The First Crusade and subsequent crusading expeditions to the East saw the establishment of permanent settlements by crusaders and their Latin European allies in the territories they had conquered. These settlements were known generally in the West as “the land across the sea,” or in the French vernacular, Outremer. In the lands of Outremer, crusaders introduced a new political presence and a novel cultural construct where the French language was used on a daily basis, and where French language texts were created, circulated, and amended in much the same manner and at times in direct correlation with French texts produced in areas traditionally associated with early French-language development.

New scholarly initiatives, including Fordham's related French of England and French of Italy sites, have recently addressed French language usage in areas outside the boundaries of modern-day France. This website aims to contribute to that discussion by bringing paticular attention to French-language sources from Outremer in the following ways:

1. By providing source descriptions and summaries with integrated links to web resources;

2. By creating thematic essays, including an overview of the question by Nicholas Paul;

3. By offering bibliographic inroads to encourage further research on the French of Outremer.

French-language sources from Outremer have been organized under two rubrics, by production locale and by source type. To explore the sources, click on one of the following links:

Sources by Locale 

Sources by Type