Bollingen Series Xlviii

BOLLINGEN SERIES XLVIII THE GOTHIC CATHEDRAL Otto von Simson THE GOTHIC CATHEDRAL Origins of Gothic Architecture and the Medieval Concept of Order BOLLINGEN SERIES XLVIII PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS. COPYRIGHT © 1956 BY BOLLINGEN FOUNDATION INC., NEW YORK, N.Y. COPYRIGHT © RENEWED BY PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1984 SECOND EDITION COPYRIGHT © 1962 BY BOLLINGEN FOUNDATION THIRD EDITION COPYRIGHT © 1988 BY PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS PUBLISHED BY PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS • THIS VOLUME IS THE FORTY-EIGHTH IN A SERIES OF BOOKS SPONSORED BY BOLLINGEN FOUNDATION Second edition, revised, with additions, :962 First Princaonl Bollingen Paperback edition, 1974 Third edition, with additions, 1988 Second printing, expanded edition, 1989 Princeton University Press books arc printed in, acid-free paper, and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 87-36886 ISBN 0-691-01867-7 (paperback edn.) ISBN 0-691-09959-6 (hardcover edn.) MANUFACTURED IN U.S.A. Original cloth edition designed by Ardor Braun 7 9 10 8 To My Mother PREFACE WE SPEAK of the Middle Ages as an epoch of faith. Within the last decades, the history of ideas has given a more precise meaning to this term by clarifying the extent to which faith and doctrine have left their imprint upon all aspects of medieval thought, scientific as well as metaphysical. Is the same influence traceable in medieval art, and, if so, can we define the manner in which Christian experience impinged upon the vision, perhaps even upon the technique, of the medieval artist? Medieval writers derive the norms of beauty and the laws that ought to govern artistic creation from the immutable values of a transcendental order. Are such statements pious commonplaces, mere theory that has remained remote from the practice of the workshop, and from the living experience of a work of art? Or have the hands of those who created the masterpieces of medieval art actually been guided by.theological vision? And, if such is the case, can we, working with the inadequate tools of historical research and confronted with the terse testimony of medieval sources, still determine the kind of co-operation that existed between theologian and artist? The longer I studied medieval art, the more indispensable it seemed to me to find answers to the above questions. For an understanding of ecclesiastical architecture these questions seem to have a particular relevance. Even if we consider only the architectural system of the cathedral, we would be mistaken in viewing it as a work of "nonobjective" art in the strict modern sense of this term. The cathedral, as we shall see, was designed as an image, and was meant to be understood as one. It remains, nevertheless, quite true that ecclesiastical architecture represents the reality of which it is symbol or image in a manner that differs radically from that of painting or sculpture. Architecture is not the image of objects that our eye may encounter in nature; it has no "content" that we could distinguish from architectural style. For this Vi PREFACE very reason, the impact of ideas upon the life of artistic forms appeals, I think, even more directly in architecture than it does in the other arts, and the origins of Gothic, perhaps the most creative achievement in the history of Western architecture, can only be understood, as this book sets out to show, as the singularly sensitive response of artistic form to the theological vision of the twelfth century. Parts of this book, in somewhat altered form, have previously appeared in Measure, I (1 950), in the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, XI (1 95 2), and in Studien and Texte zur Geistesgeschichte des Mittelalters, edited by J. Koch, III (1953)• The appendix, in which Professor Ernst Levy reports on his measurements of the towers of Chartres Cathedral, offers, I think, a most valuable addition to our knowledge of the architectural proportions used in the Middle Ages. I am indebted to Robert M. Hutchins and John U. Nef, founder and chairman, respectively, of the Committee on Social Thought of Uni- versity of Chicago, the framework of which has provided me with working conditions that any scholar might consider ideal. And I am keenly aware of the advice and assistance I have received from my- colleagues Ind students in the art department and other units of the University of Chicago. The Social Science Research Committee at the University of Chicago has generously extended to me the financial assistance required for my yesearch. For an additional grant I am indebted to the Bollingen Foundation. M. Jean Maunoury, chief architect of the Departement of Eurc-et-Loir and of the Cathedral of Chances, assisted me in innumerable ways, pitting at my disposal his architect's knowledge of the great edifice under his care. M. Jean Porcher, keeper of the Cabinet des Manuscrits of the BibLotheque Nationale, has, with that kindness which so many scholars have experienced, made available to me manuscripts as well as printed literature that otherwise would have remained beyond my reach. M. Georges Viollon is responsible for a number of photographs, including the color plates. Professor Ulrich A. Middeldorf, of the German Institute of Art History, at Florence, kindly provided the print for plate 7. PREFACE Vii I am also grateful for photographs and other illustrations made available by the various institutions, authors, and firms to which acknowledgment is made in the lists of plates and text figures. I am keenly aware that this book could not have been written without the help of my wife, the most understanding critic an author could hope to have. 0. S. Chicago, summer, 1955 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION THE FIRST edition of this book appeared five years ago. Scholarship has not stood still in the interval. It seems to have reinforced rather than invalidated the theses I have presented. Nevertheless, in order to take into account several important recent studies that bear on my argument, I have availed myself of the opportunity to make some alterations and additions. These are mainly in the form of a section of addenda, to which references have been inserted at the relevant points in the text, and a postscript to chapter 7, besides several textual revisions on pages 8o, 1 54 f., 203, 207 IT., and 21 4. To illustrate some of the new material I have added four plates, 33, 34, 43, and 44. One major change in this edition is the omission, at his request, of Pro- fessor Ernst Levy's appendix on the proportions of the South Tower of Chartres Cathedral. He felt that his conclusions had been superseded by the findings of a distinguished architect and student of "Gothic geometry," Colonel Leonard Cox. I have yielded to Ernst Levy's request all the more reluctantly as I do not yet know the results of Leonard Cox's study. I should add, however, that I am much indebted to Colonel Cox for a number of criticisms that have enabled me to improve the text of the present edition, and I should also add that Ernst Levy, whose study remains available both in my first edition and in a special printing (in Publications in the Humanities [No. zo] from the Department of Humanities, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cam- bridge, 1 95 6), has put all students of Chartres Cathedral in his debt by his painstaking and exact measurements, some of which I have been able to use ih the present text. 0. S. Paris, fall, 1961 PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION THE SECOND edition of this book appeared in 1962. After a number of re- prints—the last in 1984—the publisher has decided that a new edition would be useful. I am delighted to have an opportunity to add a new section—almost a new chapter—on the rose windows of Chartres (pp. 218 ff.), which I have come to consider more and more as one of the greatest and possibly the most characteristic achievements of the master of the cathedral. A number of new plates illustrate this theme. The decision to bring out a new edition has, on the other hand, confronted me with a certain dilemma. Although I believe the conclusions presented in this book still stand, twenty-five years is a long time. Were Ito write the book afresh today, I might formulate certain propositions slightly differently, not least be- cause I have been able to profit from the results of recent scholarship. The publisher and I have decided, however, to let the text stand as it is, but tc use this preface to call the reader's attention to some works that bear on my argument. There is first of all the remarkable book Experiments in Gothic Structure (Cambridge, Mass., 1982) whose author, Professor Robert Mark, who is an engineer as well as an architectural historian, has used models of epoxy plastic for the analysis of a number of major Gothic churches with a view 10 deter- mining the effects of dead load and wind pressure upon these great structures. Using techniques available only since the last war, the analyses provide infor- mation that allows us for the first time to assess the Gothic architect's (empirical) knowledge of statics. Mark is thus able to give precise answers regarding the relation between structure and style, function and design, in some of the great masterpieces of Gothic architecture, and while I am not sure that his general conclusions—Mark tends to accept the "rationalist" interpretation of Vi ollet-le- Duc—are borne out by his own findings (see my review of his book in JSAH, L1V, 1985), these findings are important enough.

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