Unique persona ideas- was Re: [Sca-cooks] Japanese

[Laura C. Minnick]

At 05:40 PM 5/10/02 -0700, you wrote:
>A response, will provide better book cites privately if requested:>

Nifty! I'm just adding a couple notes-

>> Moorish Spain-
>Read "The Rise and Fall of Paradise"

Cool. My book is... you know.

>> Southern France on the whole- 12th-13th CATHARS!
>
>Read "The Promised Land of Error"

This is the Ladurie. My only problems with him are: He is writing very late
(early 14th c.) and things have changed substantively since the 12th c,
both in conditions and in teh practice of the faith. Too many people take
his book as though it were the definitive view of the whole movement.
T'ain't. Also- he bases most of his work not on the writings of the Cathars
(as in earlier works), but on the records left by the Inquisitors, and what
the Cathars in Montaillou said when questioned. Interesting, but not the
whole picture. What would _you_ say if you were being questioned in similar
circumstances? Modern studies on such have given discouraging results.
Terrified people will say _anything_. Not that I am totally discounting the
work, but I think Ladurie serious lacks balance.

(Yes, I had to do a conference paper on Cathar family relationships- I know
a little about them.)

>> Kingdom of the Two Sicilies- one of my favorites.
>
>Read "The Normal Fate".

<scribble>
I highly recommend reading a bio on FredII. He was an amazing man.

>A question, what did they serve up for Vespers in Sicily?
>
>> How about western Christians living in the Crusader states? the 12th
>> century crusader kingdoms of Jerusalem, Antioch, Aleppo, Acre, etc, must
>> have been very interesting (if a little unstable) places to be. And the
>> records we have indicate that many a soldier went somewhat 'native',
>> married locally, wore an mix of western and local clothing, ate the local
>> food.
>
>Read "A History of the Crusades" by Runciman followed by "Arab Historians of
>the Crusades" and "The Moslem Discovery of Europe"

Runciman gives an overview. Zoe Oldenbourg's _The Crusades_ devotes most of
the book to teh Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, and to the rather nasty
infighting between the petty princes. If they had just been able to stop
squabbling, they could have held out much longer. But nooooo...

The um... (searching memory- search complete) _The Crusades through Arab
eyes_ is based on contemporary accounts and is quite useful for Saracen
personas. But I would dearly love to see a good book on Queen Melissande of
Jerusalem...

This is definitely one of those days that I wish I and my library were in
the same place...

'Lainie
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