chief), A History of the Crusades. [According to our catalog, that bibliographic volume never appeared, even in the second edition of the work in 1969. -R.B.] The best bibliographical guide to Islamic history is still J. Sauvaget, Introduction to the History of the Muslim East, recast by C. Cahen (1965).

Large-scale general works in English are:

S. Runciman, A History of the Crusades, 3 vols (1951-4), which is now over thirty [make that fifty --R.B.] years old, favours the Byzantine Greeks and concentrates on crusading to the East.
K.M. Setton (ed.-in-chief), A History of the Crusades, 2nd edition, 5 vol. so far (1969 onwards) [Six were published as of 2003.  Ellis Library owns four; the rest are held elsewhere in the MERLIN system. -R.B.].  Again, rather dated.  The contributions are variable in quality.  The best are very useful; the worst are misleading.  It does give some space to crusades in Europe.

The Church and crusading

Most of the surveys of crusading tought which have covered extensive periods of thime have been of two types.  First, there are those which approach the subject through canon law:
M. Villey, La croisade: essai sur la formation d'une théorie juridique (1942)
J.A. Brundage, Medieval Canon Law and the Crusader (1969)
F. H. Russell, The Just War in the Middle Ages (1975)
M. Purcell, Papal Crusading Policy, 1244-1291 (1975)
J.S.C. Riley-Smith, What were the crusades? (1977) [SLU has the 3rd ed. (2002)]
J. Muldoon, Popes, Lawyers and Infidels (1969)

Secondly, there are those in which crusading is viewed against a wider theological background:
C. Erdmann, Enstehung des Kreuzzugsgedankens (1935; English translation 1977).  A work of seminal importance in its day, although Erdmann's opinions are now being challenged.  See especially J. Gilchrist, 'The Erdmann Thesis and the Canon Law, 1083-1141', Crusade and Settlement, ed. P.W. Edbury (1985).

E.D. Hehl, Kirche und Krieg im 12. Jahrhundert 1980).  An important work.