Ralph of Caen

Ralph of Caen (Radulphi Cadomensis, c. 1080–after 1130) was a Norman cleric and chronicler. He grew up in Caen and joined the entourage of Bohemond of Antioch, then became chaplain to Tancred, prince of Galilee. His Gesta Tancredi (Deeds of Tancred), completed around 1112, is the main Latin narrative devoted to Tancred’s campaigns during and after the First Crusade. Ralph wrote in an ambitious, classicizing style—mixing prose and hexameter verse and drawing heavily on Virgil and other Latin poets—which has made the work both celebrated and notoriously difficult to translate. No contemporary portrait or likeness of Ralph is known; he is remembered entirely through his writing.