Lübke was one of the pioneer writers on art history in Germany. His works were for their day both scholarly and appreciative, and correlate the epochs of art history with the great historical periods.
Selective bibliography
Lübke wrote, in a comprehensive and readable style, numerous valuable works, including:
Vorschule vor Geschichte der Kirchenbaukunst des Mittelalters (1852; sixth edition, under different title, 1873; English translation, Ecclesiastical Art in Germany during the Middle Ages, Edinburgh, 1870).
Mittelalterliche Kunst in Westfalen, 1853 ("Medieval art in
Westphalia").
Geschichte der Architektur, (Leipzig, 1855; sixth edition, 1884–86).
Grundriß der Kunstgeschichte (1860; thirteenth edition, 1899–1907; English translation, under the title Outlines of the History of Art by
Clarence Cook, 1878, and reëdited by Russell Sturgis, New York, 1904).
Geschichte der Renaissance Frankreichs, 1868 ("History of the Renaissance in France").
Geschichte der deutschen Renaissance, 1873 ("History of the
German Renaissance").
Geschichte der Plastik (third edition, 1880; translation by F.E. Bunnet under the title History of Sculpture, London, 1878).
Geschichte der deutschen Kunst von den frühesten Zeiten bis zur Gegenwart, 1890 ("History of German art: from the earliest times to the present").