The Churches of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. A Corpus, Volume II: L-Z (excluding Tyre) (review)

The Churches of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. A Corpus, Volume II: L-Z (excluding Tyre). By Denys Pringle with drawings by Peter E. Leach. (New York: Cambridge University Press. 1998. Pp. xxiv, 456; 203 plates, 107 figures. $150.00.)

After the occupation of Palestine in the wake of the First Crusade the western conquerors set out to give the holy places, not only in and around Jerusalem but also elsewhere, buildings worthy of their religious significance. Benedictines and members of new religious institutions established abbeys, priories, and friaries; among them the Templars, Hospitallers, Teutonic Knights, and Carmelites represented orders which were themselves founded in the east. There was also quite substantial settlement from the west and the colonists needed their own parish churches and castle chapels. The programme that ensued was unparalleled. It is not surprising that crusade archaeology is turning itself into a major field--the Israelis had 600 people working on one site recently--but seven hundred years after the westerners were ejected from the Holy Land the remains of many of their churches and religious houses survive in all manner of states of disrepair. As is well known, the region is one in which buildings of historical importance are in particular danger, because of politics, war, and over-enthusiastic development and also because it is so rich in earlier monuments that medieval Christian remains have not been as treasured as they would be in Europe.

This is the second of three planned volumes. The first covered those places the names of which began with the letters A to M. The last will be devoted to the mega-sites of Jerusalem, Acre, and Tyre. The two volumes which have appeared so far are magnificent, and the whole work will be a major achievement by any standard. Dr. Pringle is arguably the leading practitioner of crusade archaeology in the world, and for the first time historians and archaeologists are being provided with a comprehensive list, not only of surviving churches, but of those which do not survive at all. The Corpus is much more than a catalogue and gazetteer, because it contains, besides historical notes, an informed discussion of the architecture of every building, based not only on what is still standing but also on the evidence provided by scholars, surveyors, and travelers in the past. Dr. Pringle is an exceptionally careful scholar, who never ventures further than the material justifies, but that does not mean that he is not prepared to hypothesize when the occasion warrants it: read, for example, his brilliant treatment of a lost église-donjon at Safad.

The British School in Jerusalem, which employed Dr. Pringle, rightly decided to include in its survey the churches of other denominations than Latin. Work on these helps the identification of 'crusader' churches and puts them in context, besides, of course, being valuable in itself. The project is majestic in its aims and anyone who has seen the two volumes will agree that it is being brought to a triumphant conclusion. And the greatest sites, Jerusalem, Acre, and Tyre, are still to come. I cannot stress enough the value of the Corpus to scholars working on the Latin East and on medieval Palestine in general. As a source and work of reference it will have an enduring significance; and in Denys Pringle's measured and perceptive judgments it reveals itself to be an absolutely first-class piece of scholarship. He now holds a professorship in Wales, a promotion which was richly deserved, but it was heroic of him to get these volumes to the publishers as he did, considering the responsibilities he had as Principal Inspector of Ancient Monuments in Scotland.

Jonathan Riley-Smith
University of Cambridge

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