It is with great pleasure that we may announce the publication of edition no. 33.

For its presentation, we may adopt the words of the Medievalista journal editor, Luís Filipe Oliveira, who, better than anyone else, can express the spirit and importance of this issue.

“This edition of Medievalist is an homage to Ana Cristina Lemos, another young researcher from the Institute of Medieval Studies, who died prematurely.

A specialist in the study of illuminations and a pioneer in research on colour, she was responsible for analysing the Book of Hours of Dom Duarte, and, above all, for the discovery and valuation of the Mafra Palace collection of Books of Hours. Ana Lemos was more than a competent researcher, as the texts published below, which pay a lasting and moving tribute to her and remind us of her into the future. In her own way, she did justice to the old lesson from Marc Bloch, who advised the apprentice historian to live the life of his time in order to understand and decipher the remains of the lives of the past. Both by making history, and by making it happen every day, it was almost inevitable that Ana Lemos would leave a vivid impression in the lives and memories of her colleagues, friends and teachers. As do the colours she loved so much.

This Medievalista is once again part of a monographic issue. On this occasion dedicated to the Castle of Belvoir and the military architecture of the Order of the Hospital in the Holy Land and the Medieval West. Without infringing on the presentation made by Anne Baud and Jean-Michel Poisson, guest editors for this issue, alongside Damien Carraz, we must underline the interest of the texts gathered here. They provide a multifaceted but complementary view of this concentric castle, with its double walls, in the Jordan Valley, one of the most important that the Hospitallers held in the Holy Land, alongside the Crac des Chevaliers and de Margat. One of the best known and most prestigious, even in the West and in Portugal. As evidenced by the replication of its name and structure in the fortifications that the Hospitallers erected in the lands of Guindintesta, on the banks of the Tagus, although with significant differences in scale and relevance.”

Read issue no. 33 of Medievalista here.