The manuscript was completed in the late 13th or early 14th century by two different copyists, one adding Ekkehard and the Annals and the other the Devastatio and the Lateran account.
Its title appears prominently at the beginning and a third person later wrote in the top margin Coronica captionis Constantinopolitanae (Chronicle of the Capture of Constantinople).
Most scholars accept that he was from the Holy Roman Empire[a] and probably a German speaker from the Rhineland, although Jules Tessier argues that he was more probably an Italian from Lombardy and Cynthia Arthur that he was more probably a Francophone from the County of Hainaut.
While Michael McCormick,[2] Carl Klimke and Tessier make him a partisan of Marquis Boniface I of Montferrat, Kandel places him in the following of Count Baldwin IX of Flanders and Arthur in that of Henry of Hainaut.
[3] It has been proposed that the author relied for some of his information on the letters sent by Baldwin of Flanders to Pope Innocent after he became emperor,[4] but this is not conclusive.
The author pays special attention to numbers such as prices and payments and also keeps track of the size of the army by counting fatalities, casualties, leaves and desertions.
[3] The author also shows great interest in contracts, oaths, pledges and treaties, a series of eight of which structures the entire narrative.
The compact made by the cities of Lombardy to hurry the armed contingents on their way to the rendezvous in Venice is presented as the first counter-crusade action.
The next major contracts are the oath of allegiance taken by the barons to Boniface (who is referred to throughout simply as the Marquis) and the agreement with Venice, which results in the Siege of Zara.
After the capture of Constantinople, Alexios makes pledges and gives surety to the army in exchange for its continued support as he establishes his rule.
[3] Listen, my beloved brethren: did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?
It mistakenly dates Peter of Capua's preaching tour to 1202, probably because the author as a German was not directly familiar with events in France.
[1] It also places the assault on the harbour wall of Constantinople correctly on 9 April 1204, but incorrectly states that this was during Holy Week.
The Devastatio ends abruptly after noting the payments received by the commoners from the booty taken in Constantinople: "five marks to each foot soldier".