Tageno (died 1190) was a Bavarian clergyman and crusader. He was a minor cleric of the

cathedral of Passau St. Stephen's Cathedral (german: Dom St. Stephan) is a baroque church from 1688 in Passau, Germany, dedicated to Saint Stephen. It is the seat of the Catholic Bishop of Passau and the main church of his diocese. Since 730, there have been many ...

from at least July 1183. He became dean of the cathedral in 1187 and joined the army of

Frederick Barbarossa Frederick Barbarossa (December 1122 – 10 June 1190), also known as Frederick I (german: link=no, Friedrich I, it, Federico I), was the Holy Roman Emperor from 1155 until his death 35 years later. He was elected King of Germany in Frankfurt ...

on the

Third Crusade The Third Crusade (1189–1192) was an attempt by three European monarchs of Western Christianity ( Philip II of France, Richard I of England and Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor) to reconquer the Holy Land following the capture of Jerusalem by ...

in 1189. He wrote an account in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...

of his experience, known as the ''Descriptio expeditionis Asiaticae Friderici'' ("Description of the Asian Expedition of Frederick"), covering the period from 1189 down to 21 June 1190. According to the ''

Historia de expeditione Friderici imperatoris The ''History of the Expedition of the Emperor Frederick'' (Latin: ''Historia de expeditione Friderici imperatoris'') is an anonymous Latin account of the campaign waged by Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor, as part of the Third Crusade. It covers t ...

'', which plagiarized his ''Descriptio'', Tageno died at

Tripoli Tripoli or Tripolis may refer to: Cities and other geographic units Greece *Tripoli, Greece, the capital of Arcadia, Greece *Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in t ...

in the autumn of 1190. No independent copy of Tageno's account survives. It is known only from its incorporation into other works. The ''Historia de expeditione'' incorporates Tageno's account of the period from 16 May to 9 June 1190 almost verbatim, including the use of the first person. The entirety of the ''Descriptio'' was incorporated into the chronicle of Magnus of Reichersberg, who died in 1195. Magnus occasionally alters Tageno's first person to the third person, and he may have made other alterations to the text. Furthermore, he probably had access to an early draft of the ''Historia de expeditione'', meaning that their texts are not independent witnesses to the original ''Descriptio''. Magnus calls the ''Descriptio'' simply a "record" (''memoria'').

Graham Loud Graham Anthony Loud (born 1953) is a professor emeritus of medieval history at the University of Leeds. Loud is a specialist in the history of southern Italy during the Central Middle Ages (tenth to thirteenth centuries), and also in German hist ...

considers it almost a diary. A slightly different version of Tageno's ''Descriptio'' from that in Magnus appeared in a book published by the Bavarian humanist

Johannes Aventinus Johann Georg Turmair (or Thurmayr) (4 July 1477 – 9 January 1534), known by the pen name Johannes Aventinus (Latin for "John of Abensberg") or Aventin, was a Bavarian Renaissance humanist historian and philologist. He authored the 152 ...

in 1522. It is unknown if Aventinus had access to the original text or was relying on a version of Magnus's chronicle. The differences between the two versions of the ''Descriptio'' are largely stylistic and may reflect Aventinus emendation of the text in accordance with humanistic notions of

Latinity Latinity (''Latinitas'') is proficiency in Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latiu ...

Notes

Bibliography

* * * * {{Authority control 1190 deaths People from the Duchy of Bavaria Roman Catholic deans Christians of the Third Crusade 12th-century Latin writers