LEBEK

A companion to Barmi: A Mediterranean City Through the Ages, by Hernandez and Pilar Comes. Though it most closely resembles cities in the Low Countries (especially Amsterdam), ``Lebek'' is a composite of the major ports (from France to East Prussia) that once belonged to the Hanseatic League. Fourteen double-spread aerial views of the same site, depicted at dates ranging from 1000 B.C. to the present, alternate with double spreads summarizing the social, technological, and architectural status of Lebek at each time; succinct summaries of the era's politics and economics are augmented by illustrations and more detailed explanations of the most conspicuous developments. Corni's finely detailed pen drawings, including many cross sections and illustrations showing how things work, recall David Macaulay; though less brilliantly organized and limned, they contain an admirable quantity of precise detail. An unusually attractive survey of social history. (Nonfiction. 10+)