Cathedrals of Europe


Book Description

"Prache surveys the history of church building from its humble beginnings in Late Antiquity through the construction of such masterworks of the Gothic style as Reims, Strasbourg, and Wells. Throughout, she reminds us that these magnificent expressions of faith also reflected their builders' hopes and fears, technical expertise, political views, and the ever-changing economic and social realities with which they had to contend."--BOOK JACKET.




Europe’s 100 Best Cathedrals


Book Description

READERS OF EUROPEAN HISTORY WILL LOVE THIS BEAUTIFULLY DESIGNED BOOK! "Simon Jenkins has provided a feast for both eyes and mind in this sumptuously illustrated guide to Europe's greatest cathedrals" John Barton, author of A History of the Bible "As ever, Simon Jenkins is here the best sort of guide to some of Europe's greatest buildings and their settings: well-informed, elegantly opinionated and passionate" Diarmaid MacCulloch, author of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years __________________________ Europe's cathedrals are magnificent. They outstrip palaces and castles. They are the most sensational group of structures anywhere in the world - which everyone should 'see before they die'. They are also hugely popular, most of them absolutely packed. They are humankind's greatest creations. In Europe's 100 Best Cathedrals, Simon Jenkins has travelled the continent - from Chartres to York, Cologne to Florence, Toledo to Moscow and Stockholm to Seville - to illuminate old favourites and highlight new discoveries. Beautifully illustrated with colour photographs throughout, this joyous exploration of Europe's history tells the stories behind these wonders, showing the cathedral's central role in the European imagination. Readers will be inspired to make their own pilgrimage to all one hundred of them.




Building the Great Cathedrals


Book Description

This volume is a study of the people who commissioned, designed, and built the great cathedrals of Europe, from the eleventh through the sixteenth centuries. Historian Francois Icher has written a lively, detailed account of the process by which these masterpieces of world architecture came to be - from their commissioning by a bishop or wealthy patron, to the hiring of an architect and mastercraftsmen, to the daily labor on the construction site. Supplementing the author's highly readable narrative are many stories and anecdotes about particular cathedrals and their construction; an appendix of archival documents that furnish additional details about the construction process at various sites; and a bibliography.




Stealing from the Saracens


Book Description

Europeans are in denial. Against a backdrop of Islamophobia, they are increasingly distancing themselves from their cultural debt to the Muslim world. But while the legacy of Islam and the Middle East is in danger of being airbrushed out of Western history, its traces can still be detected in some of Europe's most recognisable monuments, from Notre-Dame to St Paul's Cathedral. In this comprehensively illustrated book, Diana Darke sets out to redress the balance, revealing the Arab and Islamic roots of Europe's architectural heritage. She tracks the transmission of key innovations from the great capitals of Islam's early empires, Damascus and Baghdad, via Muslim Spain and Sicily into Europe. Medieval crusaders, pilgrims and merchants from Europe later encountered Arab Muslim culture in journeys to the Holy Land. In more recent centuries, that same route through modern-day Turkey connected Ottoman culture with the West, leading Sir Christopher Wren himself to believe that Gothic architecture should more rightly be called 'the Saracen style', because of its Islamic origins. Recovering this overlooked story within the West's long history of borrowing from the Islamic world, Darke sheds new light on Europe's buildings and offers rich insights into the possibilities of cultural exchange.




Romanesque Cathedrals in Mediterranean Europe


Book Description

Gerardo Boto Varela & Justin Kroesen, Romanesque Cathedrals in Mediterranean Europe: Balance and Perspectives. I. Shaping Cathedrals in the Pre-Romanesque Era: Beat Brenk, The Cathedrals of Early Medieval Italy: The Impact of the Cult of the Saints and the Liturgy on Italian Cathedrals from 300 to 1200. Jean-Pierre Caillet, French Cathedrals around the Year 1000: Forms and Functions, Antecedents, and Future. II. Building Romanesque Cathedrals on Older Substrates: Matthias Untermann, Between 'Church Families' and Monumental Architecture: German Eleventh-Century Cathedrals and Mediterranean Traditions. Mauro Cortelazzo & Renato Perinetti, Aosta Cathedral from Bishop Anselm's Project to the Romanesque Church, 998-1200. Gerardo Boto Varela, Inter primas Hispaniarum urbes, Tarraconensis sedis insignissima: Morphogenesis and Spatial Organisation of Tarragona Cathedral (1150-1225). III. Romanesque Cathedrals in Urban Contexts: Quitterie Cazes, The Cathedral of Toulouse (1070-1120): An Ecclesiastical, Political, and Artistic Manifesto. Saverio Lomartire, The Renovation of Northern Italian Cathedrals during the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries: The State of Current Research and Some Unanswered Questions. Xavier Barral i Altet, Medieval Cathedral Architecture as an Episcopal Instrument of Ideology and Urban Policy: The Example of Venice. Javier Martínez de Aguirre, The Architecture of Jaca Cathedral: The Project and its Impact. Jorge [Manuel de Oliveira] Rodrigues, The Portuguese Cathedrals and the Birth of a Kingdom: Braga, Oporto, Coimbra, and the Historical Arrival at Lisbon -- Capital City and Shrine of St Vincent. IV. Liturgical Layout and Spatial Organization: Michele Bacci, The Mise-en-Scène of the Holy in the Lateran Church in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries. Elisabetta Scirocco, Liturgical Installations in the Cathedral of Salerno: The Double Ambo in its Regional Context between Sicilian Models and Local Liturgy. Marc Sureda i Jubany, Romanesque Cathedrals in Catalonia as Liturgical Systems: A Functional and Symbolical Approach to the Cathedrals of Vic, Girona, and Tarragona (Eleventh-Fourteenth Centuries). V. Visual Discourses and Iconographic Programmes: Francesc Fité i Llevot, New Interpretation of the Thirteenth-Century Capitals of the Ancient Cathedral of Lleida ('Seu Vella'). Peter K. Klein, The Iconography of the Cloister of Gerona Cathedral and the Functionalist Interpretation of Romanesque Historiated Cloisters: Possibilities and Limitations. Marta Serrano Coll & Esther Lozano López, The Cloistral Sculpture at La Seu d'Urgell and the Problem of its Visual Repertoire. José Luis Hernando Garrido, Romanesque Sculpture in Zamora and Salamanca and its Connections to Santiago de Compostela.




Cathedral


Book Description

This richly illustrated book shows the intricate step-by-step process of an imaginary cathedral's growth.




Cathedrals of the World Coloring Book


Book Description

This fascinating volume invites colorists of all ages to color detailed illustrations of 40 great churches from around the world. Includes St. Paul's (London), Chartres (France), Notre Dame (Paris), Cologne (Germany), St. Peter's (Rome), St. Basil's (Moscow), St. Patrick's (New York), the Washington Cathedral, and more.




Gothic Cathedrals


Book Description

Cross the threshold into the world of the High Middle Ages and explore the illuminating wisdom, beauty and art of the Gothic cathedrals, stunning wonders of the medieval era for all to see today. From bejewelled stained glass windows to a pilgrimage “on the road” to Compostela, the wonders of Gothic architecture continue to inspire many worldwide. From the 12th century, the Gothic architectural style continued to spread throughout Europe. Highly-regarded medievalist Dr. Karen Ralls explores the legacy of this exquisite architectural period, whose artistic beauty and expert craftsmanship have served for centuries to inspire feelings of spiritual reverence and aesthetic wonder. She details the relationship between architecture, geometry, and music; explores the concept of the labyrinth; pilgrimage; Black Madonnas; astronomical calculations in the design and location of cathedrals; stone and wood carvings; gargoyles; the teachings of Pythagoras and the later Neo-Platonists, and more. For the general reader and specialist alike, Dr. Ralls guides the reader through the history, places, art, and symbolism of these unique "books in stone", providing a lively portal and solid resource for all. Lavishly illustrated with color photographs, a recommended reading section, lists of the major European cathedral sites and a full Bibliography, Gothic Cathedrals is a fascinating showcase of the mystic and spiritual symbolism found in these great structures of Europe, information that will help modern readers visit these sites and share in the energy of the sacred they continue to radiate.




Great Gothic Cathedrals of France


Book Description

Great Gothic Cathedrals of France guides readers on a tour of twelve French cathedrals that best exemplify one of the greatest glories of Western civilization. From the beautiful facade of Notre-Dame in Paris to the transcendent beauty of the stained glass at Chartres, this book clarifies the significant elements of their architecture by means of its text and images. The cathedrals of Amiens, Paris, Saint Denis, Chartres, Reims, Laon, Noyon, Soissons, Sens, Beauvais, Bourges and Troyes as well as Sainte-Chapelle are all presented to give the reader and visitor to France a clear understanding of these extraordinary buildings. This publication also provides the reader with a chapter on how to "read" a stained glass window.




The Idea of the Gothic Cathedral


Book Description

Central to many medieval ritual traditions both sacred and secular, the Gothic cathedral holds a privileged place within the European cultural imagination and experience. Due to the burgeoning historical interest in the medieval past, in connection with the medieval revival in literature, visual arts, and architecture that began in the late seventeenth century and culminated in the nineteenth, the Gothic cathedral took centre stage in numerous ideological discourses. These discourses imposed contemporary political and aesthetic connotations upon the cathedral that were often far removed from its original meaning and ritual use. This volume presents interdisciplinary perspectives on the resignification of the Gothic cathedral in the post-medieval period. Its contributors, literary scholars and historians of art and architecture, investigate the dynamics of national and cultural movements that turned Gothic cathedrals into symbols of the modern nation-state, highlight the political uses of the edifice in literature and the arts, and underscore the importance of subjectivity in literary and visual representations of Gothic architecture. Contributing to scholarship in historiography, cultural history, intermedial and interdisciplinary studies, as well as traditional disciplines, the volume resonates with wider perspectives, especially relating to the reuse of artefacts to serve particular ideological ends.