This wide-ranging book explores the architecture—principally ecclesiastical—of Normandy from 1120 to 1270, a period of profound social, cultural, and political change. In 1204, control of the duchy of Normandy passed from the hands of the Anglo-Norman/Angevin descendants of William the Conqueror to the Capetian kingdom of France. The book examines the enormous cultural impact of this political change and places the architecture of the time in the context of the Normans’ complicated sense of their own identity. It is the first book to consider the inception and development of gothic architecture in Normandy and the first to establish a reliable chronology of buildings. Lindy Grant extends her investigation beyond the buildings themselves and also offers an account of those who commissioned, built, and used them. The humanized story she tells provides sharp insights not only into Normandy’s medieval architecture, but also into the fascinating society from which it emerged.

Architecture and Society in Normandy, 1120-1270

Arts & Photography

Grant, Lindy

Architecture

Yale University Press

This is the first modern scholarly biography of Blanche of Castile, whose identity has until now been subsumed in that of her son, the saintly Louis IX. A central figure in the politics of medieval Europe, Blanche was a sophisticated patron of religion and culture. Through Lindy Grant’s engaging account, based on a close analysis of Blanche’s household accounts and of the social and religious networks on which her power and agency depended, Blanche is revealed as a vibrant and intellectually questioning personality.

Blanche of Castile, Queen of France

Biographies & Memoirs

Historical

Abbot Suger of St-Denis (The Medieval World)

Based on a fresh reading of primary sources, Lindy Grant's comprehensive biography of Abbot Suger (1081-1151) provides a reassessment of a key figure of the twelfth century. Active in secular and religious affairs alike - Suger was Regent of France and also abbot of one of the most important abbeys in Europe during the time of the Gregorian reforms. But he is primarily remembered as a great artistic patron whose commissions included buildings in the new Gothic style. Lindy Grant reviews him in all these roles - and offers a corrective to the current tendency to exaggerate his role as architect of both French royal power and the new gothic form.

Bates, David

Routledge

Abbot Suger (c.1081-1151) was a pivotal figure in the France of his day. Active in both religious and political affairs, he has numerous claims, in a variety of fields, on the modern reader. He was abbot (from 1122) of one of Europe's most important monasteries, at a time when Gregorian reform and the new monasticism were having an immense impact on the medieval church. He was also a politician and diplomat of international importance, in the service of both Louis VI and his son Louis VII, for whom he acted as Regent during the king's absence on the Second Crusade. Lindy Grant's comprehensive study of this multifaceted figure is a major event. Derived from a fresh reading of the primary sources, it is the first full biography of Suger in English. It provides a much-needed corrective to many of the current ideas about him. Based on the fragmented modern literature (itself usually written from an art-historical angle), these have tended to set Suger in artificial isolation, and as a result to exaggerate both his role as a doer and his originality as a thinker. While saluting his energy in all these many fields, Lindy Grant - by seeing him whole, and setting him firmly in the full historical context of the twelfth century - shows how far he was in fact a man of his times rather than a man ahead of them. In doing so, she presents a uniquely vivid picture of the interaction of church and state in Capetian France.

Abbot Suger of St-Denis: Church and State in Early Twelfth-Century France (The Medieval World)

Leaders & Notable People

Longman Pub. Group

Westminster Abbey: The Cosmati pavements is the first in-depth examination of Westminster Abbey’s two beautiful and mysterious inlaid pavements. Who made them, and when? Why did the King and Abbot have them brought from Rome? Mostly made up of recycled stones from ancient Roman buildings, the pavement on which monarchs have been crowned since the thirteenth century has an inscription predicting the end of the world, linking the distant past and the remote future with complex symbolism. This collection of essays places the pavements within a variety of contexts - the evolution of the luxury pavement in Europe, the political background to the commission, the significance of Roman connections, the structure and meaning of the curious inscription - and describes the physical makeup of the pavements and their complex history of damage and restoration. Bringing together a group of penetrating analyses from leading scholars, the volume illuminates hitherto unexamined areas of debate whilst also raising new and intriguing questions about them.

Westminster Abbey: The Cosmati Pavements (Courtauld Research Papers)

Mortimer, Richard

History & Criticism

History

Europe

This title was first published in 2002. Westminster Abbey: The Cosmati pavements is the first in-depth examination of Westminster Abbey’s two beautiful and mysterious inlaid pavements. Who made them, and when? Why did the King and Abbot have them brought from Rome? Mostly made up of recycled stones from ancient Roman buildings, the pavement on which monarchs have been crowned since the thirteenth century has an inscription predicting the end of the world, linking the distant past and the remote future with complex symbolism. This collection of essays places the pavements within a variety of contexts - the evolution of the luxury pavement in Europe, the political background to the commission, the significance of Roman connections, the structure and meaning of the curious inscription - and describes the physical makeup of the pavements and their complex history of damage and restoration. Bringing together a group of penetrating analyses from leading scholars, the volume illuminates hitherto unexamined areas of debate whilst also raising new and intriguing questions about them.

Westminster Abbey: The Cosmati Pavements (Routledge Revivals)

Reference

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Books by Grant, Lindy

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Grant, Lindy. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Architecture and Society in Normandy, 1120-1270

Blanche of Castile, Queen of France

Abbot Suger of St-Denis (The Medieval World)

Abbot Suger of St-Denis: Church and State in Early Twelfth-Century France (The Medieval World)

Westminster Abbey: The Cosmati Pavements (Courtauld Research Papers)

Abbot Suger of St-Denis (The Medieval World)

Westminster Abbey: The Cosmati Pavements (Routledge Revivals)