Caves to Cathedrals: Visual Arts in Ancient and Medieval Texts is a compilation of primary sources that help clarify or contextualize artistic production in the pre-modern Western world. A wide array of ancient and medieval visual culture is explored, including fashion, stage scenery, and other types of display such as triumphal and funerary processions, a lavish dinner party, and gladiatorial games.

The diverse readings include an eyewitness account of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, a thorough description of the process of mummification, and instructions on how to make a stained glass window. In the fully revised second edition there are dozens of new readings that explore such topics as royal tents, calligraphy, the role of women in the arts, and the Bayeux tapestry. With the addition of an introduction to the manuscript tradition, this edition also features several contemporary authors, such as John Keats, Friedrich Nietzsche, and D.H. Lawrence, who found inspiration in the ancient world.

Engaging and carefully chosen, the readings in this book bring the past to life. Caves to Cathedrals is an ideal textbook companion for the first half of Western art history survey, and the new readings make it suitable for Roman, ancient Greek, and medieval art courses.