











Heaven on Earth: The Lives and Legacies of the World's Greatest Cathedrals (Hardback)
Emma J. Wells (author)Published: 01/09/2022

Stunningly illustrated and endlessly illuminative, Wells’ authoritative yet accessible volume on the golden age of the cathedral leads the reader on a fascinating journey through 1000 years of striking ecclesiastical architecture.
A glorious illustrated history of sixteen of the world's greatest cathedrals, interwoven with the extraordinary stories of the people who built them.
The emergence of the Gothic in twelfth-century France, an architectural style characterized by pointed arches, rib vaults, flying buttresses, large windows and elaborate tracery, triggered an explosion of cathedral-building across western Europe. It is this remarkable flowering of ecclesiastical architecture that forms the central core of Emma Wells's authoritative but accessible study of the golden age of the cathedral. Prefacing her account with the construction in the sixth century of the Hagia Sophia, the remarkable Christian cathedral of the eastern Roman empire, she goes on to chart the construction of a glittering sequence of iconic structures, including Saint-Denis, Notre-Dame, Canterbury, Chartres, Salisbury, York Minster and Florence's Duomo.
More than architectural biographies, these are human stories of triumph and tragedy that take the reader from the chaotic atmosphere of the mason's yard to the cloisters of power. Together, they reveal how 1000 years of cathedral-building shaped modern Europe, and influenced art, culture and society around the world.
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
ISBN: 9781788541947
Number of pages: 480
Dimensions: 234 x 156 mm
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