The cathedral builders of the Middle Ages (review)

302 Short notices ambitious essay, 'From the Rhone to Galicia', attempts to extend the Catalan model of change to Languedoc and northern Spain. Chronological disparities mar the elegance of its argument, but die common characteristics of these societies of south-western Europe remain worth pursuing. It is the three articles that examine questions of slavery and servitude in a wider European context that will be of the most interest to non-specialists. In 'The survival and extinction of the slave system in die early medieval West', the finest piece in the book, Bonnassie demonstrates the persistence of ancient slavery up to the eleventh century and examines the reasons for its disappearance. 'From one servitude to another' considers the moment of transition, when slavery was vanishing and the free peasantry began to oppose, sometimes violently, the imposition of the new servitude that accompanied theriseof the seigneurie banale. Thefinalessay, a homage to Marc Bloch, examines die life of the peasantry under diat new servitude, a life that seems to have been only slightly better dian diat of the slaves of the early Middle Ages. Adam Kosto Department of History Harvard University Erlande-Brandenburg, Alain, The cathedral builders of the Middle Ages, Thames and Hudson, 1995; paper; pp. 175; 165 illustrations; R.R.P AUSS19.95. This lavishly illustrated small volume is a delight. Much of its charm is due to the gorgeous colour plates but die text is also intelligent and informative. It is not a 'scholarly' work but it offers a general perspective on medieval architecture for die non-specialist reader. The four chapters are strictly architectural in focus; for example, Chapter One, 'A new world', makes no attempt to portray medieval society but lists the kinds of buildings such a society required and die technical innovations which made it possible to erect them. The remaining diree chapters progress through 'The architect', with details of known individuals and some analysis of the role of patronage, 'Means of expression', which reviews drawings and models, and finally, 'On site', which discusses materials, transport, and machinery. The 'Documents' section is the most informative in that it assembles a collection oftextsin which medieval architecLs, commissioning patrons, and monastic chroniclers speak of their intentions and achievements, contracts Short notices 303 for employment are presented, and the materials available for building are itemized. The list of "Thirty-one great cathedrals' reveals the book's bias toward English Gothic, with eleven English buildings cited, but the remaining twenty include Chartres, Bourges, Ulm, Monreale, Prague, and Seville. An ideal present for anyone who has ever marvelled at medieval cathedrals. Carole Cusack School of Studies in Religion University of Sydney Evans, Angela C, The Sutton Hoo ship burial, London, British Museum Press, 1995; paper; pp. 127; 99 illustrations; R.R.P. AUS$26.95 [distributed in Australia by Thames & Hudson]. Thistide,generally known as the 'handbook', is the standard summary to which students and general readers turn for basic information on the finds from Sutton Hoo. This edition is the second edition of the handbook written by Angela Evans, replacing the earlier version by the late Rupert Brace-Mitford, which itself went through a number of editions. For the reader seeking a basic account offindsfrom Sutton Hoo and the circumstances of the 1939 excavations, this book is a readable and mosdy reliable guide. The discussion of the finds is clear and informative for the most part and some of the diagrams are superb, especially those of the site and of the distribution of the gravegoods within the burial. The photographs are very good, though the lack of a scale in most of them is not acceptable, even if it is envisaged that this book is mainly for the general reader. It is welcome that this version of the handbook plays down the 'personality' fixation of earlier editions, which were somewhat preoccupied with the largely unresolveable question of who is commemorated by the burial. Nonetheless, the discussion of the date of the burial still focuses on Raedwald as the candidate, even where acknowledging that the evidence is not fully supportive. The discussion of the coin hoard also hinges upon a presumed date of 625 A.D., which is, on the face...