The real Middle Ages?

This is the first volume of an originally German series about European art and architecture, covering the entire period from AD 1000 to the first half of the 19th century.

"Romanesque" deals with the High Middle Ages (minus the Gothic, covered in a separate volume), but it also digs deeper into the past, and mentions both the Carolingian and Ottonian periods in Germany, and some other pre-Romanesque styles eleswhere. Areas covered are Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Britain. (Scandinavia and Bohemia are mentioned only in passing.)

Most of the chapters deal with church arcitechture, hardly surprising since most Romanesque architecture *is* church architecture. There is also an extensive section on Romanesque art, including sculpture, painting, books, reliquaries and (of course) the Bayoux tapestry. As usual, everything is lavishly illustrated with full-color photographs.

Not being an art historian, I can't really judge the texts, but some of them seem to contain questionable interpretations about "medieval death cults" or "22 million people killed in the crusades" (sic).

The text may be hard to follow for the general reader, but the photos and the low price makes the book worth buying anyway, certainly if you're interested in the Middle Ages. Somehow, Romanesque rather than Gothic feels like the "real" Middle Ages!

Recommended. ;-)