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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 271.791209
EAN num: 9781843830382
ISBN number: 1843830388
Label: Boydell & Brewer
Manufacturer: Boydell & Brewer
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 192
Printing Date: March 30, 2006
Publishing house: Boydell & Brewer
Sale Popularity Level: 269867
Studio: Boydell & Brewer
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Product Description:
This short study of the history of the Order of St John of Jerusalem, Rhodes and Malta, also known as the Knights Hospitaller, is intended as an introduction to the Order for academics working in other fields, as well as the interested general reader. Beginning with a consideration of the origins of the Order as a hospice for pilgrims in Jerusalem in the eleventh century, it traces the Hospitaller's development into a military order during the very first part of the twelfth century, and its military activities on the frontiers of Christendom in the eastern Mediterranean, Spain and eastern Europe during the middle ages and into early modern period: its role in crusades and in wars against non-Christians on land and at sea, as well as its role in building and maintaining fortresses. It also considers the Order's activities away from the frontiers of Christendom: its economic activities and its relations with patrons and rulers throughout Europe, as well as its hospitaller work and its religious life. The focus of the study is on the medieval period down to the loss of Rhodes in 1522, but the final chapters of the book consider the Order's history on Malta from the sixteenth to the end of the eighteenth century, and from the loss of Malta in 1798 to the present day. HELEN NICHOLSON is Senior Lecturer in History, Cardiff University.
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Nicholson, Helen. The Knights Hospitaller. (Woodbridge, UK: The Boydell Press, 2001).
Helen Nicholson is one of the leading scholars of medieval military religious orders. Her books are well known for providing new theories and insight into the history of the military orders, and The Knights Hospitaller is no exception. Though the nature of Dr. Nicholson's work is academic, and one that no scholar of the military orders should be without, her writing is uncluttered by jargon and un-translated items, making it accessible to all.
The Knights Hospitaller covers the history of the Order from its inception to the loss of Malta in 1798 and beyond to the standing of the Order in the present day. Dr. Nicholson does not look at this history in isolation, but rather sets the context for the Order's working by detailing pertinent events and mindsets over the course of the five hundred years of history the book covers. However, in doing so, the work raises some questions that are not answered by Dr. Nicholson. For instance, in discussing the Order's misty founding, Dr. Nicholson dismisses the claim made by William of Tyre that the Order was originally dedicated to St. John the Almoner, without really saying why or drawing any conclusions as to why William would have made this up. Though Dr. Nicholson seems to favor an Amalfian origin to the Order, there is no reason given not to believe that the Order was, at some point in its early days, dedicated to St. John the Almoner.
Despite a few missing answers, which may have been beyond the scope of the work, The Knights Hospitaller is an excellent introduction for anyone curious in learning more about medieval military orders. Dr. Nicholson has once again provided a book that is well worth the time taken to read it.
Review by Jennifer Regan and Dr. Carl Edwin Lindgren
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