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Rating: 
Summary: Guided By A Stone Mason,By Thomas Maude
Review: An excellent book about the history and construction of medieval churchs,abbeys,and cathderals. The author , a working stone mason who has worked on the repair and restoration of these ancient buildings,gives insights into the development and technical details that went into creating these masterpieces. The author's admiration for these builders is reflected in his discussion of the problems they encountered and how they arrived at solutions to create these masterpieces which have been handed down to our modern generation. In additon, he also gives valuable insights into the history of the ancients times based on his intimate knowledge of the work undertaken by the builders. The book is well illustrated with discriptive captions and is easily understood by the layman reader. I would highly recommend this book to any one who is interested in the medieval churchs and cathedrals of Britain.
Rating:
Summary: Guided By A Stone Mason,By Thomas Maude
Review: An excellent book about the history and construction of medieval churchs,abbeys,and cathderals. The author , a working stone mason who has worked on the repair and restoration of these ancient buildings,gives insights into the development and technical details that went into creating these masterpieces. The author's admiration for these builders is reflected in his discussion of the problems they encountered and how they arrived at solutions to create these masterpieces which have been handed down to our modern generation. In additon, he also gives valuable insights into the history of the ancients times based on his intimate knowledge of the work undertaken by the builders. The book is well illustrated with discriptive captions and is easily understood by the layman reader. I would highly recommend this book to any one who is interested in the medieval churchs and cathedrals of Britain.
Rating: 
Summary: Broad array of topics and easy to understand
Review: Even though the book is very nice and recommendable, it does not go into too much details. What I liked the most is that Mr. Maude covers some aspects in the design of the cathedrals and churches hardly to find in other books related to mediaeval architecture. I would recommend this book for someone looking for learning the basics and one who appreciates the religious lifestyle that prevailed at that time as an important factor for the design and construction of this sort of buildings. The explanations given by Mr. Maude concerning the physics used by the master builders to understand the behavior of walls, flying buttresses, arches, and other construction elements are very easy to follow. Definitely this is a book for a person who has just started into this wonderful subject of medieval construction.
Rating:
Summary: Everything you always wanted to know about cathedrals ...
Review: The strength of the book is Maude's hands-on experince, which he uses to illuminate a lot of material. The book could be a bit clearer in places, and could use some labelled diagrams. He does not cover the structural aspects in detail (see the very difficult The Stone Skeleton for that) but explains a lot of stuff I haven't found elsewhere (what for instance is a 'rood'.)
Rating:
Summary: Everything you always wanted to know about cathedrals ...
Review: The strength of the book is Maude's hands-on experince, which he uses to illuminate a lot of material. The book could be a bit clearer in places, and could use some labelled diagrams. He does not cover the structural aspects in detail (see the very difficult The Stone Skeleton for that) but explains a lot of stuff I haven't found elsewhere (what for instance is a 'rood'.)
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