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The Medieval Fortress: Castles, Forts and Walled Cities of the Middle Ages

Average customer rating:

Total Information - Great Line Art - Very Krunchy
A Good General Overview but......
Great study of medieval castles
Medieval Fortress by Kaufmann
Just get it - you will not regret!

The Medieval Fortress: Castles, Forts and Walled Cities of the Middle Ages
H. W. Kaufmann , J. E. Kaufmann , and Robert M. Jurga
Manufacturer: Da Capo Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Castles: Their Construction and History (Dover Books on Architecture)
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Castles of the Western World: With 240 Illustrations (Magnificent Castles)
The Medieval Castle (Classic History)
Castle

ASIN: 0306813580
Release Date: 2004-04-13

Book Description

The castles of the Medieval world continue to interest readers, both as architectural wonders and because of their dramatic role in world history. The general public is largely unaware of just how many castles survive today or over how wide an area of Europe and the Middle East they are to be found.

Fortifications specialists J.E. and H.W. Kaufmann and technical artist Robert Jurga (authors of the acclaimed Fortress Europe: European Fortifications of World War II) have once again combined European sources and personal observations to present a unique portrait of military architecture. They reveal how the medieval fortress combined both Roman and barbarian features, with some influences from as far away as China. Detailed coverage is given to castles in the British Isles, France, Germany, Moorish Spain, and as far east as Poland and Russia, as well as Muslim and Crusader castles in the Middle East.

The Medieval Fortress covers the origin and evolution of the castles and other walled defenses, their major components, and the reasons for their eventual decline, which was not solely due to the introduction of gunpowder. Also receiving extensive coverage are the weapons and equipment of garrisons and besieging troops. Over 100 photographs and 400 extraordinarily detailed technical drawings accompany the main text, which also takes an in-depth look at representative castles of each major type.

Customer Reviews:

Total Information - Great Line Art - Very Krunchy.......2004-11-18

This book starts from the first few pages with an in depth study of the fortified positions of the middle ages - i.e. castles, keeps, etc. Despite a level of detail that may be too in depth for a beginner, the book itself provides a very readable style and is absolutely full of useful information (krunchy bits) for authors or others wishing to make an in depth study of medieval fortifications (ATTENTION GAMERS!). It has hundreds of high quality, albeit sometimes confusing, line art portraits that show each and every aspect of castle or its related cousins (where is #67 again - its sometimes like Where is Waldo finding the numbers referenced in the subtext). The book also has a great deal of information regarding siege techniques and the weapons used therein - and this information is fantastic in its level of detail and the included line art! The included photos are all in B&W, and some are rather grainy, but by far, they all serve the purpose they were intended to - they show the true grandeur of the castle as it was.

Within the text, the authors do have a habit of referencing other authors, which, if your looking for more on the subject, is good. However, by page 80, they have referenced at least 30 other authors and works (is that not what the bibliography is for).

Outside of this one complaint, the book is absolutely invaluable to anyone interested in the subject!

NOTE: This review references the soft-cover red front edition of the book, which I could not find the link for on Amazon (it may be an out of print edition or not, I am not sure - however, the TOC of the this edition appears identical to mine, so I am assuming that the contents have only been repackaged for the HB binding).

A Good General Overview but.............2004-11-17

On the whole, I found this book to quite informative with many detailed descriptions of medieval European castles and cities. On some specific castles the data can be fairly general. I found this to be most obvious on castles that I have been fortunate enough to visit in the past and purchase a guide brochure or booklet from which I naturally compared the data.
I found the section on eastern European fortifications and their developement over the centuries to be very interesting as this was a subject I previously knew very little about.
But I do have one major 'gripe' or dissatisfaction with the book. The detailed and extensive floor plans provided throughout the book all suffer from some serious 'under labelling'. For example, a specific castle floor plan might have 20 itemised (numbered) points or features of interest on it. But when one refers to the "legend' or 'key' to find out what a certain feature is, it becomes painfully obvious that not all 20 features are actually clarified or described in the key. This is a fault that is not isolated and is unfortunately prevalent on the vast majority of floor plans in the book.
I'm not sure whether this problem is peculiar to the published edition I purchased or is in fact inherent throughout the whole published run. In any case it appears to be a large oversite in the 'quality control' department of the book's publication process. Other than these faults, I thought this book to be a good 'read'.

Great study of medieval castles.......2004-06-01

If you've been looking for a complete book on medieval castles, you have found the book for you. Although it touches lightly on such on such areas as medieval food, hygene, and battles, the bulk of this book is an in-depth study of castles. The writing is a bit dry, but very informative, covering fortresses from England, France, Itally, and even eastern Europe. I doubt there is much about castles unsaid in this book.

Medieval Fortress by Kaufmann.......2003-09-30

This is an excellent work. It would be perfect for a student
project with a focus on Middle Ages building designs. The author
provides detailed engineering specifications for castles, forts,
a motte and rising towers. The engineering statics implications
are explained in the detailed design process. The work covers
action implementalities; such as, the ram, siege and cannon.
The author spends a portion of the book explaining how
war objects were constructed during the Middle Age period.

In addition, he concludes that an increase in wall size
necessarily means weakening the overall superstructure.
Some time is spent explaining the model diet for the period
which consisted of wheat, barley, oats and fish. This work
will help readers understand the building requirements
for structures created during the Middle Ages. The book would
be valuable for historians, art buffs, architects, engineers
and a wide constituency of other readers.

Just get it - you will not regret!.......2002-03-26

It does not matter if you all ready are a "fort-geek" or some one, who just want a book on the topic: This book will for sure please you.

"The Medieval Fortress" is a nice big (app. 11" x 8.5" or 28,5 x 22 cm), 319p. book, which covers the development of fortified places through out Europe and North-Africa from the early to the late middle ages - when the forts had their glory.
The book is built up of five main chapters. The First deals with the elements of a fortification; the Second deals in general with the different kind of fortifications in different parts of Europe (Islamic, Byzantine, Frankish, British, Norse, Slavic and Magyar (Hungarian)); the Third does the same, but with emphasis on the emerging castle; the Fourth chapter introduces gunpowder and the decline of the high castle walls through the description of several sieges (Constantinople, Rhodes, and siege of fortifications during the Reconquista); Chapter Five goes in depth with some selected fortifications in Europe: Some of the more famous ones and some more obscure. The reader is guided through fortifications/castles in Great Britain, Ireland, France, Low Countries, Switzerland, Holy Roman Empire, Scandinavia, Central Europe (present day Slovakia, Czechia, Hungary, and Slovenia) Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Eastern Mediterranean, Italy, Spain&Portugal, and North Africa. The appendixes gives the names of some more important builders and architects and their titles in different languages (French, Portugese, Spanish, Duch, Sweedish, and Russian), a chronology of important sieges from 623 (Constantinople) to 1529 (Vienna), a history of medival artillery and a glossary.
There are endless amounts of B/W pictures alongside with even more B/W line drawings and plans of forts, just like on the front cover of the book.

This book is a very good buy!

(Review based on First DaCapo Edition, 2001)

Average customer rating:

The Medieval Fortress: Castles, Forts and Walled Cities of the Middle Ages
H. W. Kaufmann; J. E. Kaufmann; Robert M. Jurga
Manufacturer: Da Capo Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OSXEUG

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