We shall examine what went into building the great high churches
of the Middle Ages, and how the churches themselves changed the world around them.
We shall look at actual architectural structures,
how the buildings were built, who made them, and why?
From the lowliest haulers of stone and cement to the masons who set stone
in place, as we see in this stained-glass image from the Cathedral of Beauvais.
Notice in the foreground, porters carrying the construction materials
up what looks like a flying buttress.
While a mason, his hod in one hand and his trowel in the other,
lays regular courses of stone on top.
We shall study those who actually made the cathedrals with their hands.
And the high church officials,
as we see in this manuscripts page from the Chronicle of Saint-Denis,
who presided over what was a Medieval great public works project.
Notice the men in the lower left, who are roughing out stone and
carving moldings while the man in the lower right mixes mortar.
And his co-worker carries mortar to the mason, who's standing of the top
of the scaffolding, combines the cement and stone to complete the cathedral wall.
We shall also analyze, in some detail,
the dazzling decoration that is part of every Gothic cathedral.
The sculpture and stained-glass of the buildings,
along with the relics of saints that the cathedrals were meant to house, and
which were the source of their spiritual power.
We should not forget that in an age when few people could read and
manuscript books were rare.
The churches, which were covered and filled with images from the Old and
New Testaments, served as the Bible of the poor.
The Age of Cathedrals was also the age of the birth of literature in
the vernacular tongues, in French, Italian, German, and English.
And after long centuries of oral culture,
a return of writing to almost every area of human endeavor.
We shall read some of the great literary and historical works from the period.