Product Description

Read the Bldg Blog interview with Mary Beard about the Wonders of the World series (Part I and Part II)

Built by the decree of Constantine, rebuilt by some of the most distinguished architects in Renaissance Italy, emulated by Hitler's architect in his vision for Germania, immortalized on film by Fellini, and fictionalized by a modern American bestseller, St. Peter's is the most easily recognizable church in the world. This book is a cultural history of one of the most significant structures in the West. It bears the imprint of Bramante, Raphael, Michelangelo, Bernini, and Canova. For Grand Tourists of the eighteenth century, St. Peter's exemplified the sublime. It continues to fascinate visitors today and appears globally as a familiar symbol of the papacy and of the Catholic Church itself.

The church was first built in the fourth century on what is thought to be the tomb of Peter--the rock upon which Christ decreed his church shall be built. After twelve hundred years, the church was largely demolished and rebuilt in the sixteenth century when it came to acquire its present-day form. St. Peter's awes the visitor by its gigantic proportions, creating a city within itself. It is the mother church, the womb from which churches around the world have taken inspiration. This book covers the social, political, and architectural history of the church from the fourth century to the present. From the threshold, to the subterranean Roman necropolis, to the dizzying heights of the dome, this book provides rare perspectives and contexts for understanding the shape and significance of the most illustrious church in the world.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #578549 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

Review
This scholarly and fascinating book unravels the complex story of the most famous church in the world.
--Clover Stroud (Sunday Telegraph 20070429)

Keith Miller's study of the great baroque basilica offers a stimulating perambulation around this vast expanse of sacred space in the company of a sophisticated guide...Keith Miller's St Peter's joins other outstanding titles in [the] Wonders of the World series, fast becoming something of a wonder itself, with its elegant design, its scholarly enthusiasm, and its respect for the general reader. Like the best guides, it makes one long to visit the place in question, armed with book in hand.
--Mark Bostridge (The Independent 20070429)

A finely produced and stylishly written study of 'the greatest church in the world.' Miller's response to the basilica's unparalleled architectural opulence is poised between wonder and wry irreverence at the counter Reformation intensity of it all.
--Theo Hobson (Sunday Times )

About the Author
Keith Miller is a journalist, reviewer, and lecturer living in London.

Customer Reviews

Another in a great series of books
Mary Beard is a Professor of Classics at Cambridge University. She is the editor of The Wonders of the World which is "a small series of books that will focus on some of the world's most famous sites or monuments." Several books have already been published, including Beard's The Parthenon (Wonders of the World), Beard's and Keith Hopkins' The Colosseum (Wonders of the World) and Cathy Gere's The Tomb of Agamemnon (Wonders of the World). Keith Miller's first book is a worthy addition to the series.

Like the other books in the series, this book reveals the architectural and cultural implications of its subject. It is aimed not at specialists but at the general inquisitive reader ("the intelligent ignorant," as Beard often refers to herself).

Keith Miller starts his book in the 1st century CE at the Hippodrome of Nero, one of two places where the Apostle Peter may have been crucified. It continues 250 years later with the conversion of Emperor Constantine in the fourth century, and his building of the first Christian basilica, commonly known as Old St Peter's. Miller enlivens the step-by-step creation of the present-day basilica with some of the functions the building has performed: for example, the imposing of woolen pallia on newly consecrated metropolitan archbishops and the coronations of Charlemagne and other emperors.

In 1506 Pope Julius II had the fourth-century building mostly demolished. Miller carefully describes the complicated development of the new basilica. He describes how Donato Bramante's plan was superseded by Peruzzi (after Bramante's death in 1514), then the contributions of Sangallo, Michelangelo and Raphael. He explains Bernini's colonnades, baldacchino and statuary throughout the building. He provides an in-depth look at the underground grottoes and the necropolis.

I thought Miller was particularly good on the question of precisely where St Peter is supposed to be buried and whether his tomb is actually here. He reviews Pius XII's 1950 confirmation, and the later discovery that there were bones of at least four different people, one a woman. Miller provides a balanced view of the debate, including some irrefutable evidence that someone of great significance was buried on the site. He carefully analyzes the necropolis, with drawings and a chronology.

Miller's background is in art history, and he is excellent at describing the works of art still in the basilica or have been moved from the building. He is good at delineating architectural perspectives, magnitude and dynamics.

I would have preferred footnotes and a better bibliography; Miller does acknowledge a few texts including James Lees-Milne's St. Peter's: The Story of Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome published in 1967, as well as "various texts" by Gottfried Semper. Despite these nits, this book is readable and well researched.

Robert C. Ross 2008