A History of the Crusades: Vlume I: The First Crusade and the Foundation of the Kingdom of Jerusalem by Runciman, Steven - 1964

New York: Harper Torchbook/Harper & Row, Publishers, 1964. First Thus. Paperback. Very Good. 8vo - over 7?" - 9?" tall. First Harper Torchbook Edition published by Harper & Row, Publishers. 1964. Trade Paperback in Very Good Overall Condition. Illustrated with eight pages of black-and-white reproductions of contemporary illustrations and five maps within the text. Colour illustrated cover with wraparound art of part of a 14th century manuscript showing mediaeval warfare; red & blue lettering on white cover, which is sunned along edges and on spine. Pages are lightly and evenly toned, quite clean, no markings of any kind, no creases. This is the first volume of three to cover the history of the movement we call the Crusades, from its birth in the eleventh century to its decline in the fourteenth, and of the states that it created in the Holy Land and in neighboring countries. A "mighty wave of emotion that swept western Europe and gathered hundreds of thousands of humble men and women to the banners of such popular leaders as Peter the Hermit and Walter the Penniless marks a great epoch in modern history--perhaps the moment when the faith, preserved in the cloister while the barbarians trampled down the classic order, came forth from the sanctuary to take the world by storm". 238 pages, indexed. 8" x %.25". 1964, Harper Torchbook/Harper & Row, Publishers, New York.