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The Gothic Cathedral
Origins of Gothic Architecture and the Medieval Concept of Order - Expanded Edition
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Otto Georg Von Simson
Language:
English
Published/Copyright:
1988
About this book
The classic work on Gothic religious architecture, now with added illustrations and a new section by the author on rose windows
No other monument of a culture so radically different from our own is as much a part of contemporary life as the Gothic cathedral. In this illuminating book, esteemed art historian Otto Georg von Simson explores how Gothic architecture is an expression of supernatural reality, and shows how, to those who designed and worshipped in the great cathedrals of France in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, this symbolic function of sacred architecture overshadowed all others. The Gothic Cathedral takes readers from the birth of the Gothic style with the Basilica of St.-Denis to the consummation of the form in the majestic Cathedral of Chartres, revealing how these incomparable architectural masterpieces embodied the spiritual and intellectual order of the medieval world.
Author / Editor information
Otto Georg von Simson (1912–1993) was professor emeritus of art history at the Free University of Berlin. His books include Sacred Fortress: Byzantine Art and Statecraft in Ravenna (Princeton).
Reviews
“The Gothic Cathedral is the most stimulating and comprehensive work on the subject to date. . . . If the cathedrals are to be understood, Mr. von Simson rightly declares, they must be seen not in the light of twentieth-century esthetic observation, but of twelfth-century religious experience, through which the supernatural permeated every aspect of human existence. . . . The resulting interpretation of the monuments is a critical tour de force.”—Allan Temko, New York Times Book Review
“Not since Mont-St.-Michel and Chartres has so poetic and so evocative a study of the Gothic movement been published. . . . The Gothic Cathedral is based on a wide factual as well as intuitive knowledge, transformed by the author’s illuminating style into a text both formidable and pleasurable.”—Virginia Quarterly Review
“Not since Mont-St.-Michel and Chartres has so poetic and so evocative a study of the Gothic movement been published. . . . The Gothic Cathedral is based on a wide factual as well as intuitive knowledge, transformed by the author’s illuminating style into a text both formidable and pleasurable.”—Virginia Quarterly Review
Topics
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Frontmatter
i -
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Preface
vii -
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Preface to the Second Edition
ix -
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Preface to the Third Edition
x -
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CONTENTS
xiii -
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LIST OF PLATES
xiv -
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LIST OF TEXT FIGURES
xvii -
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Introduction
xix -
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PART I. Gothic Design and the Medieval Concept of Order
1 -
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PART II. The Birth of the Gothic
59 -
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PART III. The Consummation
157 -
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Postscript (1961)
238 -
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Addenda to the Second Edition
242 -
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Abbreviations
247 -
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List of Works Cited
249 -
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Index
269
Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
June 16, 2020
eBook ISBN:
9780691214030
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Main content:
368
eBook ISBN:
9780691214030
Keywords for this book
Suger; Chartres; Gothic architecture; Chartres Cathedral; Proportion (architecture); Medieval art; Cistercians; Basilica; Gothic art; Romanesque architecture; Reims Cathedral; School of Chartres; Reims; William of Conches; Villard de Honnecourt; Notre Dame de Paris; Apse; Sens Cathedral; Treatise; Edition (book); Louis VI; Regensburg Cathedral; Cistercian architecture; Buttress; Transept; Illustration; Sainte-Chapelle; Narthex; John of Salisbury; Canterbury Cathedral; Charles the Bald; Norman architecture; Iconography; Romanesque art; Louis VII; Chanson de geste; Bernard of Clairvaux; Writing; Religious art; Auxerre; Patron saint; Prelate; Laon Cathedral; The Other Hand; Rib vault; Amiens Cathedral; Strasbourg; Laon; Pontiff; Diocese; Thomas Becket; Thierry of Chartres; Ambulatory; Noyon; Pilgrimage church; Medieval architecture; Noyon Cathedral; Philip II of France; Sacred architecture; Allegory; Imagery; Quadrivium; Byzantine art; Beauvais; Great Church; Le Mans Cathedral; Literature; Geoffrey (archbishop of York); Adelard of Bath; Floor plan
Audience(s) for this book
General/trade;
