(Above) Journey through Wales. National Museum Wales
Exhibition: Medieval Wales: Some Crusade Stories, National Museum Wales, Cardiff, until April 11 2010
National Museum Wales is travelling back 820 years to the era of the great chronicler Gerald of Wales whose Journey Through Wales is a stirring account of gathering recruits for the Third Crusade in 1188.
A rare 13th century copy of the book has been loaned to the Museum for the first time in 20 years from the British Library.
Also on loan from the British Library until January 2010 is a copy of Gerald's De Principis Instructione (On the Education of a Monarch), devoted to the Crusades and the fate of the Holy Land. The book is a unique surviving copy in Latin, possibly written in Wales in the 1300s.
Although Gerald, Archbishop Baldin, didn't go on the third crusade he was committed to the crusading ideal of the Holy Wars as approved by the Pope. Jerusalem was the centre of the world for most Medieval Christians, including the people of Wales, who participated in the Holy Wars to protect the Holy City.
What emerged from Gerald's travels was a clear and vivid picture of the country in the medieval period. Gerald called his book "a clear mirror, reflecting the wild and trackless places we passed through... it portrays the country itself, as well as the origins, customs and ways of the inhabitants."
Other artefacts on display include examples of coins used in Crusader states such as the Principality of Antioch, the County of Tripoli and the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
The Christian crusader states were heavily reliant on Western merchant shipping for contact with European supplies and trade - goods from the Far East were traded in return. A Syrian Jar made in Damascus between 1250 and 1300 found at Grosmont Castle, Monmouthshire is among the rare items on display that highlight this contact with the Holy Land.
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