"Eleven shiploads of German crusaders from the cities of Lübeck and Bremen departed the Holy Roman Empire in 1189 C.E., part of Frederick Barbarossa's crusader army destined for the Holy Land via England, Portugal, and the Mediterranean polities. [The Narratio de itinere navali] records the sole surviving eyewitness testimony of early crusader sailing and of the tiny Kingdom of Portugal's campaign to annex the neighboring Kingdom of the Algarve by using Europe's crusader armies to take its capital Silves (Xelb) from the Islamic Emperor of Morocco."-- Publisher description.

Includes a transcription and critical edition of the Latin text of the Narratio de itinere navali peregrinorum Hierosolymam tendentium et Silvam capientium, A.D. 1189, followed by an English translation.

Appendices contain facsimile reproductions of several earlier printed works on the Narratio de itinere navali; these works include earlier Latin editions and a translation into Portuguese. Appendix D3 is a reproduction of an article on the Narratio published by Charles Wendell David in 1939.

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.