Bøker i Cultures, Beliefs and Traditio-serien

This fascinating study reconstructs the tradition of the Legend of the True Cross in text and image, from its tentative beginnings in 4th-century Jerusalem to the culminating expression of its multi-layered cosmic content in 14th and 15th-century monumental cycles in Germany and Italy.

This fascinating study examines the customs, legal codes, and socioeconomic mechanisms that evolved from the initial Christian-Muslim encounter on Crusader battlefields. It pinpoints changes in European mentality, and conduct of war, tracing acculturation processes in Frankish society in the Levant. These changes emerged from the need to redeem captives, making payment of ransom to the infidel conceivable and acceptable. The book pays special attention to the story of the vanquished, to the situation of women, to the behavior of the Military Orders toward captives, and to the image of the captive in Crusader literature, in the context of making war and peace.