Medievalista 33 - Dossier “Belvoir Castle and the fortified architecture of the military Order of Saint John”

Abstract

This Medievalista remembers Ana Cristina Lemos, another young researcher from the Institute for Medieval Studies who died prematurely. A specialist in the study of illuminations and a pioneer in research on color, she was responsible for the analysis of the Livro de Horas de D. Duarte, and, above all, for the discovery and appreciation of the collection of the Livros de Horas of Palácio de Mafra. As the texts published below, which pay a last and moving tribute to her, remind us, Ana Lemos was more than a competent researcher. She was not only a teacher attentive to the integral formation of her students, but also a committed citizen, with a life of militancy for civic, artistic, and cultural causes. In her own way, she did justice to the old lesson of Marc Bloch, who advised historian apprentices to live the life of their time in order to understand and decipher the remains of the lives of the past. Both for making history and for making it happen every day, it was almost inevitable that Ana Lemos would leave a vivid impression on the lives and memories of her colleagues, friends, and teachers. As do the colors she loved so much.