Review: Santiago de Compostela: Pilgerarchitectur und bildliche Repräsentation in neuer Perspektive, edited by Bernd Nicolai and Klaus Rheidt

A collection of the papers presented at a conference on the history of a building may lack the cohesion and cross-referencing of a study by a single author, but it can make up for those restrictions through an increase in variety and depth of expertise and knowledge. This volume is a good example of those virtues. It consists of twenty-four essays, in German, English, Spanish, and French, centering on the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. As it is impossible to do justice to all of the contributions in a brief review, I have selected for discussion those dealing with the periods of Bishops Peláez and Gelmírez, without any...