Book excerpt: Professor Conant's detailed studies of Santiago de Compostela and of the abbey church at Cluny fit him for this account of building in the period of the round arch which preceeded Gothic. In this volume he shows how, at the instigation of the monasteries during the little renaissance of Charlemagne, Roman methods of construction were revived and fused with local traditions to produce a distinctive Carolingian manner; and how such monuments as the Palatine Chapel at Aachen already contained hints of the nobler and more mature Romanesque style which was to become international. professor Conant extends his survey to cover the regions of medieval France, Spain, Portugal, the Holy Land, Italy, Germany, Northern Europe, and Britain.