Firsov, L. Isary: Essays on the History of the Medieval Fortresses of the Southern Shore of Crimea (Isary: ocherki istorii srednevekovykh krepostei Iuzhnogo berega Kryma). 1990. In Russian.

Фирсов, Лев Васильевич. Исары : очерки истории средневековых крепостей Южного берега Крыма / отв. ред. д-р ист. наук А.Л. Якобсон, канд. ист. наук А.К. Конопацкий ; АН СССР, Сибирское отделение, Ин-т истории, филологии и философии.
Новосибирск : Наука, Сибирское отделение, 1990. 469, [2] с. : ил. 22 см.
Твёрдый переплёт. Тираж 900 экз.
Состояние очень хорошее: минимальные следы обращения; переплёт чистый; блок крепкий, полный.
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Firsov, Lev V. Isary: Essays on the History of the Medieval Fortresses of the Southern Shore of Crimea / eds. Doctor of Historical Sciences A.L. Yakobson, Candidate of Historical Sciences A.K. Konopatzky ; USSR Academy of Sciences, Siberian Branch, Institute of History, Philology and Philosophy.
Novosibirsk : Nauka, Siberian Branch, 1990. 469, [2] pp. : ill. 22 cm.
Hardcover. Print run of 900 copies.
Condition very good: minimal handling; binding clean; text block firm and complete.

A posthumous publication - in two respects: the author, Lev Vasilyevich Firsov, Doctor of Geological-Mineralogical Sciences, died prematurely before the manuscript reached the press, and his primary responsible editor, the eminent Soviet archaeologist Anatoliy Leonidovich Yakobson (1906-1984), had died six years earlier. The manuscript was carried to completion by the second responsible editor, Novosibirsk historian A.K. Konopatzky, whose tribute to Firsov appears in place of an afterword under the title "Fate of the Book." Firsov lived and worked chiefly in Siberia but spent decades from 1963 onwards engaged in systematic research on the medieval fortifications - known in Crimean Tatar as "isary" (castles) - of the mountain zone of the Southern Shore of Crimea, combining geological fieldwork with a deep knowledge of archaeological, Byzantine, and medieval historical sources. The result is the only comprehensive monograph devoted to the entire corpus of medieval isars of the Southern Shore of Crimea. Twenty-five chapters proceed geographically from east to west, examining each isar and its associated settlement - from the Roman-era Kharaks and Gaspe to the Byzantine long walls and the 13th-14th century feudal castles of Ayu-Dag, Gorzuvity, Biuk-Isar, and Foros - combining stratigraphy, architectural analysis, written sources, and the author's geological perspective. The volume ends with a cycle of Crimean sonnets ("Yuzhny bereg") written by Firsov, attesting to the depth of his connection to the region. Yakobson, whose foundational studies on Byzantine Crimea and medieval Taurica remain standard references, had clearly approved the project before his death. Published by the Nauka Siberian Branch in the final year of active Soviet scholarship, with a print run of only 900 copies - one of the smallest for any 1990 Nauka monograph - the volume has remained essentially impossible to locate on the antiquarian market.