Guibert of Nogent has provided us with much of what we know about life in Europe in the 11th and 12th centuries. His autobiography, his crusade chronicle and his critique of relics create a rich and textured portrait of this vibrant and violent social landscape. His observations range widely from the philosophical to the extremely personal with topics including his mother, sexuality, cleanliness and life in a Benedictine monastery. Yet, in spite of is importance to our understanding of his era, Guibert himself has not been the subject of an historical biography in nearly a century.

At Moson, the river Danube ran red with blood. At Antioch, the Crusaders-- their saddles freshly decorated with sawed-off heads--indiscriminately clogged the streets with the bodies of eastern Christians and Turks. At Ma'arra, they cooked children on spits and ate them. By the time the Crusaders reached Jerusalem, their quest--and their violence-- had become distinctly otherworldly: blood literally ran shin-deep through the streets as the Crusaders overran the sacred city.

Beginning in 1095 and culminating four bloody years later, the First Crusade represented a new kind of warfare: holy,...

The first Western autobiography since Augustine's Confessions, the Monodies is set against the backdrop of the First Crusade and offers stunning insights into medieval society. As Guibert of Nogent intimately recounts his early years, monastic life, and the bloody uprising at Laon in 1112, we witness a world-and a mind-populated by royals, heretics, nuns, witches, and devils, and come to understand just how fervently he was preoccupied with sin, sexuality, the afterlife, and the dark arts. Exotic, disquieting, and illuminating, the Monodies is a work in which the dreams,...