Claude Cahen's book on Crusader Antioch cast a long shadow. His thorough monograph seemingly leaves little more to be said. Decades may pass before scholars return to the topic. The long shadow fell even on the Wisconsin History of the Crusades which still seeks, essentially, to stich the written sources together into traditional narrative history, only to do it better. But topics such as architecture, or coins are optional extras and not much integrated into the whole picture. A thorough analysis of political and military developments is indeed the essential groundwork of most medieval history. But high politics was not the whole of life; and charters and texts are not the only witnesses to that life. Social and economic life has its own momentum and its own continuity. Its moral and spiritual aspects deserve historical study, and impose new historical disciplines. Crusades studies have become more interdisciplinary, and less monolithic. That new style of enquiry is fully reflected in the range and variety of the papers, tightly focussed on Antioch, printed in this volume.

The complexity of the multi-ethnic and multi-cultural society of the Eastern Mediterranean world asks for research on a wide variety of topics. Three unique documents, preserved or produced in the West, reflect an interest in this world: a Latin-Armenian list of words (Jos Weitenberg), a Middle Dutch Song (Lied) of Antioch, possibly a daughter of the French Chanson d'Antioch (Geert Claassens) and a late sixteenth-century Ortelian map with a panorama of Antioch (Marita Wijntjes). Laments on Antioch and Tripoli are discussed by Tamar Boyadjian and Floris Sepmeijer, who made a new translation of the Arabic text of Solomon of Ashluh. Numerous prophesies on the Fall of Tripoli were brought together (Krijnie Ciggaar). Latins and Eastern Christians, occasionally Mongols, met in the East (Felicitas Schmieder and Alan Murray). Western and Eastern sponsors had their portraits painted in sanctuaries (Mat Immerzeel). In his study, which reads as a detective, Yuri Pyatnicky traces the fate of the two missing cloisonné enamels that once adorned the book cover and the manuscript od the famous Vardzia Gospel.

This interdisciplinary volume re-evaluates the interconnectedness of the Merovingian world with its Mediterranean surroundings.

This is the second volume on medieval Antioch which is meant to become a series of studies on less well-known aspects of the city's eventful history. Its multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-linguistic character pose more than one problem which needs further investigation. Unknown material, new interpretations of texts, translations of unknown or less accessible texts accompanied vy commentaries, are the main focus of this series of publications on Antioch. This volume responds to this initiative. Various contributions highlight unknown or understudied aspects of this history. A translation of a Logos of the Greek theologian Nikon of the Black Mountain is presented by Wim Aerts. An almost unknown anonymous enumeration of descriptions of the castles of Nureddin, written in Arabic, was made by Tevfik Buyukasik. The description of Edessa in Abu al-Makarim's History of the Churches and Monasteries of Egypt and some neighbouring Countries was translated by Clara ten Hacken. The Greek Reconquest in 969 influenced Byzantine art (Alexander Saminsky). In the same period Northerners from Scandinavia are signalled in Antioch (Krijnie Ciggaar). The Latin conquest of 1098 and its aftermath are discussed by Thomas Asbridge. Jochen Burgtorf focusses on the Hospitaller Lordship of Margat. Tasha Vorderstrasse concentrates on contacts with China, Mongolia and Armenia, while Balazs Major presents material culture when discussing mill in Valania. In the article by Laurence Delobette crusaders from Burgundy appear on the scene after 1268. The various articles stimulate further research and discussion on the various aspects of the history of this important and influential city in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Collected Studies CS1066 The articles in this collection cover the region extending from Italy to the Black Sea and to Egypt, over a period of seven centuries, with an emphasis on the considerable economic and social interaction between the West and the regions of the Eastern Mediterranean. They represent key works in the oeuvre of David Jacoby, the doyen of scholars in the field over many decades.