French Gothic Architecture of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries

Front Cover
University of California Press, 1983 - Architecture - 623 pages
Gothic architecture is the most visible and striking product of medieval European civilization. Jean Bony, whose reputation as a medievalist is worldwide, presents its development as an adventure of the imagination allied with radical technical advances—the result of a continuining quest for new ways of handling space and light as well as experimenting with the mechanics of stone construction. He shows how the new architecture came unexpectedly to be invented in the Paris region around 1140 and follows its history—in the great cathedrals of northern France and dozens of other key buildings—to the end of the thirteenth century, when profound changes occurred in the whole fabric of medieval civilization. Rich illustrations, including comprehensive maps, enhance the text and themselves constitute an exceptionally valuable documenation.

Despite its evident scholarly intention, this book is not meant for specialists alone, but is conceived as a progressive infiltration into the complexities of history at work, revealing its unpredictable vitality to the uninitiated curious mind.
 

Contents

Introduction
1
author 46
6
MOISSAC interior lower story of porch tower
12
Heuzé
18
Gothic Spaciousness
45
The Interior Design of Sens Cathedral
64
The Importance of Width
73
The Early Gothic Grid
79
The World of Bourges
202
The New Statement of Chartres
220
Diffusion and Changes
245
45
294
Divergent Trends in the Early 13th Century
303
Late 13thCentury Architecture
407
79
462
Notes
465

DURHAM CATHEDRAL interior E side of N transept
89
SAINTDENIS reconstructed plan of Sugers projected
95
Ward
101
A First Gothic System ca 11601180
117
The Flying Buttress and the Second Gothic System
195
117
473
Selective Bibliography
547
Index
573
Copyright

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