The Architectural Setting of the Cult of Saints in the Early Christian West c.300-1200

by John Crook

From the earliest centuries of Christianity, the cult of saintly relics has been an important feature of the worship of the Church. This book explores the way in which church architecture has been shaped by holy bones--the physical remains or "relics" of those whom the Church venerated as saints. This is the first complete modern study of this aspect of medieval church architecture in western Europe.

334 pages, Hardcover

First published January 13, 2000

Reviews

[Kristina]

Informative, succinct and well-organized. A brilliant overview of the influence the cult of saints had on church architecture during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. The fact that the book geographically covers only Rome (as an early source of influence), France (Merovingian Francia, the Carolingian Renaissance) and England (pre- and post-Conquest), does not mean that the author fails at representing the most important and common changes in the architectural setting of the relics. Even more so, he does that by organized categorizing and numerous examples, whose number is just right to illustrate the case (instead of bombarding the reader with surplus information and making it harder to follow the argument, which is something too often encountered when reading a book on art history). Not to forget that the author makes an additional effort of summarizing each chapter in a brief paragraph. One of the best books on art history I've ever read, if not the best.