The Stones of Naples Church Building in the Angevin Kingdom 1266-1343 Caroline Bruzelius

The rich architectural legacy of the Angevins, three generations of French kings who regined in southern Italy from 1266 to 1343, is very little known today. This groundbreaking book examines Angevin religious architecture, bringing to light for the first time the novelty and importance of these buildings while extending current understanding of the variety of medieval architecture beyond the well-known cathedrals of France and England. Caroline Bruzelius explores the complex encounter of the French with the worlds of the Mediterranean and of Italy. Although the Angevin period has often been associated with a vigorous renewal of the Gothic style in Italy, she contends instead that the principal Angevin monuments are built of local materials, reviving traditional building techniques and aesthetic preferences. The result is an architecture of adaptation and integration rather than one of colonial importation.

Caroline Bruzelius is A. M. Cogan Professor, Department of Art and Art History, Duke University. She served as director of the American Academy in Rome from 1994 to 1998 and is the author of The Thirteenth-Century Church at Saint-Denis, published by Yale University Press.

'Bruzelious' book is an indispensable study for anyone interested in the architectural history of Trecento Naples, but the study is also much more: a readable account of the troubled first three generations of Angevin rulers of Southern Italy viewed through the legacy left behind in the Stones of Naples' - The Art Book