Aix, Robert the Monk, and Raoul of Caen are little more than names,
while Baldric of Dole is known to have occupied a significant
ecclesiastical position, and to have composed other literary works.
Guibert of Nogent, on the other hand, is better known than any other
historian of the First Crusade, in spite of the fact that The Deeds
of God Through the Franks, composed in the first decade of the
twelfth century (1106-1109), did not circulate widely in the middle
ages, and no writer of his own time mentions him. Guibert himself,
in the course of the autobiographical work he composed in the second
decade of the twelfth century (1114-1117), never mentions the Deeds,
and it has never been translated into English.[1] What measure of
fame he currently has is based mostly on his autobiography, the
Monodiae, or Memoirs, an apparently more personal document, which has
been translated into both French and English.[2]

Although the Memoirs contain a strong historical component--the third
book, in particular, if used with discretion, offers rich material
for a study of the civil disorder that took place in Laon 1112-111--
the first book has attracted the attention of most recent scholars
and critics because it offers more autobiographical elements.
However, Guibert did not include among those elements the exact date
and place of his birth.[3] Scholarly discussion has narrowed the
possible dates to 1053-1065, although the latest editor of the
Memoirs, Edmonde Labande, categorically chooses 1055. Among the
candidates for his birthplace are Clermont-en-Beauvaisis, Agnetz,
Catenoy, Bourgin, and Autreville, all within a short distance of
Beauvais. No record of his death, generally assumed to have occurred
by 1125, has survived.

In spite of the lack of exactitude about places and dates, the