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Knights Templar books

“Processus contra Templarios”: Beautiful and full of typos.

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The Chinon Parchment, the most important document published in Processus Contra Templarios, has now been made available at a much more reasonable cost in this edition (along with other previously untranslated sources):

The Knights Templar Absolution at Amazon.com
The Knights Templar Absolution at Amazon.co.uk
The Knights Templar Absolution at Amazon.fr

When “Processus contra Templarios” was published in 2007 it created quite a splash in the news. It is quite likely that the contents of this two volume set of facsimile documents with transcripts, translations and commentaries were misunderstood. Contrary to what many people at the time thought, it did not present any ground breaking information about the trial of the Knights Templar.  However, some of the documents that were published in this edition had not been easily accessible previously: such as the contents of Register Avignonese 48 where some of the records pertaining to the trial were misfiled.

The gist of this entire collection of documents is that Pope Clement V carried out his own investigation regarding the possible guilt of the Knights Templar. Preliminary results allowed him to grant absolution to many individual members of the Order, including some high ranking officials. The real value of this publication is in providing a conclusive record of papal examinations and presenting all of the existing relevant documents as a whole. Given this objective, a facsimile edition was probably the right thing to do. However, the cost of the two volumes (close to 6,000 euros) made them somewhat inaccessible. The few libraries that own a copy of the set keep it in their special depositories for rare and valuable books. The impact of  “Processus contra Templarios”  on modern scholarship has thus been minimized. It is difficult to say whether that was by design or by choice.
360_knights_templar_1024The actual edition is, of course, very nice. A bit too heavy to handle, it is exquisitely crafted using the best materials Italy has to offer. Facsimiles of medieval parchments have a genuine feel to them. The cost of producing them must have been considerable. I would estimate that the price of manufacturing a single set was over $900. There is, however, one serious flaw, in my opinion, that brought down the entire effort down a notch. The text was not well edited. After spending only an hour working with the edition I discovered 3 typos. Keep in mind that I am not a trained proof reader! Take a look at this phrase from one of the articles that accompany the original documents (the text is by B. Frale, who believes that the accusations against the Knights Templar were based on their actual practices that were implemented as part hazing, part test of loyalty to the Order): “The ritual of the three kisses (on the mouth, on the naval and on the buttocks) epitomised the humiliation the senior brothers felt authorised to inflict on the younger ones.” Did you catch the typo? If you did not, don’t worry. Nobody who was responsible for editing the text did. And word processors are not always reliable.

I am well aware that typos are nearly impossible to avoid. We are all human, after all. However, if you purchase a book for $9,000 would you expect to see somewhat higher standards? Still, if you can swing that much money, go ahead and buy a copy on eBay or some place like that… But I may have to wait for a paperback. Hopefully the typos will be fixed!

Filippo Bonanni about the Knights Templar (Latin text with translation)

Ordinum equestrium et militarium catalogus in imaginibus expositus by Filippo Bonanni (1638-1725). Peter Partner compared this book  to a modern day coffee book. It is indeed loaded with illustrations and devoted to a very popular subject: Chivalric orders. During the 18th century, everything that had to do with nobility, heredity and power was of extreme interest to a lot of people who were on the outside looking in — the European bourgeoisie. Filippo Bonanni managed to find the most obscure orders and organizations throughout history (that might be a subject in itself), but his Knight Templar looks rather strange. The armor is almost Roman! The accompanying text is fair and rather sympathetic to the Knights. There is one obvious mistake about the date when the Order received its Rule.

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Post bellum sacrum, auspiciis Urbani II. & Godefridi Bullionei commissum, ad ea conservanda, quae feliciter recuperata erant, Hospitalliorum exemplo, Templariorum ordo a Gallis Principibus institutum fuit; Ejus Auctores praecipui fuerunt Hugo de Paganis, & Goufredus a S. Audomato, Equestri ambo dignitate insignes, & quia loco juxta Templum Domini, a Balduino Rege concesso, commorabantur, Fratres Templarii sunt appellati. More Canonicorum Regularium vivebant, & peregrinos per Loca Sancta contra latronum, & Barbarorum insidias ducebant; donec de mandato Honorii Papae, & Stephani Hierosolymitani Patriarchae anno 1118 data fuit eis regula, quam a Bernardo conscriptam affirmant, & alba vestis ex lana, & Eugenii demum Authoritate crux rubra attributa; ut vestes albas in signum innocentiae deferentes, per cruces rubras martyrium ob Christi nomen suscipiendum non dedignaretur, & ad sanguinem efundendum ob terrae Sanctae defensionem essent parati. Narrat Vitriacus in hist. Orient. cap. 65 Vexillum deferri ab illis bipartitum ex albo & nigro colore, eo quod Christi amicis candidi essent & benigni; nigri autem & horriblies inimicis. Crucis tesseram habebant octogonam similem Melitensi. Hieronymus tamen Romanus contendit, suisse duplicem & quasi patriarchalem, qualem exhibemus n. 106. Multis tandem exantlatis laboribus iste ordo Viennae in Concilio Patrum decreto extinctus fuit, & ejus bona Hospitalariis addicta tempore, quo Rhodiorum insulam incolebant. Ejus abolitionis disquisitionem apud Marianam invenies lib. 15. cap. 10. Platinam, Villanum, Azorium & alios. Nos eorum Equitem indumentum in imagine producimus. [click to continue…]

Interview with Michael Jecks, author of “Templar’s Acre”

michaeljecksMichael Jecks is a British novelist well known for his series of murder mysteries set in early 14th century England. One of the series’ two lead characters, Baldwin de Furnshill, is a former Knight Templar who returned home following the Order’s disbandment. Michael Jecks’ most recent novel, Templar’s Acre, is a prequel to his main series, covering young Baldwin’s adventures in the Holy Land around the time of the siege of Acre. The writer is very active on FaceBook and Twitter. In this interview for the Knights Templar Vault, Michael Jecks speaks about medieval history, the Knights Templar, conspiracy theories and modern fiction.

Q. Choosing a former Knight Templar as a protagonist should sound like a solid idea to any dispassionate connoisseur of popular fiction, given the time period featured in your mystery series: such a character is sure to have gravitas, experience and inner brokenness. Iron Man would have been a Templar if he lived in the early 1300s! Literary theory aside, what were the factors that helped you pick the hero for your début novel and then stick with him for so long?

A. The idea was never to work with one lead character originally. I had read extensively about the period, and I was convinced by Professor Norman Cohn’s proposition that the Templars were an example of persecution, victims of a horrendous abuse of power. I did not find the proposition that the Templars could be guilty even remotely convincing (the fact that the accusations laid against them had been used by the same monarch only a year before in order to steal the assets of the Jews was pretty convincing to me!). I was delighted to use a Templar in order to put the record straight about them, but also I was thinking about a series of books, and the idea of a conflicted, religious, anti-papal knight who returned to his ancestral lands was thoroughly appealing. He would make a superb investigator, I thought. Analytical, politically aware, and with some forensic skills based on his experience in war. [click to continue…]

Knights Templar books

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Here are all the books about the Knights Templar that I own. To qualify for this photo opp, each book had to have the word “Templar” in its title and not to be a work of fiction. Needless to say, I also have many other volumes on the Middle Ages, as well as ebooks (of which many could have been in this picture).

P.S. Since taking this picture I discovered that one of the books that should have been included was hiding. I also have a few additional titles that have been recently acquired. So, I will have to update this at some point. Perhaps regularly.