Abstract Submission
The French of Outremer: Communities and Communications in the Crusading Mediterranean
34th Annual Conference of the Center for Medieval Studies
Fordham University, Lincoln Center Campus | Saturday, March 29 2014
Paper Title: The Tasks of the Translators: Relics and Communications between Constantinople
and Northern France in the Aftermath of 1204
Anne E. Lester | Department of History, University of Colorado at Boulder
Abstract:
“The task of the translator consists in finding that intended effect upon the
language into which he is translating which produces in it the echo of the
original. … A real translation is transparent; it does not cover the original, does
not block its light, but allows the pure language, as though reinforced by its own
medium, to shine upon the original all the more fully.”
-- Walter Benjamin, “The Task of the Translator”1
It has long been recognized that one of the major consequences of the Fourth Crusade and the
expansion of the lands of the Outremer to include the Latin Empire was the unprecedented influx
of relics and sacred objects sent from the treasuries of Byzantine churches and chapels to the
collections of northern France and Flanders. These translations of holy objects reshaped practices
of devotion in the west in profound ways, making both the idea and the material imprint of the
Holy Land visible to all who interacted with the newly acquired relics. Except in a few wellknown cases, the precise movement of such objects, how they traveled, with whom, when and
along which routes, has often been overlooked and under-valued. Often the stories of holy thefts
like those occasioned by Abbot Martin of Pairis overshadow the routine and administrative travel
– or as Michael McCormick has termed it – “communications” of clerics, monks, and petty
knights who moved between the Outremer and the west with regularity. This paper focuses on
several of these men and investigates their instrumental role in the process of translating relics
from the Outremer to France, Flanders, and surrounding territories in the aftermath of the Fourth
Crusade. To this end, this paper has three aims: 1) to identify a group of “translators”; 2) to
analyze their relationship to the Outremer and the west; and 3) to assess how these men
understood their roles in the broader process of cultural translation. Not only did these men,
several of whom were Templars, transport relics, but in some cases they also had knowledge of
Byzantine sacred spaces and devotional practices and transmitted those insights in turn. They
were then not simple bearers of objects, but indeed translators – as Benjamin would use the term
– who interpreted the meaning and sense of the objects they related. In this way, these “middle
men” shaped devotional ideas and praxis in the west. One of the ways they did this was through
embedding the objects they carried in a narrative of discovery and transmission. Most relics were
found in specific chapels and under desperate circumstances following the sack of Constantinople
in the spring of 1204. The discovery of relics and their safe transport to the west legitimized both
the relic and the act of Latin dominion that resulted after the capture and fall of the Byzantine
capital. These stories, copied on parchment or abbreviated into inscriptions, were often imbedded
in the very reliquaries commissioned to encase the relics. Moreover, the new reliquaries, which
framed the Greek fragments in gold, sliver and transparent rock crystal, were created purposely to
display the original object more fully, and thus to exhibit the very act of translating the Outremer
itself.
Walter Benjamin, “The Task of the Translator,” in Illuminations: Essays and Reflections, ed. Hannah
Arendt, trans. Harry Zohn (New York, N.Y.: Schocken Books, 1968), pp. 76 & 79.
1
25 September 2013
To the Selection Committee:
Center for Medieval Studies, Fordham University
The French of Outremer Conference
Please accept the enclosed paper abstract submission for the 34th Annual Conference of the
Center for Medieval Studies at Fordham University on the topic of The French of Outremer:
Communities and Communications in the Crusading Mediterranean. This paper grows out of
research I am conducting for my current book project, tentatively entitled “Fragments of
Devotion: Relics and Remembrance in the Time of the Fourth Crusade.” The conference
description looks fantastic and I hope to be able to take part should my abstract fit the program.
Please do not hesitate to contact me should you need any additional information. Please find my
contact information below.
Yours Sincerely,
Anne E. Lester
Associate Professor, Department of History
University of Colorado at Boulder