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Book Use, Book Theory 1500–1700 by Bradin Cormack, Carla Mazzio

2006; University of California; Volume: 37; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/cjm.2006.0018

1557-0290

Jen Smith,

Global Maritime and Colonial Histories

REVIEWS 234 of Bouillon became the kingdom’s first ruler. Godfrey, a humble Christian who refused to wear the crown, died young, and Baldwin became king. The administration of the conquered territories evolved as more areas were annexed. By 1109 the region consisted of four feudal states. Jerusalem was a kingdom, whose king was owed allegiance by the other rulers. Enabling pilgrims to reach the holy places of Palestine had been one of the main declared purposes of the crusade, as Conder endeavors to show from the beginning. Protecting the pilgrims was seen as an important task that led to the founding of the Knights of St. John and the Templars. For nearly a century, the Latins in Syria enjoyed peace and prosperity, and it was during this time that the great castles and churches whose ruins are still to be seen were built. People and languages met: Norman princes took Armenian wives; the knights spoke Norman-French mixed with Greek and Arabic. The laws of chivalry prevailed: to be brave and true was not enough unless a man were also humble and pure of heart, courteous , kind and merciful to all. The nobles wore magnificent clothes, went out to hunt, or to wander in orchards and gardens. Merchants came, and jongleurs and troubadours. The many populations ruled by the Franks—Greeks, Turks, Tartars , Armenians, Jews, Arabs, Copts, and people from every European nation— lived in peace. This golden age came to an end when Saladin captured Jerusalem in 1187. This event lead to the Third Crusade and Richard the Lionhearted ’s recovery of the Syrian coast, where the last Frankish city, Acre, was taken by the Mamluk sultan Khalil in 1291. It is interesting to note that after 1291, when all lands in the Middle East were lost, the kingdom continued in name on Cyprus, still calling itself the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The title of king of Jerusalem has never disappeared; the title was passed on to the Habsburgs and belongs now technically to the king of Spain. Although the attempt of the Latins to form and maintain a new country failed, the legacy of the Kingdom of Jerusalem lives on, as the cultural contact established in the east Mediterranean territories influenced the literature, art, and trade of Europe, contributing to the new ideas of the Renaissance and Reformation. Conder brings to life in the pages of this volume one of the most interesting moments of medieval history. Although it is based on a wealth of documents and contains notes and references, it is highly readable, even for the non-specialist, as he shows the concern for style common to the nineteenthcentury writers who followed Horace’s formula utile dulci. CRISTINA DOBRESCU-MITROVICI, Languages & Cultures Minnesota State University, Moorhead Bradin Cormack and Carla Mazzio, Book Use, Book Theory 1500–1700 (Chicago: University of Chicago Library 2005) xi + 124 pp. If, as the introduction of Book Use, Book Theory suggests, the successful interaction of any reader with a book is predicated on the “relationship between utility and pleasure” (23) that Horace first identified, then this book is certainly a successful endeavor. It is useful in its systematic organization of ideas and pleasurable in its well matched and aesthetically pleasing visual examples. The book includes an introduction and five major sections that explore different ways of understanding the nature of books: “Technologies of Use,” “Parts and Wholes: From Matter to Method,” “The How-to Book,” “Dimensional Think- REVIEWS 235 ing,” and “Taking Liberties.” Within each of the five major sections, Cormack and Mazzio have additional subdivisions that further break down the various aspects of the book. The attentiveness throughout to the intimate and mutually influential interaction between the text on a page and the physical culture of that page in the production of meaning is excellent. In fact, the kind of relationship between text and page, between use and pleasure, that Cormack and Mazzio describe is also exemplified in their own text. This book’s greatest strength is in the unity of its formatting, layout, and organization with its own narrative trajectory. Though the content of Book Use, Book Theory is often sophisticated in its observations and in its ability to...