ideonode t1_j0bybvj wrote on December 15, 2022 at 3:20 PM

I finished two hefty books this week:

The first was Thomas Asbridge's The Crusades. It's an excellent overview of the Crusades, with perspectives from both sides. Perhaps understandably, it focuses in on the Third Crusade as the centrepiece of the narrative, tracking the endeavours of Saladin and the Lionheart closely. It perhaps rushes the later Crusades a bit, but that might have been a necessary editorial step to stop the book becoming too daunting. I've got Dan Jones' book on the Crusades in my to-be-read pile, and I've also got Roger Crowley's Accursed Tower (specifically on the siege of Acre) on my radar too. Someone here mentioned The Crusades Through Arab Eyes, which I might try to pick up too.

The second book I finished this week was The Posthumous Papers of the Manuscript Club by Christopher de Hamel. Not quite narrative history, it tells the story of 12 medieaval manuscript collectors over time, starting with St Anselm, and tracking through to the 20th Century. It's very much a follow-up volume to his excellent Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts. The author is an expert in his field, and has some firsthand experience of some of the manuscripts discussed. He imagines meeting each of the twelve collectors, which could sound affecting, but is actually endearing. Thoroughly recommended. The hardback volume of Posthumous Papers is sumptuously illustrated with medieval manuscripts (word of advice: the hardback of Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts was also beautifully illustrated, but when it was published in paperback, they apparently dropped most of the colour illustrations. The same might happen to Posthumous Papers...)

Mnemosense t1_j0lxbvg wrote on December 17, 2022 at 5:45 PM

I also read Asbridge's book earlier this year and thought it was fantastic. Very well written, not too dry and not too 'pop-history' either. I've got another one of his on the backlog: The Greatest Knight: The Remarkable Life of William Marshal.

By the way, do you not find it fascinating how little movies we've got from the Crusade era? Like the siege of Acre, or the battle of Jaffa. There's so many stories to tell, but all that springs to mind is Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven.

ideonode t1_j0m96sp wrote on December 17, 2022 at 7:07 PM

Asbridge's biography of Marshall is excellent - it was reading that earlier this year that persuaded me to finally give The Crusades a go.

And yes, the lack of dramatic portrayal of the crusades is interesting to note. Perhaps the depiction of a Them and Us narrative is too problematic these days, even if the actual truth is more nuanced. I think that instead of a movie, a multi season depiction of Outremer would be fascinating.