دانلود کتاب German gothic church architecture

This wide-ranging book provides for the first
time a complete view of German Gothic church
architecture. Architectural historian Norbert
Nussbaum surveys church construction from
the early thirteenth to the early sixteenth century
in the German-language regions of medieval
Europe. These areas of the Holy Roman Empire —
including Bohemia, Austria, northern Switzerland,
Alsace, Silesia and East Prussia — were hereditary
fiefdoms at the time, and their diverse cultures
contributed to the extreme variety of German
Gothic. Nussbaum looks at this rich period of
architectural history from many perspectives and
offers an informative tour of dozens of German
Gothic churches, spectacular for both their beauty
and variety.

Soon after the Gothic first influenced German
builders in the thirteenth century, it developed in
several directions, Nussbaum shows. The differences
are reflected in the great cathedral lodges of Cologne
and Strasbourg, the conscious poverty of form
expressed by the Mendicant orders, and red brick
churches on the North Sea and Baltic coasts. A four-
teenth-century synthesis of these styles was at last
achieved in Prague Cathedral, the only great church
financed by a German Emperor, Charles IV. In the
fifteenth century, German Late Gothic style — unlike
the monarchy-supported style of Germany’s neigh-
bours to the west — evolved as cities undertook the
financing of parish churches. This period of design
culminated with the construction of large hall
churches characterised by high, sculptured towers
and audacious, sometimes fantastic vault structures,
which remained a mark of great church architecture
throughout the sixteenth century.