4to. French text. Texte Volume: x, 422 pp., 3 maps of which one is folding, numerous figures in text, biblio, index / Album: Loose plates as published in sleeved folder, 96 plates, 15 plans & 11 folding maps outlined in colour, cloth backed boards, lightly faded boards, light soiling to spine of Album, otherwise set clean inside and in very good condition, from Les Châteaux des Croisés en Terre Sainte Series, Volume III, Institut Français d’Archeologie de Beyrouth, Bibliotheque Archeologique et Historique - Tom XC, Librairie Orientaliste, Paul Geuthner, Paris, first edition, 1973.

Synopsis

Copy comprised of a text volume with notes, indices, and bibliographic material, accompanied by a portfolio-style album of maps, floor plans, and plates depicting views, elevations, photographs, and architectural details.
Paul Deschamps was a noted medievalist French historian who was appointed director of the Trocadero Museum in 1927. He took almost four decades to complete this work on the Crusader Castles, completing the final volume only a year before his death. These volumes provide an important archaeological, geographic, and historical reference for some of the most important Crusader castles and fortresses in present-day Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon. Construction on these fortresses was mainly done in the 12th centuries, often on the site of previous habitations, with many changes taking place over the following centuries as possession of the castles changed hands. Deschamps, along with architect Francois Anus, was the first person to do an in-depth study and create accurate architectural plans of some of these castles
It’s worth mentioning that he obtained the purchase of Crac des Chevaliers by the French government in 1933 and published several works on fortresses of the Levant.
This work is a study on the military architecture of the crusading states. Camille Enlart, Deschamps’ predecessor at Trocadero, started a study on the monuments of Crusaders in Syria and Palestine, but did not live to complete his work, publishing in 1925-1928 Les Monuments des Croises dans le Royaume de Jerusalem. Deschamp’s study on military architecture supplements and completes this study in far more detailed manner.
The European interest in the archaeology of Palestine and specifically in Jerusalem continued during the British Mandate.