Great
Cathedrals
by Bernhard Schutz
From Chartres to the cathedral of Florence, this volume covers the major Romanesque and Gothic cathedrals in France, England, Germany, Italy and Spain. Over 300 photographs showing the cathedrals inside and out, including close-up architectural and sculptural details and an authoritative text, combine to produce a survey of these buildings.
Hardcover from Harry N. Abrams
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Cathedral
: The Story of Its Construction
Macaulay, David
Reading level: Ages 4-8
Paperback (October 26, 1981)
Houghton Mifflin Co; ISBN: 0395316685
The
English Cathedral
by Tim Tatton-Brown, John Crook
Hardcover from New Holland Publishers (UK) Ltd
The
Gothic Enterprise : A Guide to Understanding the Medieval Cathedral
by Robert A. Scott
The great Gothic cathedrals of Europe are among the most astonishing
achievements of Western culture. Evoking feelings of awe and humility,
they make us want to understand what inspired the people who had the audacity
to build them. This engrossing book surveys an era that has fired the historical
imagination for centuries. In it Robert A. Scott explores why medieval
people built Gothic cathedrals, how they built them, what conception of
the divine lay behind their creation, and how religious and secular leaders
used cathedrals for social and political purposes. As a traveler's companion
or a rich source of knowledge for the armchair enthusiast, The Gothic Enterprise
helps us understand how ordinary people managed such tremendous feats of
physical and creative energy at a time when technology was rudimentary,
famine and disease were rampant, the climate was often harsh, and communal
life was unstable and incessantly violent.
While most books about Gothic cathedrals focus on a particular building
or on the cathedrals of a specific region, The Gothic Enterprise considers
the idea of the cathedral as a humanly created space. Scott discusses why
an impoverished people would commit so many social and personal resources
to building something so physically stupendous and what this says about
their ideas of the sacred, especially the vital role they ascribed to the
divine as a protector against the dangers of everyday life.
Scott's narrative offers a wealth of fascinating details concerning
daily life during medieval times. The author describes the difficulties
master-builders faced in scheduling construction that wouldn't be completed
during their own lifetimes, how they managed without adequate numeric systems
or paper on which to make detailed drawings, and how climate, natural disasters,
wars, variations in the hours of daylight throughout the year, and the
celebration of holy days affected the pace and timing of work. Scott also
explains such things as the role of relics, the quarrying and transporting
of stone, and the incessant conflict cathedral-building projects caused
within their communities. Finally, by drawing comparisons between Gothic
cathedrals and other monumental building projects, such as Stonehenge,
Scott expands our understanding of the human impulses that shape our landscape.
Hardcover from University of California Press
The
Gothic Cathedral
by Otto Georg Von, Simson, Otto Von Simson
Paperback from Princeton Univ Pr
1988 |
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Guided
by a Stone-Mason: The Cathedrals, Abbeys and Churches of Britain Unveiled
by Thomas Maude
Paperback from I.B. Tauris
Cathedrals
by Robin S. Oggins
Hardcover from Metro Books
The Early Stained Glass of Canterbury Cathedral, Circa 1175-1220
by Madeline Harrison, Caviness
Hardcover from Princeton Univ Pr
1978
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