'… this remarkable pioneering monograph … fused with occasionally unknown literary and historical texts (Vivian Nutton's translation of the Frankish Medical Licensing and Negligence Regulations will be new to almost all students of the crusades … Mitchell's careful and cautious assessment of wounds, disease, diet and life spans as revealed through pollen, insect-parts, soil analysis, drug jars and osteology, reveals a vibrant medical and surgical activity throughout most of the era of the crusades … His chapter on anaesthesia is essential reading for anyone interested in the mystery of why earlier and successful surgeries seemed to fade from view by the late Middle Ages.' The Times Literary Supplement

'Dr Mitchell is not only a medical man, but is also one who has taken the trouble to get to know the archaeologists in Israel. He has had, therefore, an entrée to excavations and to already excavated sites. He has written the fullest treatment so far of aspects of medicine and surgery in relation to the crusades and the Latin settlements in the Levant …This is an important book, because it opens up a new field of research and does so in an authoritative manner.' Crusades