Encounters: The Crusades in 50 Objects

List of figures

Introduction

Part I. Belief

1. Cross

2. Yeshiva capital

3. Icon of St. Sergius and female donor

4. Qur’an of Nur al-Din

5. Painted fragment of an angel from Gethsemane

6. Reliquary of St. Marina

7. Altar from ‘Atlit Castle

8. Candlesticks from Church of the Nativity

9. Icon of the Nativity and Adoration of the Magi

10. Syriac lectionary

Part II. Conflict

11. Aleppo Codex

12. Slab with coats of arms over a Fatimid inscription

13. Cairo Genizah fragment

14. Jerusalem pilaster

15. Sword

16. D’Arenberg Basin

17. Game board

18. Gospels of T’oros Roslin

19. Templar Seal

20. Bell from Acre

Part III. Exchange

21. Imitation dinar

22. Sugar mold

23. Panel of a Holy Sepulcher reliquary

24. Buttons

25. Dagger with scabbard

26. Drinking cup

27. Albarello

28. Arsenal Old Testament

29. Windowpane fragment

30. Freer Canteen

Part IV. Power

31. Front cover of Psalter of Queen Melisende

32. Map of Jerusalem

33. Seal cast of Hospitaller master

34. Carved head of a knight

35. Denier from Amalric I

36. Miter of James of Vitry

37. Stone matrix

38. Jamb capital

39. Legal manuscript

40. Heraldic shield relief

Part V. Memory

41. Cadouin shroud

42. Pilgrim’s flask

43. Minbar of Nur al-Din/Saladin

44. Tomb of Baldwin V fragment

45. Seal matrix of Nahmanides

46. Pair of glass beakers

47. Histoire d’Outremer (History of Deeds done Beyond the Sea)

48. Epitaph stone of Isabel de Hana

49. Grandson Antependium

50. View of Acre from the Cocharelli Codex

Index

Biography

Cathleen A. Fleck is Professor of Art History and Director of the School of Visual Studies at the University of Missouri-Columbia. She has published articles and monographs on the court art of Naples and Avignon and on representations of Jerusalem in the crusader era of the Middle Ages (c. 1187–1356).

Elizabeth Lapina is Professor of Medieval History at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Her main interest is in perceptions and representations—textual and visual—of the crusading movement in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, on which she has published widely.

Richard A. Leson is Associate Professor of Art History at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. His research and publications focus on the art and architectural patronage of elite French families, with a special emphasis on heraldry. He is currently writing about the life and artistic patronage of Jeanne of Flanders (ca. 1272–1333).

Vardit Ruth Shotten is an architect and archaeologist working in the Archaeological Research Department, Israel Antiquities Authority, whose research and writing focuses on medieval architecture, particularly in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. She is currently leading the research project on ‘Atlit Castle and teaches at the University of Haifa.

“Through a rich, varied and stimulating collection of carefully chosen objects, this book offers a state-of-the-art and fascinating new way with which to engage with the crusading movement as an idea and with the polities established in the East following the Crusades. Ranging from objects attesting to daily life, commerce and cultural encounters, to objects attesting to aspects of warfare and conflict, the book presents a balanced, nuanced and vivid picture of life in the 'crusader states.' Eloquently written and beautifully illustrated, this captivating book will be of interest to both scholars and the general public alike.”

-          Gil Fishhof, University of Haifa

“This is a marvelous volume that conveys the complexity of life in the eastern Mediterranean and the Kingdom of Jerusalem during the period of the crusades, ca. 1099–1291. The authors have chosen fifty objects spanning from buttons to drinking glasses, altars to swords, reliquaries to game boards that demonstrate the histories of conflict, but also shared practices of exchange, religiosity, power, and remembrance. Often beautifully written and enhanced by high-quality images the book offers a material history of encounters in the crusading world. Taken together it is an argument for the power of assembled fragments over a unified narrative. A model of collaborative scholarship the volume will be useful to anyone working on the crusader world and to all who teach this and related subjects.”

-          Anne E. Lester, Johns Hopkins University

“An understanding of the past needs more than written sources. Readers of this volume see how archaeologists and art historians use objects, art and material culture to reveal the details of past societies, from the everyday to the elite. Each of the fifty objects described in this book becomes the focus of a deep dive into the Middle East of the crusader period, showing how Christians, Jews, and Muslims lived alongside each other in peace and war, sharing some aspects of their culture and also repurposing each other’s art and manufacture for new functions. Detailed explanations of each item provide both an accessible introduction for students and a scholarly resource for the more knowledgeable reader.”

-          Helen Nicholson, Cardiff University