David Bates & Lindy Grant 
Abbot Suger of St-Denis [PDF ebook] 
Church and State in Early Twelfth-Century France

Based on a fresh reading of primary sources, Lindy Grant’s comprehensive biography of Abbot Suger (1081-1151) provides a reassessment of a key figure of the twelfth century. Active in secular and religious affairs alike — Suger was Regent of France and also abbot of one of the most important abbeys in Europe during the time of the Gregorian reforms. But he is primarily remembered as a great artistic patron whose commissions included buildings in the new Gothic style. Lindy Grant reviews him in all these roles — and offers a corrective to the current tendency to exaggerate his role as architect of both French royal power and the new gothic form.