Dei gesta per Francos: Etudes sur les croisades dédiées à Jean Richard - Crusade Studies in Honour of Jean Richard

Professor Jean Richard is the doyen of crusade historians. Although also well-known as one of the most distinguished historians of Burgundy, he has through publications which have been appearing for over half a century established himself as the greatest living scholar working on crusading and the Latin East. His book on twelfth-century Tripoli, published in 1945, is still the standard work on the county. In the 1950s he, and Joshua Prawer, provided a revolutionary approach towards the constitution and institutions of the kingdom of Jerusalem. He went on to pave the way for an entirely new understanding of the kingdom of Cyprus. In the 1960s he was one of a few historians who were sign-posting a more empathetic view of the ideology of crusading and the motivation of crusaders, and he developed his ideas further in recent monographs on Saint Louis and on the crusades in general. His work on Catholic missions to Asia and the role of the papacy in those enterprises is generally regarded as setting standards which few can approach. To celebrate his eightieth birthday thirty-nine colleagues have contributed articles in fields which themselves illustrate Professor Richard’s breadth of interest: the crusades, the military orders, and the Latin settlements on the Levantine mainland and the island of Cyprus.

Table of Contents:
Contents: Introduction; Bibliographie de Monsieur le Professeur Jean Richard; List of Abbreviations; Bella Sacra: Pope Gregory VII and martyrdom, H.E.J. Cowdrey; The fall of Antioch during the First Crusade, John France; "Water, water everywhere, Nor any drop to drink." Water supplies for the fleets of the First Crusade, John H. Pryor; The significance of a 12th-century sculptural group: Le Retour du Croisé, Nurith Kenaan-Kedar and Benjamin Kedar; The Albigensian Crusades: wars like any other?, Malcolm Barber; Civilis ac pia regis Francorum deceptio: Louis IX as crusade preacher, Christoph Maier; Matthew Paris, the lives of Muhammad, and the Dominicans, James Powell; Sur les traces de Buscarello de' Ghisolfi, Michel Balard; Comment reconquérir la Terre sainte et vaincre les Sarrasins?, Jacques Paviot; Explaining defeat: Andrew of Regensburg and the Hussite Crusades, Norman Housley; Militia Nova: Le fondateur de l'ordre du Temple à ses frères: Hugues de Payns et le Sermo Christi militibus, Simonetta Cerrini; Guy of Lusignan, the Hospitallers and the gates of Acre, Jonathan Riley-Smith; Les ordres militaires et la croisade au début du XIVe siècle. Quelques remarques sur les traités de croisade de Jacques de Molay et de Foulques de Villaret, Alain Demurger; A Hospitaller soror at Rhodes, 1347, Anthony Luttrell; Un fragment de la Règle de l'Ordre de l'Épée?, Marie-Adélaïde Nielen; Terra Sancta: Francs et musulmans de Syrie au début du XIIe siècle d'après l'historien Ibn Abi Tayyi', Anne-Marie Eddé; L'archevêque Hugues d'Edesse et son destin posthume, Rudolf Hiestand; Un émir arménien du Hawrân entre la principauté turque de Damas et le royaume latin de Jérusalem (1147), Gérard Dédéyan; Frankish and Muslim siege warfare and the construction of Frankish concentric castles, Ronnie Ellenblum; Three patriarchs at Antioch, 1165-70, Bernard Hamilton; Ein unbekanntes Kreuzfahrersiegel, Hans E. Mayer; William of Tyre and the origin of the Turks: observat

About the Author :
Michel Balard, Benjamin Z. Kedar

Review :
'...essential reading for scholars of the crusades and their students; but... which is worthy of the attention from scholars outside its immediate field.' History '... these articles reflect the latest advances in their varied fields; there is something of value here for almost everyone.' De Re Military