French Millennium

Over the past year or two, one of my great discoveries has been any book produced by Nick Yapp from the Getty Collection. In particular the two series that I have most enjoyed are the "Millennium" volumes and the "Decades" of the 20th century volumes. These two series are incomparable in quality, interest, production, and, no small accomplishment, affordability. the "Millennium" contain a pictorial chronicle of each decade of the 20th Century, focusing primarily on England, France, Germany, and the United States. These are the same four countries graced with volumes in the "Millennium" series.THE FRENCH MILLENNIUM is an illustrated history of France from 1000-2000 A.D. Usually, dubbing a volume as illustrated means that the extensive text has a number of reproductions of drawings, paintings, and photographs. In this case, however, it means that the volume is a lavish collection of illustrations, with a small amount of accompanying text. You would not want to read this volume as a primary resource for French history, but it is an absolutely magnificent companion volume for any study of French history. Until the mid-19th century, most of the illustrations are etchings, drawings, tapestries, paintings, or engravings, but after that photographs dominate the volume. Although there are a few photographs of buildings built before the 19th century, the focus seems primarily to stick with the representational media available at the time under discussion.This is one of the better volumes in the "Millennium" series, certainly much better than the one on America, and marginally better in my opinion than the ones on England and Germany. The volume on America is harmed by it having less "history" for the millennium than the other nations (there was Native American culture, but this culture from 1000-1500 has very little to illustrate pictorially). But all four volumes in this series are extraordinary, and I give them all the strongest possible recommendation.