Power of Place

David Rollason is professor emeritus of history at the University of Durham. His books include Early Medieval Europe 300-1050: The Birth of Western Society and Northumbria 500-1100: Creation and Destruction of a Kingdom.

• List of Illustrations ix Preface xix Chapter 1 Introduction 1 Part I Palaces 9 Chapter 2 The Power of Design 11 Chapter 3 The Power of Architectural Style and Decoration 59 Part II Landscapes 99 Chapter 4 Gardens, Parks, and Power 102 Chapter 5 The Power of Forests and the Hunt 136 Part III Cities 169 Chapter 6 Cities, Planning, and Power 171 Chapter 7 Triumphs and Entries: The City as Stage Set 202 Part IV Holy Places 241 Chapter 8 Power, Place, and Relics 242 Chapter 9 Churches, Mosques, and Power 273 Part V Inauguration Places and Burial Places 319 Chapter 10 The Inauguration of Rulers: Places and Rituals 320 Chapter 11 Death and Power: The Burial Places of Rulers 344 Chapter 12 Conclusion 387 Research and Reading 391 References 417 Illustration Credits 449 Index 451 Color plates follow page 168.

"Rollason's dazzling treasury of site descriptions and pictures is the product of years of exploration, on-site and in libraries... A well-guided and meticulously illustrated tour, of a good selection of medieval Europe's most striking palatial monuments."--Alexander Murray, Times Literary Supplement "A grand tour, without hassle of airports, passports, or buses, of a sophisticated selection of medieval Europe's most renowned and important monuments; a tour conducted by a well-read guide, whose language is invariably clear, and is rendered more vivid and instructive by its cortege of carefully placed and labelled illustrations."--Alexander Murray, Times Literary Supplement "This lavishly produced text, encyclopedic in its scope and bibliography, examines the representations of the power of the ruler in buildings, landscapes, and events of continental Europe from the Roman period to the early modern era. Rollason links the forms of palaces, their surrounding lands, cities, sacred items and spaces, and places of enthronement and burial to ideological and personal power, illustrating each point with cases ranging from Tara to Constantinople, Muslim Granada to the Gothic north."--Choice