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536BOOK REVIEWS process in writing this book and the various circumstances that brought this volume into existence in its present form. All serious students of Russia, Christian culture, and European art should spend some time with this work. It is a superb primer for those first beginning study of iconography and an invaluable reference source for advanced students ofthis field ofculture. Above all, this volume should be treasured as a truly beautiful survey of a form of Russian national enlightenment still poorly appreciated in Western countries. It is difficult to fault Lazarev's conclusion that "early Russian icons form a totally original artistic world which is not easy to penetrate. But whoever discovers the key to it will effortlessly begin to discover a beauty that is always new." Joseph L.Wieczynski Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University The First Crusaders, 1095-1131- By Jonathan Riley-Smith. (New York: Cambridge University Press. 1997. Pp. xvi, 300. $49.95.) In 1098 and 1099 survivors of the First Crusade began to reappear in their homelands. Some had been part of the great triumph at Jerusalem in July, 1099; others had left before then, particularly during the horrendous siege ofAntioch in 1097-98. One of the latter was Guy Trousseau of Montlhéry, who "came home worn out by his journey and unable to come to terms with the fact that his courage had left him." But at least Guy had returned. Baldwin of Mons simply disappeared in Asia Minor in 1098, and his wife, Ida of Louvain, having waited for him in vain, actually went on pilgrimage in 1 106 in a fruitless search for him. The stories of such people are at the heart of this book which investigates the lesser-known participants, many of whom left only a single charter or incidental reference in a chronicle or annal. Jonathan Riley-Smith has made a systematic trawl for such references and has distilled the findings ofhis meticulous scholarship to record as many of the crusaders of this period as possible. Inevitably evidence of this kind cannot yield rounded portraits of those involved ; often there are only tantalizing glimpses of their motivation and feelings . Nevertheless, the material has offered considerable rewards for the author's patience, enabling him to draw some firm general conclusions as well as vignettes of those such as Guy Trousseau and Ida of Louvain. The key figures are "middle-ranking nobles," most of whom went on crusade in a group centered on their local lord or as part ofa kindred. So powerful were these ties that, in the 1 120's, one family—the Montlhérys of the Ile-de-France— came close to taking over both the Latin settlements in the East and the crusades which were directed toward them. The charters show the spiritual and financial arrangements that they and their families made before their departure; many were driven by guilt for past depredations, especially against local churches and monasteries, and this is often emotionally expressed in their attempts to BOOK REVIEWS537 make good the wrong they now admitted they had perpetrated. The ecclesiastical institutions, for once in the driver's seat, often took the opportunity to make them grovel. If the crusaders had any illusions at the time they took the cross—often fired up by a manipulative pope and clergy—the need to face practical problems must have brought them back to earth. The charters show, for example, how costly this was; although many gained prestige and some brought back important relics, Riley-Smith found only four examples of crusaders who seem to have made any monetary profit, rlxamination of hundreds of specific cases has, therefore, led the author to the conclusion that many of the previous theories about motivation are at best of marginal relevance. The evidence does not suggest that many were driven by material gain, colonial aspirations , or even by the need to redirect the surplus energies ofyounger members of an aristocracy suffering from a crisis of over-population. Indeed, the results might have had quite the opposite effect; the removal of figures of power and authority actually encouraged local violence rather than diverted it to the East. Many of the heroes...

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