Most studies of modern Gothic media assume that, beyond the 1830s, modern Gothic architecture and literature had very little in common. The work of Ralph Adams Cram (1863-1942), America’s most prolific Gothic Revival architect and an author of ghost stories, challenges that assumption.The first interdisciplinary study of Cram’s aesthetics, Cameron Macdonell’s Ghost Storeys deconstructs the boundaries of Gothic architecture and literature through a microhistory of St Mary’s...

The National Shrine in Washington, DC has been deeply loved, blithely ignored, and passionately criticized. It has been praised as a "dazzling jewel" and dismissed as a "towering Byzantine beach ball." In this intriguing and inventive book, Thomas Tweed shows that the Shrine is also an illuminating site from which to tell the story of twentieth-century Catholicism. He organizes his narrative around six themes that characterize U.S. Catholicism, and he ties these themes to the Shrine's mate...

The Temples of Kyoto takes you on a journey through these environs and presents twenty-one of these marvelous structures that are unique creations which, while quintessentially Japanese, somehow speak a universal language readily appreciated by people the world over.Donald Richie, called by Time magazine, "the dean of art critics in Japan," turns his attention to these twenty-one temples with scholarship and an eye for the dramatic. Drawing off such classi...

Stories of Cats with real character, living in some of the most interesting buildings and communities in the UK. A beautifully presented gift book and a great companion volume to Cathedral Cats.Cloister Cats explores a wide range of cats and their buildings that are now, or have historically, been home to ecclesiastical communities.From traditional monasteries in ancient settings to modern-day communities in suburban houses, and from followers of Celtic Christianity, via An...

Britain is a treasure trove of medieval architecture.Almost every village and town in the land has a church that was built during the period, whose history is legible – to those who know how to look – in every arch, capital, roof vault, and detail of window tracery. By learning how to identify the stylistic phases that resulted from shifts in architectural fashion, it is possible to date each part of a church to within a decade or two; this book introduces all the ...

People wonder what the future holds for them; they would no doubt like to know for certain. But is it possible? It may be, but how desperate are you to know? Are you willing to risk being deceived just to believe in something you just want to hear and believe?Many wonder whether there really is a way of finding out. Will you regret your choice in putting your complete confidence in someone who claims they have all the answers? Will they be correct? Or will you suffer disappointment...

The Tempietto, the embodiment of the Renaissance mastery of classical architecture and its Christian reinvention, was also the pre-eminent commission of the Catholic kings, Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabel of Castile, in papal Rome. This groundbreaking book situates Bramante's time-honored memorial dedicated to Saint Peter and the origins of the Roman Catholic Church at the center of a coordinated program of the arts exalting Spain's leadership in the quest for Christian hegemony. The innova...

Cardiff, the Welsh capital and home to the National Assembly of Wales, is a modern vibrant city with many attractions for visitors from all over the world. An insignificant little fishing port with a couple of churches became, in industrial times, a boom town, in which churches and chapels of all possible denominations sprang up, to serve the needs of the nineteenth-century population explosion. Jean Rose uncovers a variety of places of worship, some grand, some humble, but all with a stor...

It is fascinating to think that many hundreds of generations of Londoners lie beneath the city without us knowing. Over many centuries burial grounds have been developed, built over and then forgotten, often beneath playgrounds, gardens or car parks. When modern development takes place, remains are disturbed and we are reminded of a London that has long since disappeared, particularly with recent archaeological discoveries across the city. In London’s Hidden Burial Grounds, authors Robert ...

The stained glass windows of England's cathedrals and churches are masterpieces of colour and storytelling, and for a thousand years they have brought meaning and beauty to worshippers and visitors alike. This book traces the history of stained glass from its Anglo-Saxon origins until the present day, explaining how some of Europe's greatest artists have created these unique 'paintings with light'. It also offers fascinating insights into how medieval people 'saw' stained glass. A hundred ...

The Arab-Islamic city has been always a glamorous urban dream in human cultural memory. This is manifested in Cairo, the world's largest medieval urban system where traditional lifestyles are still implemented. Nevertheless, despite the extensive efforts to preserve Historic Cairo, it is sadly vulnerable. Ahmed Sedky investigates the reasons behind this condition, exploring and comparing regional and international case studies. Questions such as how and what to conserve are raised and elab...

What is 'art' in the sense of the Islamic tradition? Mohammed Hamdouni Alami argues that Islamic art has historically been excluded from Western notions of art; that the Western aesthetic tradition's preoccupation with the human body, and the ban on the representation of the human body in Islam, has meant that Islamic and Western art have been perceived as inherently at odds. However, the move away from this 'anthropomorphic aesthetic' in Western art movements, such as modern abstract and ...