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Basilica: The Splendor and the Scandal: Building St. Peter's

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Josephine Bailey

8 Hours 30 Minutes

Tantor Media

July 2006

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Audio Book Summary

It was the splendor-and the scandal-of the age. In 1506, the ferociously ambitious Renaissance Pope Julius II tore down the most sacred shrine in Europe-the millennium-old St. Peter's Basilica built by the Emperor Constantine over the apostle's grave-to build a better basilica. Construction of the new St. Peter's spanned two centuries, embroiled twenty-seven popes, and consumed the genius of the greatest artists of the age-Michaelangelo, Bramante, Raphael, and Bernini. The cost of building the new cathedral was costly in more than just monetary terms-the new basilica provoked the Protestant Reformation, dividing the Christian world for all time.

In this swift, colorful narrative, R. A. Scotti brings to life the artists and the popes, the politics and the passions behind this audacious enterprise. Scotti turns sacred architecture into a spellbinding human epic of enormous daring, petty jealousy, and staggering genius.

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Reviews

  • Anonymous

    This selection is a case where the whole is greater than its parts. At times I was tempted to give up - the technical aspects about building materials threatened to put me to sleep - but I am so glad I stuck with it. Having been raised Catholic, this history shed quite a bit of light on the flaws of many popes and helped to correct the impression of Martin Luther as "ultimate evil" that was taught by my biased grade school teachers (nuns.) The book has inspired me to do more reading and has given me quite a lot to think about.

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  • Martha Cartwright

    A riveting history of a treasured landmark that endured years of destruction, design changes and religious conflict. After all of this descriptive history, one cannot accept the purity of religous belief, but only the strong determination of man's belief in the existance of a monument of achievement.

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