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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
Howard BlochSterling Professor of French
