1.4 What We'll Study

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Из курса от партнера Yale University

Age of Cathedrals

125 оценки

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Yale University

Age of Cathedrals

125 оценки

An introduction to some of the most astonishing architectural monuments the world has ever known—Gothic cathedrals. We shall study the art, literature, intellectual life, economics, and new social arrangements that arose in the shadow of the cathedrals and that were such an important part of the revival of cities in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The goal of the course is a better appreciation of the High Middle Ages, a world that is still recognizably our own.

Из урока

Introduction & Saint-Denis I

An introduction to the history of Paris in the centuries of chaos following the death of Charlemagne in 814 and the building of the first Gothic cathedral at Saint-Denis, just north of Paris. The old abbey church, where the kings of France were buried, was inadequate, and so a new building project was undertaken by Abbot Suger, who financed the new building through efficient land management and the commercial Fair of Lendit along a trade route between northern and southern Europe.

1.1 Introduction3:13

1.3 Notre Dame de Paris and the Wave of Cathedral Building7:18

1.4 What We'll Study5:23

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Howard Bloch
Sterling Professor of French
French

This course is about one of the great engineering feats the world has ever

known, the building of Europe's Gothic cathedrals.

We shall follow the traces of where the ideas and techniques for

such innovation might have come from, and

we shall trace the history of their spread and evolution.

From the first churches of Saint-Denis and Notre-Dame in the Parisian basin,

to the cathedrals of Picardy to the north and Normandy to the west.

From the first innovations in stone, to the delicate

house of glass built by Saint Louis in the 1240s, the Sainte-Chapelle.

To the flamboyant churches of the late Middle Ages,

of which the Cathedral of Milan offers a prime example.

We shall assess the fascinating relationship

between the cathedrals as a technological and engineering feat.

And the cathedrals as the centerpiece of religious worship, of social and

economic life, and of cultural change.

The Age of Cathedrals was one of the great moments of turning in the West.

The equivalent of Greece, of the city state and

its monumental Acropolis, or of Imperial Rome with its Parthenon.

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.

In the course of our time together, we shall see what the people who financed,

built, and worshipped in cathedrals knew in terms of legends, saints' lives and

miracle stories, heroic poetry, satirical verses and love poetry.

How they communicated with each other via letters,

how they represented their own lives in chronicles and autobiography.

And yes, how they conducted themselves in the everyday life of Medieval towns.

Much of which went on in the shadow of the cathedral, which dominated the space

of the city, and which often could be seen throughout the surrounding countryside.

Finally, we shall delve into the history of cathedrals between the time they

were built and the present day.

Keeping in mind that cathedrals are living structures which need to be maintained and

preserved.

And they have changed, both in appearance and use, over the centuries.

Where appropriate,

we shall appoint to the legacy of the Age of Cathedrals in the buildings around us.

Particularly in the universities,

where the Gothic style is still synonymous with intellectual pursuits.

This is a course for those who are interested in the Middle Ages,

interested in religion, in history, in architecture and

art history, in cities, and in philosophy and literature.

Above all, it is of course for those who are interested in learning more about

what went on some 800 years ago shaped the world that is still recognizably our own.

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