Abbot Suger of St-Denis. Church and State in early twelfth-century France.(Review)

Abbot Suger of St-Denis. Church and State in early twelfth-century France. By Lindy Grant. (The Medieval World.) Pp. xix + 338 incl. 4 genealogical tables, 2 maps and 3 plans. London-New York: Longman, 1998. [pounds]42.0 582 05154 1; 0 582 05150 9

There was a risk that this book would have been rendered redundant by Michel Bur's recent biography, Suger, abb[acute{e}] de Saint-Denis, r[acute{e}]gent de France (Paris 1991). Instead, Dr Grant has succeeded in producing not only the first biography in English, but also an original interpretation of the career of the famous abbot. I confess to being irritated by the format of this book, which no doubt is the responsibility …