This examination of the nine lintels of pilgrimage churches in Western Tuscany‎,‎ all dating from the second half of the 12th century‎,‎ places the region in the context of international pilgrimage and crusade‎.‎ Although it is known that Italians were settled in the Holy Land well before the first Crusade‎,‎ Italian medieval art has only occasionally been addressed in this context‎.‎ The book considers the iconography‎,‎ style and meaning of architectural sculpture in and around Pisa‎,‎ Lucca and Pistioa ‎- cities on the major pilgrimage route‎.‎ Lucca was home to the famed ‎"‎Volto Santo‎"‎‎,‎ while the cathedral at Pistoia housed a piece of the head of St James Major acquired from Santiago de Compostela in Spain‎,‎ where the saint‎'‎s body was purportedly found‎.‎ The port at Pisa was used by pilgrims and crusaders from both Italy and and northern Europe to embark for the East‎.‎ Sculpted mainly by Adeodatus‎,‎ Gruamons and Bidinius‎,‎ the portals of the churches in these cities depict such seemingly broad subjects as incidents from the life and miracles of St Nicholas‎,‎ the Entry into Jerusalem‎,‎ the Mission of the Apostles‎,‎ the Last Supper‎,‎ and the Magi before Herod‎.‎These subjects‎,‎ and the unique ways in which t