Tower Houses: Myths and Realities; Tower Studies, 4/5

Donington: Shaun Tyas, 2023. Book. New. Hardcover. 1st Edition. 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" tall. A fine new copy. The third in a series of Tower Studies, which here publishes the fourth and fifth conferences of the European Towers Studies Group, held in 2013 and 2014. Since their first delivery, the papers have undergone significant revision to bring thinking up to date and to incorporate more recently published data and discussion. The contributors offer perspectives on key themes and problems in the study of the 'tower' phenomenon in the medieval and early renaissance periods across the British Isles, the Netherlands, Spain and France, with a primary focus of two broad areas of investigation: 'The Problematic 'Tower House'' and 'Towers of Antiquity and Lineage', as well as problems of definition. Lavishly illustrated with both modern photographs and archival images, and includes a bibliography and an index. Sewn and bound in real cloth. The contents are: prelims (i-viii);.Richard Oram, 'Introduction' (1-11); Richard Oram ''Tower House' in Britain: the historiography of a label' (12-50); Penelope Dransart, 'A small place of strength in which to dwell: Recusant families, fortalices and tower houses in Eastern Scotland' (51-71); Taco Hermans, 'Tower house or tower castle? Questions about the name, the function and the typology' (72-85); Bas Aarts, 'Polygonal residential towers in the Low Countries and their symbolism' (86-96); Rob Gruben, 'The Groesbeek tower houses and other wooden castle structures in the Netherlands during the period 1250-1450' (97-130); Jan van Doesburg, 'Towering ambitions - medieval tower keeps, tower houses, hall towers and other moated brick houses in the Kromme Rijn area in the Netherlands' (131-47); Edwin Orsel, 'The Gravensteen: a problematic tower house?' (148-57); Ben Murtagh, 'Hall-and-tower residences and other related buildings in late medieval and early modern Ireland' (158-208); Pamela Marshall, 'A reverence for antiquity: the model for the Romanesque donjon?' (209-26); Taco Hermans, 'Towering ambitions in the Netherlands' (227-40); Richard Oram, 'Written in stone: the tower as expression of status, antiquity and lineage' (241-70); Erik Matthews, ''Towers built with the hands of ancient times': architecture and lineage in the later medieval Vale of York' (271-85); bibliography (286-306); index (307-23). .