Crusader Art in the Holy Land, From the Third Crusade to the Fall of Acre, 1187–1291 by Jaroslav Folda (review)

REVIEWS 248 but Dobranski does offer new insights about the relationship between the omitted ten lines and the attached Paradise Regain’d. Dobranski’s book offers useful insight into printing practices in seventeenthcentury England. Dobranski’s previous publications have established his expertise in scholarship on the early modern English book trade, and this monograph further develops his growing stature in this realm of scholarship. Dobranski writes in a lucid prose that makes this book an easy and accessible read, and his frequent road signs make it easy to follow his argument. Dobranski’s new book holds particular interest to book history scholars for sure, but he occasionally delves into manuscript culture, in the case of Donne’s poetry, and therefore it should also be of interest to scholars in that field. DAN MILLS, English, Georgia State University Jaroslav Folda, Crusader Art in the Holy Land, From the Third Crusade to the Fall of Acre, 1187–1291 (New York: Cambridge University Press 2005) 782 pp., ill. This is the second of Jaroslav Folda’s two panoramic volumes about the art of the Crusaders. The first, The Art of the Crusaders in the Holy Land 1098–1187 (New York: Cambridge University Press 1995), was dedicated to the arts of the first Crusader Kingdom, from the taking of Antioch to Saladin’s conquest of Jerusalem. The volume considered here is its sequel, and is focused on the art and architecture commissioned by Crusaders during the thirteenth century, when Acre was the capital of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. These two volumes synthesize Forlda’s work of over three decades, and will remain the standard compendia for many years to come. Folda sought to present a definitive body of material culture from the Latin kingdoms in the Levant , ranging from architectural monuments, painting and sculpture to pottery, textiles, and coins. The idea of such a comprehensive body of evidence may raise suspicion in our era of post-modern uncertainty and continuous re-evaluation . In this case, however, Folda’s unequalled knowledge of the topic provides scholars with an invaluable tool for historical understanding, art historical analysis, and future interpretation. Folda’s work is valuable for anyone with an interest in the Crusades, Christian architecture in the Holy Land, pilgrimage, monumental and miniature painting, and just about any aspect of cultural interaction during the Middle Ages. The book follows the development of the art of the Crusaders chronologically . The chapters, outlined by historical events and the succession of rulers, thereby stress liaisons between patrons and art. The author’s ultimate aim is to lay out the essentials of what is known to date about Crusader art, and to define it as an independent artistic movement. Folda surveys earlier literature in the field, setting his target primarily in constructing a meaningful picture of Crusader art in its own terms and in relation to developments in Romanesque and Gothic art, but also the art of the maniera Graeca in Europe, of Byzantium, and the Near East. However, his main technique in so doing is to deconstruct examples of Crusader art in order to reveal their similarities to contemporary European and Byzantine examples. And so, Crusader art emerges as an eclectic body of material whose main characteristic is a willingness to draw from (countless) parallel traditions. Its main features outside these influences include REVIEWS 249 its finite existence within the era of the Crusades, and its function associated with pilgrimage. Thus, Folda defines Crusader art as pilgrimage art—neither European nor Byzantine and certainly not colonial, and contextualizes it within the historical milieux of Syria and Palestine, a method he also employed in his previous volume . There, he argued against the idea that Crusader art was in any way subservient to that of the Frankish overlords, and compared the Crusader experience with colonial art in America during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. That association raised strong criticism, and Folda abandoned the colonial discourse in his second volume. Nevertheless, while direct comparisons are certainly not productive, adopting methods from Postcolonial studies might afford a better understanding of what Crusader art was, and how it functioned and constructed identity for the Crusaders stationed outside Europe. For example, recent studies have...