Historia Caroli Magni

The Historia Caroli Magni ('History of Charles the Great'), also known as the Historia Karoli Magni et Rotholandi ('History of Charles the Great and Roland') or the (Pseudo )Turpin Chronicle, is a 12th century Latin chronicle consisting of legendary material about Charlemagne's campaigns in Spain. The chronicle states it was written by Charlemagne's contemporary Turpin, Archbishop of Reims, but it was found out as a medieval forgery. The work was extremely popular, and served as a major source of material on Charlemagne in chronicles, fiction and iconography throughout Medieval Europe. The miracles of the flowering lances and the death of Ferracutus appear on the windows of Chartres cathedral.

The Historia Caroli Magni was presented as authentic by using the name of Pope Calixtus II, who was already dead, when the Pseudo Turpin wrote his "Historia" (this he did not before 1130). It is, however, not based on historical sources but on the tradition of the chansons de geste, notably the Chanson de Roland (Song of Roland). Its popularity seems to date from the latter part of the 12th century, the period when versions of this epic began to be written down. Gaston Paris, who made a special study of the Historia, considers that the first five chapters were written by a monk of Compostela in the 11th century and the remainder by a monk of Vienne between 1109 and 1119, but this is widely disputed. No conclusive evidence has been given on its real origins.

The Historia Caroli Magni was a huge success throughout Europe. There are 158 Latin and more than 50 vernacular manuscripts of the story in existence. It is Book IV (Historia Turpini) in the Codex Calixtinus, the oldest known manuscript of the text. There is a Welsh adaptation, dating to the 14th century, and found in the Red Book of Hergest and a number of other early manuscripts, where it occurs along with the translations of The Song of Roland and the Romance of Otinel.

The Historia was first printed in 1566 at Frankfurt; perhaps the best edition is the one edited by Ferdinand Castets as Turpini historia Karoli magni et Rotholandi (Paris, 1880). It has been translated many times into French and also into German, Danish and English. The English translation is by Thomas Rodd and is in the History of Charles the Great and Orlando, ascribed to John Turpin (London, 1812), available online in PDF format at Google Books, in various formats at the Internet Archive, and in chaptered HTML at Kellcraft Studios Web Textures. Rodd omits the table of contents, which is part of the original source, as well as the final four chapters. A new English translation with illustrations, introduction and notes by Kevin R. Poole was published in 2014.

The text is considered by critics, in part, as a work of propaganda promoting the Way of St. James (many of the sites mentioned in the text are on the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela) and the Reconquista. The work also paints the knights of the chanson de geste tradition as pious crusading models.