Great Cathedrals

This book has been around for at least 3 decades; I'm 43 and remember looking over an earlier edition with awe and reverence in the town library when I was a teenager. The current edition has some nice updates, including added coverage of the great eastern European cathedrals, such as St. Vitus in Prague. The photography is splendid, and gives a feel of the look and scale of each building, as well as for the smaller details like sculpture and stained glass that makes each great cathedral a triumph of Western civilization. If you are looking for a book that covers the major cathedrals of Europe in a thorough, satisfying way via photographs and a text providing the history of each building, a discussion of its style, and so forth, search no more. This is EASILY the best book out there that provides what you want.

Magnificent photography, both general views and close-ups of architectural details and stained glass. The book covers France, Germany, England, Spain and Italy. UIt contains a useful glossary of architectural terms and floor-plans of each cathedral. The "Crazy Vaults" of Lincoln Cathedral are not to be missed! I wanted this book to study cathedral design in general, and it more than met my expectations.

This book is beautifully presented, the photos are first rate and though one reviewer felt the text could have been better, I was pleased with that as well. I liked the fact that the book had a blend of photographs of the exterior as well as the interior, too often only the interior gets photographed. The book itself is of the highest quality and it has a luxurious feel, it's quite heavy and well bound. I did expect to see Westminister Abbey and St. Peter's, but I suppose they didn't fit the authors strict definition of Cathedral, still I would have liked to have seen them included, but that's a small disappointment in an otherwise fine book.

Probably few other works of man have caused more awed neck-stretching than the Gothic cathedral. In over 400 stunningly illustrated pages, Schutz presents the major cathedrals of France, England, Germany, Italy and Spain. The text is well written and scholarly, but with pictures like these, the text is almost irrelevant. The mind-blowing photographs of Chartres, Notre Dame, Salisbury and the rest, leave us gaping in awe at the magnificence of these buildings and shaking our heads in disbelief at the labor and craftsmanship that went into making them reality, and marveling how mere mortals could have produced such glorious works of art.

GREAT CATHEDRALS is an elegant and eloquent, impressive large book that addresses in pictures, drawings and well-crafted research the magnificent cathedrals of France, England, Spain, Italy and Germany that represent the finest in Gothic architecture dating from about 1100 AD. Bernhard Schutz knows his architecture and takes the reader on an informed tour of these incredible monuments, explaining with very helpful diagrams the architectural wonders and phenomena of each cathedral. Just when you think you remember the Notre Dame in Paris as being the most exquisite example of European cathedrals, turn the page and study the beauties of the cathedral at Chartres in a way that few other books have captured its majesty. The photographs of the buildings are beautifuly rendered with copious examples of the details such as the stained glass windows, the decor of the columns, and the variety of doors. For readers who are looking for a book about the psychosocial development of the Holy Roman Empire and all the permutations and controversies of the life and times of the architects that surround these monuments, then this is not the history book one would expect. Yet for concise, informed, and inspiring writing about these great cathedrals as art and architectural wonders, it would be difficult to find a more thorough presentation. This book helps us remember that the roots of fine art are in the cathedrals and examining those roots has never been more captivating!