A HISTORY OF EL ESCORIAL

THE STORY OF EL ESCORIAL

By Mary Cable

Newsweek: New York. 1971.

172 pages, profusely illustrated.

Oversized hardcovers in simulated leather.

This copy is cleanand in good or better condition overall. The dust jacket is in similar condition eith some minor fraying to the top edges.

"EL ESCORIAL is the fascinating story of the vast monastery-palace that was the spiritual and political heart of Spain in the turbulent sixteenth century when ...

• Europe erupted with religious discord and military rivalries

• the New World beckoned with promises of rich colonial empires

• Spain reached its imperial zenith.

Philip II of Spain, arch-rival of Protestant England's Elizabeth I, built the Escorial to reflect his Catholic piety and the military might of Spain. At the Escorial Philip charted the Counter-Reformation as well as Spain's military forays throughout the world:

Lepanto, scene of Spain's stunning victory over the "invincible" Ottoman Turks; the Netherlands, bloody site of a protracted and futile attempt to suppress rebel troops; and the English Channel, final battlefield for

the famed Spanish Armada in its ill-fated attack on Elizabeth's island empire.

El Escorial also chronicles ...

• the tragic history of Philip II's Habsburg successors

• the decadent opulence of the Spanish Bourbons' court

• the desecration of the Escorial by French troops during Napoleon's 1808 Iberian campaign.

Supplementing the engrossing narrative are some one hundred illustrations, one half in full color. Modern photographs, especially commissioned for this volume, are juxtaposed with royal portraits, manuscript illuminations, old engravings, sketches, and sculpture. Among the artists represented are Sanchez Coello, EI Greco, Velazquez, and Goya.

A special section, El Escorial in Literature,

includes excerpts from the works of such famous writers as Friedrich Schiller, Gerard Manley Hopkins, William Dean Howells, Benito Perez Galdos, and Nikos Kazantzakis. A reference section-including a chronology of Spanish history, a genealogy of the Spanish succession, a guide to the Escorial complex itself, a selected bibliography, detailed information about the illustrations, and an index-concludes the volume."