Este libro recoge la historia de los monumentos más importantes creados por el hombre,contada por catorce de losmás distinguidos historiadores de la arquitectura y profusamente ilustrada con más de 800 gráficos originales, dibujos anotados y soberbías fotografías. ( )

With Glossary of architectural terms, and Index. This heavily illustrated work provides a subjective narrative of the history of human building. Drawings are provided--reconstructions, sections, plans, isometric and perspective cutaways--providing some understanding of the spacial experience. A Gazetteer describes over 1000 specific buildings by region which can be visited. A very helpful explosion of this functional art.

Presented in five parts:

(1) The Exotic Worlds - China, Japan, India, Pre-Hispanic.

(2) The Ancient world - Egypt, Aegean, Greece, Rome;

(3) The Middle Ages - Byzantine and Carolingian, Romanesque, Castles, Gothic, Islam;

(4) The Renaissance - Italian, Baroque, Colonial;

(5) The Modern Age - 19th century, new beginnings, developments since 1918.

My Notes:

ISLAM - Muhammad died in 632 living essentially in a tent adjacent to some walls built by his wives (against his wishes). Eighty years after his death, the practices attributed to him were given formal architectural expression -- a series of congregational mosques with aspects unique to the developing Islam -- were built. As time passed, the form was to change dramatically in the 7th-through 11th centuries. [131]

The square minaret, and the mihrab, were adaptations from the Syrian Christian (and Manichaean) churches. The earliest great Muslim building in existence is the Ummayad Dome of the Rock at Jerusalem, begun in 684. The 2d earliest survivor is the Mosque of Walid I in Damascus, begun in 707. Neither is typical of the subsequent generations of buildings, but reflect Syro-Byzantine principles.[132]

After the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453, Islamic architecture came to reflect the "overwhelming influence" of Byzantine tradition. After the 16th century, the mosques tend to a repetitive variation on a single theme. The first mosques were built upon the foundations of temples and churches which {were systematically destroyed}. [133] ( )

Beautiful pictures of iconic buildings. Nice reference book. It shows the building in question in photos and cut away drawings showing relationships between the part and the whole. ( )