The Circulation of the Eracles in Italy and Galeotto del Carretto's Chronicle(s)

The history of the crusades known as the Eracles circulated widely in Europe and the Holy Land. In Europe we can trace its presence through existing manuscripts and fragments, some of them copied late in the fifteenth century, and through the entries in library catalogues, most notably those from noble families in fifteenth-century northern Italy. The Italian Chronicle by Galeotto del Carretto exists in various redactions in both prose and verse and is one of the lesser-known adaptations of the Old French text of the Eracles. Along with other sources, it is recast into the genealogical history of the noble house of Montferrat which, at the end of the fifteenth century and the beginning of the sixteenth, was still trying to capitalise on its crusading past in order to assert its role in both Western and Eastern politics.