Whatever one may think of the cloistered life, it's difficult not to admire the beauty of the medieval, Renaissance, and baroque monastic architecture presented here. Schütz (architectural history, U. of Munich, Germany) has written short histories for each of over 150 monasteries, describing the circumstances of their founding and the details of their construction and frequently, reconstruction in subsequent centuries. Though the histories are interesting, the highlight of the volume is the superb and often dramatic photographs of the monasteries--their churches, libraries, altars, cloisters, sculpture, and other details--reproduced in full-page color plates in an oversized (11x13") format. The initial chapter provides a useful introduction to the topic of western monasticism. Notable are the many monasteries included from Central Europe. An appendix contains ground plans.
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