Customer Reviews

Gothic Architecture (The Yale University Press Pelican History of Art)

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This book is an extremely extensive coverage of Gothic Architecture throughout Europe. The quality and coverage of the work is unsurpassed. However, it only covers the architectural elements of Gothic Cathedrals and does not cover aspects such as stained glass windows, wood carvings and sculptural art within Gothic Cathedrals. If you are looking for a general work on various aspects of Gothic Art, this is not it.

This scholarly survey of gothic architecture is rightly considered a classic in the field. Consisting of the original text by Frankl, an instructor at Princeton who greatly advanced the subject amongst the English speaking world, and a studious and comprehensive commentary by Paul Crossley, a lecturer and gothic expert at the University of London, the book is a comprehensive and highly detailed examination of gothic architecture all across Europe from the 11th to the 16th centuries. The commentary and annotated bibliography alone are worth the purchase price, but the original text of Frankl is what will continue to hold interest amongst gothic students due to its historic scholarly value. The book is part of the larger Pelican History of Art series, and is published by Yale University.

If you are interested in a detailed examination of gothic architecture and enjoy the scholarship surrounding the intricacies of the subject, there is likely no better place to start than here. Supplement it with an engineer's point of view (The Construction of Gothic Cathedrals: A Study of Medieval Vault Erection and The Stone Skeleton: Structural Engineering of Masonry Architecture) and perhaps a graphic designer's visual deconstruction (Principles and Elements of Medieval Church Architecture of Western Europe) and you have an excellent (and thorough) basis on which to build an extended study of the subject.

The book is printed on an oversized 8 1/2 by 11 format, on high quality heavyweight and glossy paper. At almost 500 pages, its quite physically heavy, but the quality of the images (many in color and full-page) make one yearn for the hardback edition (if it can be afforded). If not, the paperback edition is equally lovely for about 1/3 the price of the hardback. Highly recommended.

The illustrations are extensive and excellent. The text reads like a Ph.D. dissertation. The reader is assumed to be familiar with the technical language of Gothic architecture; if you are not, this will be tough going.

I agree with the retired Professor who said it reads like a PHD dissertation. As a textbook for a bachelors level class it is useless. It assumes graduate level knowledge of very technical terms and does not offer translations for the many foreign language quotes. As a 4th year Art History major and prior holder of a BA in Anthropology, this is the worst textbook I've ever used.