Unity of Splendor : Ceremony, Social Life and Architecture at the Court of Bavaria, 1600-1800

The grand palaces and princely villas of the Bavarian Wittelsbach dynasty - Nymphenburg, Schleissheim, the vast Residenzschloss in Munich, and others - impress visitors with their great halls and intimate cabinets, dramatic stairhalls and seemingly endless rows of sumptuously decorated rooms.

But these dazzling residences did not exist solely to delight the eye.

In "The Utility of Splendor", Samuel John Klingensmith discusses how, over the years, successive rulers reshaped the internal spaces of their residences to reflect changes in the elaborate ceremony that regulated life at court.

Drawing on a broad range of primary sources, Klingensmith investigates the intricacies of Bavarian court practice and offers a cogent, detailed understanding of the relations between architectural spaces and the ceremonial, social and private life that both required and used them.