ABSTRACT
Based on a fresh reading of primary sources, Lindy Grant's comprehensive biography of Abbot Suger (1081-1151) provides a reassessment of a key figure of the twelfth century. Active in secular and religious affairs alike - Suger was Regent of France and also abbot of one of the most important abbeys in Europe during the time of the Gregorian reforms. But he is primarily remembered as a great artistic patron whose commissions included buildings in the new Gothic style. Lindy Grant reviews him in all these roles - and offers a corrective to the current tendency to exaggerate his role as architect of both French royal power and the new gothic form.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part I|72 pages
Setting the Scene
chapter Chapter 3|23 pages
Low Horizons: The Political and Religious Landscape of Capetian France Around 1100
part II|108 pages
Active Life
part III|96 pages
The Abbot’s Life
part IV|34 pages
Drawing the Curtain