Medieval architecture books11/27/2023 Schultz and Barnsley’s book is among the oldest to appear in the bibliography of Robert Ousterhout’s splendid Eastern Medieval Architecture, and it provides a suitable vantage point from which to consider the growth of the field in the intervening 118 years. For example, in 1901, the Arts and Crafts builders Robert Weir Schultz and Sidney Barnsley published a beautiful and meticulous study of the Monastery of St Luke (Hosios Loukas) on the slopes of Mount Helicon, near Delphi. The first figures to carefully study individual Byzantine structures were as likely to be architects as professors. Multiple, sometimes contradictory movements of the late 19th and early 20th centuries – modernism, nationalism, anti-classicism, aestheticism – spurred greater curiosity about the long millennium between the foundation of Constantinople by Constantine the Great (AD306–337) to its capture under Mehmed the Conqueror in the 15th century. Intrepid tourists made sure to see Ayasofya (Haghia Sophia), but the other medieval buildings of Constantinople were little discussed beyond the works of local antiquarians, those of the provinces essentially unknown except to the monks and parishioners who worshipped there day to day. A century later, by contrast, even such an enthusiast as John Ruskin still knew nothing of Byzantine buildings outside of Italy. Eighteenth-century dilettanti could peruse printed volumes depicting Greek and Roman ruins from Baalbek to Bath, Paestum to Palmyra, Split to Salonica. Featured inīyzantine buildings are, by definition, old, but the study of Byzantine architecture is young, especially by comparison to neighbouring fields. The book alternates chapters that address chronological or regionally-based developments with thematic studies that focus on the larger cultural concerns, as they are expressed in architectural form. The book offers an expansive view of the architectural developments of the Byzantine Empire and areas under its cultural influence, as well as the intellectual currents that lie behind their creation. Representing the visual residues of a “forgotten” Middle Ages, the social and cultural developments of the Byzantine Empire, the Caucasus, the Balkans, Russia, and the Middle East parallel the more familiar architecture of Western Europe. ![]() The rich and diverse architectural traditions of the Eastern Mediterranean and adjacent regions are the subject of this book. This magnificent volume has deserved been awarded the 2021 Haskins Medal by the Medieval Academy of America, their top honour. ![]() Please select tracked shipping during checkout or contact for a quote. For international orders this book is not available by standard post (weight 2.4kg).
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