Authorship Current scholarship is divided on who wrote the Gesta the three possibilies as presented in Nirmal Dass recent translation are thate like Steven Runciman suggests in the passage in the article that it was written by a italian norman aristocrct who participated in the crusade The second possibility is that it was compiled soon after the events of the crusade by a scriptorium of monks The third is that it is more a literary endevour and that it relies more on the importance in the middle ages the wikipedia article on the gesta should be edited to reflect these although I do nt feel qualified to do so myself