Cathedrals (Medieval Studies)

It has come to my attention that this essay of mine is rather popular on Academia.edu, and, in fact, on the internet in general.

I wrote this essay in my second year of studies at the University of Otago, and thus, it serves only as a preliminary study - a glance upon the topic of French and English Gothic architecture, if you will. It is, in many ways, just a beginning. Let this essay guide you, but not sway you. Please, if you are a student at any University, and you wish to cite my essay, do so prudently. It has not been published in any journal or paper, and will not be considered a properly peer-reviewed source by your teachers. Instead, I would advise you to bounce off my ideas; use them to deepen your own inquiries into the topic of French and English Gothic architecture.

Many thanks to all of you who have read my work - it is heartening to hear others in this field of study say that they have enjoyed perusing my ponderings.

(P.S. I am quite embarrassed by the many mistakes and bumbling sentences in this paper. As I said, I was only a second year student when I wrote this.)

Zoe Eccles

Chartres Cathedral, also known as the Cathedral of Our Lady of Chartres (French: Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres), is a Roman Catholic church in Chartres, France, about 80 km (50 miles) southwest of Paris and is the seat of the Bishop of Chartres. Mostly constructed between 1194 and 1220, it stands at the site of at least five cathedrals that have occupied the site since the Diocese of Chartres was formed as an episcopal see in the 4th century. It is in the High Gothic and Romanesque styles.

800 years later in 2020 we have Schumann Resonators which are little boxes you plug into the wall that produce electromagnetic radiation tuned to 7.83 Hz.
This is the frequency that the earth/atmosphere system “rings” at when the Earth is struck by lightning. It is also a common frequency your brain “ticks” at.
If we are out of sync with Earth's Frequency (Schumann Resonance) we begin to exhibit signs of discomfort that can range from anxiety, insomnia, illness, suppressed immune etc… Conversely we have discovered that when we humans are in sync with 7.83hz the body is able to heal and increase its vitality. I use PEMF (pulsed electro magnetic field) therapy devices by Swiss Bionics with Schumann resonators. 

It seems the ancients knew about this too.

The cathedral is known as "the high point of French Gothic art" and a "masterpiece" and is well-preserved for its age: the majority of the original stained glass windows survive intact, while the architecture has seen only minor changes since the early 13th century.
The building's exterior is dominated by heavy flying buttresses which allowed the architects to increase the window size significantly, while the west end is dominated by two contrasting spires – a 105-metre (349 ft) plain pyramid completed around 1160 and a 113-metre (377 ft) early 16th-century Flamboyant spire on top of an older tower. Equally notable are the three great façades, each adorned with hundreds of sculpted figures illustrating key theological themes and narratives.


At least five cathedrals have stood on this site, each replacing an earlier building damaged by war or fire. The first church dated from no later than the 4th century and was located at the base of a Gallo-Roman wall; this was put to the torch in 743 on the orders of the Duke of Aquitaine. The second church on the site was set on fire by Danish pirates in 858. This was then reconstructed and enlarged by Bishop Gislebert, but was itself destroyed by fire in 1020. A vestige of this church, now known as Saint Lubin Chapel, remains, underneath the apse of the present cathedral.
It took its name from Lubinus, the mid-6th-century Bishop of Chartres. It is lower than the rest of the crypt and may have been the shrine of a local saint, prior to the church's rededication to the Virgin Mary.

In 962 the church was damaged by another fire and was reconstructed yet again. A more serious fire broke out on 7 September 1020, after which Bishop Fulbert (bishop from 1006 to 1028) decided to build a new cathedral. He appealed to the royal houses of Europe, and received generous donations for the rebuilding, including a gift from Cnut the Great, King of Norway, Denmark and much of England. The new cathedral was constructed atop and around the remains of the 9th-century church. It consisted of an ambulatory around the earlier chapel, surrounded by three large chapels with Romanesque barrel vault and groin vault ceilings, which still exist. On top of this structure he built the upper church, 108 meters long and 34 meters wide.
The rebuilding proceeded in phases over the next century, culminating in 1145 in a display of public enthusiasm dubbed the "Cult of the Carts" – one of several such incidents recorded during the period. It was claimed that during this religious outburst, a crowd of more than a thousand penitents dragged carts filled with building supplies and provisions including stones, wood, grain, etc. to the site.

In 1134, another fire in the town damaged the facade and the bell tower of the cathedral.
Construction was begun immediately on a new tower, the north tower, which was finished in about 1150. It was just two stories high and had a lead roof. The south tower, begun in 1144, was much more ambitious; it had a spire atop the tower, and, when finished in about 1160, it reached a height of 105 metres or 345 feet, one of the highest in Europe. The two towers were joined on the first level by a chapel devoted to Saint Michael. Traces of the vaults and the shafts which supported them are still visible in the western two bays.
The stained glass in the three lancet windows over the portals dates from some time between 1145 and 1155, while the south spire, some 103 metres high, was also completed by 1155 or later. The Royal Portal on the west facade, between the towers, the primary entrance to the cathedral, was probably finished between 1145 and 1245.

Overview

The beauty and grandeur of medieval cathedrals lies not only in their sheer size, but also in the harmonious proportions that result from using principles of ancient geometry in their design. This experiential learning project demonstrates the interrelationship of mathematics and design in medieval architecture through the practical application of geometry. Reading assignments (see below) should be completed before the first activity.

In the first activity, students draft a cathedral plan using geometric tools (compass, straight edge, and protractor). The second part of the activity takes place on a campus green space where students physically lay out a scaled cathedral plan, ad quadratum (Latin for “from the square”) following the plan completed in the first activity. The first activity is detailed in the step-by-step guide below, but the second activity is instructed in person, as a master mason would have done, by transmitting information verbally to apprentices and other masons on the building site. In this part, students use the plans they have drawn, but now points on the plan are marked out by wooden stakes and string is used in place of the compass to generate measurements and mark boundaries.

After completing the readings, plan, and layout students will have both a theoretical and experiential understanding of how proportions based on the square root and the Golden Ratio (1:618) find practical application in medieval architecture. As a way to synthesize learning, each student should complete short (2-3 pgs.) reflection paper that consider the ways in which the process of drawing and laying out the plan deepened understanding of the relationship of geometry and design in medieval buildings.

Learning Outcomes

-Gain a greater understanding of the parts of a cathedral plan and use correct architectural terminology
-Analyze the interdependence of mathematics (geometry) and aesthetics in the design of cathedral plans
-Understand the relationship between the ideal (plan) and real layout of a cathedral
-Develop creative solutions to practical problems through problem solving
-Collaborate in a group setting to achieve a common goal

Reading Assignments

Robert Bork, The Geometry of Creation: Architectural Drawing and the Dynamics of Gothic Design (Ashgate, 2011), 1-27.

Stephen Murray, Notre-Dame, Cathedral of Amiens: The Power of Change in Gothic (Cambridge UP, 1996), 28-43.

Other suggested readings:

Carl F. Barnes, The Portfolio of Villard de Honnecourt (Paris, BnF, MS Fr 19093): A New Critical Edition and Color Fascimile (Ashgate, 2009).

Nicola Coldstream, Medieval Craftsmen: Masons and Sculptors (British Museum Press, 1991).

Nancy Wu, ed. Ad Quadratum: The Practical Application of Geometry in Medieval Architecture (Ashgate, 2002).

En 1855, William Morris n’est pas encore un immense artiste pluridisciplinaire mais un étudiant en théologie. Avec deux camarades d’Oxford, il vient prendre des vacances dans le nord-ouest de la France. Après Abbeville et avant Beauvais, Chartres, Rouen, il visite Amiens et sa cathédrale. Il marche ainsi sur les traces des architectes et critiques d’art George Edmund Street, Gilbert Scott, John Ruskin. Comme eux, il célèbre certains traits remarquables que ne présentent pas ou peu les édifices gothiques anglais : hauteur impressionnante, remplages et surtout portails sculptés, que William Morris lit, trente ans avant La Bible d’Amiens, dans un long article, « Shadows of Amiens », qu’il publie dans The Oxford and Cambridge Magazine, avec deux nouvelles, médiévale et fantastique, également consacrées à la cathédrale : « The Story of the Unknown Church » et « A Night in a Cathedral ». La fiction n’est pas moins pertinente que la description pour rendre compte d’un édifice que William Morris aborde de façon résolument affective, émotive et subjective, qu’il se pose en visiteur, donne la parole à un des constructeurs de la cathédrale ou qu’il soulève ses difficultés de scripteur confronté à la difficulté de traduire une architecture en mots. Dans tous les cas, sa posture est artistique, humaniste, agnostique. Les textes qu’il publie suite à sa visite à Amiens s’avèrent donc en accord avec sa décision, simultanée, de renoncer aux ordres pour devenir artiste. Bien plus, on y perçoit, en les lisant de près, de nombreux germes des écrits communistes, quoique bien plus tardifs, de William Morris – non seulement des idées clés de ses conférences mais aussi des motifs de ses fictions, tels que la nuit dans l’église ou la sculptrice, qu’il retravaille et sublime en symboles d’un bonheur non plus passé mais à faire advenir en mettant fin au système capitaliste destructeur de la beauté de la vie.

Covering the Akoustolith and Guastavino tiling used at the famed cathedral church, Saint John the Divine, New York City, this paper looks at the acoustical impact of large scale implementation throughout the USA and in particular this cathedral. One stakeholder, an organ curator, was able to effect change after a catastrophic fire in 2001 allowed for an entire restoration through insurance funds. This paper covers Douglass Hunt's amateur background and subsequent expertise that allowed him to steward the closing up of the Akoustolith tile, effecting significant acoustic gain and reverberation for the future of the choir and music accompaniment of the church.

Die Grabdenkmäler der Erzbischöfe von Trier, Köln und Mainz bilden drei einzigartige Denkmalserien, die bereits in der Romanik einsetzen und in der Gotik, der Renaissance und dem Barock zahlreiche Meisterwerke der Bildhauerei von europäischem Rang hervorbrachten. Der vorliegende Band stellt erstmals die Geschichte der erzbischöflichen Grablegen vom hohen Mittelalter bis zum Ende des Alten Reichs in vergleichender Perspektive dar, wodurch die Unterschiede, aber auch die Gemeinsamkeiten deutlich hervortreten. Inhaltlich steht die Frage der Grabmaltopographie, der Orte des Gedenkens in der Kathedrale, im Mittelpunkt. Einen weiteren Schwerpunkt bildet die Typengeschichte, die Herausbildung bestimmter Traditionen in Trier, Köln und Mainz, ihrer Botschaft und ihrer Korrespondenz mit den Denkmälern anderer Herrschaftsträger. Der Seriencharakter der Monumente wird als überzeitliche kirchenpolitische Botschaft gedeutet.
Die Studie bietet einen ebenso umfassenden wie anschaulichen Überblick zur Entwicklung des Bischofsbildes, der individuellen Frömmigkeit und der Amtsmemorie der Inhaber des ranghöchsten geistlichen Amtes im mittelalterlichen Reich, gleichzeitig aber auch ein Panorama von neun Jahrhunderten europäischer Kunstgeschichte.

Las relaciones entre Catedral y Universidad son fecundas y heterogéneas desde el origen del Estudio salmantino, que tuvo como precursor en el tiempo a la Escuela Catedralicia asentada en los espacios claustrales. Muchos estudios se han aproximado a las relaciones seculares entre ambas instituciones. Este artículo pretende aportar nuevas vías para la comprensión de esas relaciones, desarrollando dos aspectos complementarios: los espacios y las personas

A Sé do Porto é um dos mais emblemáticos monumentos históricos da cidade. Não estranha por isso que tenha sido ao longo do último século objecto de um activo labor de investigação e problematização bem como de profundas intervenções de restauro. Porém, o conhecimento produzido sobre o monumento revela-se muito parcial privilegiando em particular o momento de intensa renovação que se desenrolou durante o período da sé vaga entre 1717 e 1741. Paralelamente, foi publicada numerosa informação de carácter pontual, dispersa e de desigual valor. Os escassos ensaios de síntese, habilitando o A escavação daquela área permitiu obter uma amostra do registo que se preserva no subsolo da catedral no qual se destaca a importância dos níveis do cemitério do adro com sepulturas e enterramentos sobrepondo--se entre os séculos XII e XVI bem como a densidade das construções anteriores à sé românica, ali edificadas pelo menos desde a época pré-romana (Fig. 1). Em meados de 2004 foi finalmente possível iniciar o trabalho de investigação arquivística 4 . Dada a multiplicidade e dispersão das fontes arquivísticas potencialmente interessantes para o estudo histórico 26 Projecto de estudo histórico e arqueológico da Sé do Porto -o cemitério

On April 15, 2019, Notre Dame suffered from a fire that caused serious destruction of the Cathedral’s wooden roof, total loss of the famous spire, and damage to the masonry. As the heart and soul of Paris, this fire caused an international outcry, with videos and photographs of the fire going viral across all news networks and social media platforms. It raises one question: why did this moment cause such an international stir and how does one therefore respond? Many wealthy businessmen, companies, and even countries pledged to donate money in order to restore the building. A variety of schemes were designed; one design even included a rooftop pool. The importance assigned to this event thus leads to questioning different approaches to restoration of a monument of such historical and national importance. With France’s long history between monarchies, revolutions, religions, and nationalism, what is the proper response? The Cathedral today is no longer owned by the Catholic church, but by the French Government, thus it does not only serve the religious, but tourists, locals, scholars, and passersby alike.
The history of Notre Dame covers centuries, with multiple movements of rebuilding and adapting the building we know today. The beloved spire that was lost in the fire was only from the mid-nineteenth century, courtesy of architect Emannuel Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, while the rest of the building dates from centuries prior. As the Cathedral fell in and out of favor through centuries, Victor Hugo and Viollet-le-Duc are among the two most important figures in restoring the patrimony to Notre Dame.
The issues of value and authenticity further complicate the matter, for how does one restore such a globally iconic and historic building, while multiple varying approaches are being proposed? The context of the building’s history and context must be included in the analysis, for as the paragon of Gothic architecture, the building’s structural engineering is as important to restore as its visual aesthetic.

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Lecture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, november 14, 2010). Updated english version of: SUÁREZ OTERO, J. (1999), La Tumba de Santiago, entre la Fe y la Arqueología, in VV.AA., Compostela na Historia. Redescubrimento- rexurdimento (Santiago), 15- 22."

Доклад «’’Звенигородский чин” прп. Андрея Рублева: современные проблемы изучения» на III Чтениях памяти В.А. Плугина на историческом факультете МГУ 14 ноября 2017 г.  В докладе полностью доказана по данным всего комплекса источников неоспоримая принадлежность знаменитого «Звенигородского чина» кисти великого иконописца прп. Андрея Рублева († 17.10.1428). Тем самым начисто развенчаны легковесные мнения молодых сотрудников ГТГ Л.В. Нерсесяна и С.В. Свердловой (поддержанных только А.М. Лидовым), прозвучавшие на круглом столе в Третьяковской галерее 21 июня 2017 г., что «Звенигородский чин» 1396 г. якобы не был написан прп. Андреем Рублевым и отличается от его общепризнанных икон, таких, как чудотворная икона «Живоначальная Троица». Такие незрелые суждения не соответствуют уровню современного научного знания об этих шедеврах и обусловлены недостаточной осведомленностью авторов «сенсации» о творческой биографии всемирно известного иконописца Древней Руси, которая взята ими для корреляции: «получается, что Рублев, будучи еще совсем молодым мастером, создал одно из самых совершенных и сложных по технике произведений древнерусской живописи, но через четверть века по какой-то неизвестной причине радикальным образом изменил свою манеру» (Софья Свердлова).
Доклад проф. О.Г. Ульянова, заведующего Сектором церковной археологии ФГБУК «Центральный музей древнерусской культуры и искусства имени прп. Андрея Рублева», подготовлен на базе научно-исследовательского проекта «Преподобный Андрей Рублев в Спасо-Андрониковом монастыре».

Il tema della costruzione della collegiata è presente nella storiografia saluzzese fin dai primi puntuali riferimenti nelle Memorie di Delfino Muletti 1 , ma è solo a partire dall'edizione delle fonti documentarie curata da Domenico Chiattone nel 1902 2 che è possibile impostare un ragionamento filologico sul cantiere e sul suo sviluppo.

The The Cathedral of St. Vitus at Prague Castle, founded in 1344, was still incomplete when the Hussite Wars broke out. King Vladislav Jagiellon took up the project again in 1509, but soon afterwards work on it was halted, evidently because the construction of other parts of the castle fortifications was given priority. After being elected King of Bohemia in 1526, Ferdinand I of Habsburg clearly intended to renew work on the cathedral, and in 1530 — evidently under the direction of Benedikt Ried, he had a row of gables erected over the east choir. But then the building work lapsed again and the prospect of further progress was finally ruined by a great fire in 1541; after the fire the king could do no more than restore only the eastern choir, and he even substantially shortened the cathedral. Work was made difficult by a lack of funds, further complicated by Ferdinand’s unwillingness to look for potential sponsors in the ranks of the (Utraquist) nobility and burghers, without whose contributions an ambitious cathedral church could not be built in this era. It was largely the clergy who were left to restore or replace the damaged or lost furnishings and equipment. The size and form of the building were inadequate to the demands of an expanded royal court and especially the court of Queen Anna Jagiellon, for whose retinue of ladies a wooden platform had to be very awkwardly built into one of the chapels. It seems to have been for the queen, too, that Vladislav’s royal oratory was altered before 1537, by the installation of a heated wooden chamber. After the queen’s death in 1547, Ferdinand gave the order for her tombstone to be erected in the Cathedral, but we do not know whether this happened. Anna was buried in the Marian Choir, where until 1619 there was a superb altar, probably created sometime in the 1520s by Lucas Cranach the Elder. Although it has been suggested that the painting was acquired by the emperor Maximilian I, it is most likely that it was purchased later, by Rudolf II, and installed in the cathedral in connection with the building of a new mausoleum in 1589.

Katedraller, mimari, estetik, işlevsel ve aynı zamanda binanın yapısal tasarımı arasındaki bağlantıların en güzel örneklerinden bazılarını temsil eder. İnşaat için kuralları başlangıcından beri Tanrı'yı kutlamak, onu birbirine bağlamak ve inananların bir araya gelmesi olmuştur. Tüm binanın estetiğine yapılan vurgu çok önemli idi. Ancak mimari elemanlar her zaman binanın statiğine uygun değildi. Daha önceki Romanesk binalara dayanan Gotik mimari, yapısal elemanların gelişimine işaret eder. Özellikle bina yüksekliği ve aynı zamanda duvarın genişliği açısından daha fazla gelişmeye izin verirler. Baskın tasarım özellikleri, Gotik binaların devasa yüksekliklere ulaşmasına izin veren dış destek sistemlerinin, çapraz tonozların ve kemerlerin kullanılmasıydı. Gotik mimarinin başlangıcının Fransa ile ilişkili olması nedeniyle, çalışma Gotik katedrallerin analizini içerir.

Meredith C, e Sainte-Chapelle and the Construction of Sacral Monarchy. Royal Architecture in irteenth-Century Paris, New York, Cambridge University Press, 2015, 25,5 cm, 293 p., [148] fig. en n. et bl., xvi pl. h. t. en coul., cartes, index général. -ISBN : 978-1-107-02557-8, $ 120.

Cette étude, unique, révèle enfin, l’histoire du plus célèbre sculpteur du XIIe siècle, le Maître de Cabestany, le créateur du tympan de l’église de Cabestany, au sud de Perpignan, et de nombreuses autres œuvres, aujourd’hui dispersées entre le sud de la France et le nord de l’Espagne.

Certaines de ces œuvres sont connues depuis longtemps, comme la frise de l’église du Boulou, l’Assomption de la Vierge à Rieux-Minervois ou encore le sarcophage de l’abbaye de Saint-Hilaire, dans l’Aude, et bien d’autres sculptures encore, mais certaines, totalement ignorées jusqu’ici, sont révélées et montrées pour la première fois, comme les chapiteaux de l’abbaye de Moissac, ou les petites sculptures du soleil et de la lune sur le portail de l’église de Saint-Pons-de-Thomières.

Chaque sculpture présentée dans cette étude est datée très précisément, ce qui a finalement permis de reconstituer la véritable histoire de ce sculpteur hors-norme, une histoire bien différente de celle habituellement présentée par les chercheurs, depuis sa naissance près de Toulouse à la fin du XIe siècle, jusqu’à sa mort, en Catalogne espagnole, près de 70 ans plus tard.

Mots-clés : Maître de Cabestany, art roman, sculpture, chapiteau, tympan, sarcophage de Saint-Sernin, abbaye de Moissac, Saint-Etienne de Cahors, Rieux-Minervois, Saint-Pons-de-Thomières, église de Cabestany, Le Boulou, église de Bellpuig, Vaissières, monastère de Sant-Pere-de-Rodes, Sant-Pere-de-Galligants, Sant-Esteve-d’en-Bas, château de La Réole, église d’Orrondo.

Il volume studia l’evoluzione delle relazioni che intercorsero tra il certosino Niccolò Albergati, vescovo di Bologna dal 1417 al 1443 e cardinale (dal 1426) con il titolo di S. Croce di Gerusalemme, e il Capitolo cittadino. Prendendo come punto di partenza la difficoltosa elezione dell’Albergati, i cui contorni vengono meglio precisati alla luce di documenti inediti, è ripercorso lo sviluppo multiforme dei rapporti tra il vescovo ed il suo Capitolo, di cui sono preliminarmente ricostruite ed analizzate l’articolazione, la composizione e le forme di reclutamento, quali si erano cristallizzate nel corso del primo Quattrocento. Un punto di svolta decisivo per comprendere l’azione riformatrice operata dal presule sul  più importante corpo ecclesiastico diocesano è una visita pastorale, di cui si fornisce l’edizione in appendice, condotta alla cattedrale di S. Pietro nel 1437, momento in cui la curia pontificia di Eugenio IV si trovava a Bologna e in cui Tommaso Parentucelli, familiaris del cardinale e futuro Niccolò V, era da poco entrato a far parte del novero dei canonici. Il decisivo impulso impresso dall’Albergati successivamente all’ispezione, grazie anche al fondamentale contributo dello stesso Parentucelli, fu teso ad un deciso innalzamento del prestigio del Capitolo bolognese sul piano materiale, morale e – soprattutto – culturale: a questo proposito vengono ripercorse attraverso nuovi documenti – relativi anche a modifiche di carattere istituzionale – le tappe della fondazione della biblioteca capitolare e del progetto di organizzazione di una scuola per i chierici, snodi decisivi che porteranno in quel delicato frangente storico (gli anni a cavallo del Concilio di Basilea) ad una accresciuta importanza della Chiesa bolognese in relazione a quella romana. Completano il volume una nutrita serie di documenti inediti, tra cui la nomina ad arcidiacono di Pietro Barbo, futuro papa Paolo II, e le schede biografiche dei sedici canonici bolognesi in carica al momento della visita.

The series Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae traces the English cathedral clergy from the Norman Conquest of 1066 to the later nineteenth century. Cathedral positions were often used either to reward individuals of outstanding merit or to support important servants of church and/or state. Accordingly, many of the individuals catalogued here were significant in the leadership and administration of church and state, were active members of the universities, were prominent in authorship and scholarly endeavour, and so forth.

The Fasti enables users to trace networks of patronage, competition and collegiality among these most prominent members of the English church. It is also useful in interpreting historical documents. For example: In an archive, one might find an undated letter from the archdeacon of this place to the dean of that cathedral, obliquely referring to comments made by a certain bishop in the House of Lords. By looking up the individuals concerned, the range of dates when the individuals held these offices enables approximate dating of the letter and gives the document, perhaps otherwise uninterpretable, enough historical context that it can contribute to our knowledge.

This volume follows the clergy of Hereford Cathedral from the Reformation to the later nineteenth century, and is based on over 50,000 pages of unpublished manuscript material.

The role of Bishop Salmon in the communal and spiritual development of Norwich Cathedral in the early fourteenth century promoted a new phase in its architecture and design, which brought Norwich into line with the latest developments and fashions. This paper considers the impact of contemporary events on his patronage and the ways they might have influenced relationships beyond the monastery and thus governed his policies.  It also considers the extent to which his priorities served to bring the Cathedral into the artistic mainstream, in terms of relationships within the East Anglian region, and how that plays a part in the development of a national ‘court’ style.

St Vitus' s Cathedral, founded in 1344, is a prime example of 14th-century cathedral Gothic, a product of the cooperation between the ingenious architect Peter Parler and his patron, Emperor Charles IV. The unusual layout consisted of a pair of choirs set side by side in the eastern section of the cathedral, an arrangement inspired by the earlier Romanesque double-choir basilica. One was dedicated to St Vitus and was used by the canons, the other to the Virgin Mary and operated by the mansionars. The royal and imperial necropolis was placed in the latter of the two choirs, with Charles IV's tomb-chest protected by a sculptured canopy and surrounded by the cenotaphs of deceased family members and later kings and queens. The form of two choirs is probably the result of an extensive rearrangement of the earlier project completed in the 1350s, when initial plans to locate the royal burial ground in the canons' choir were abandoned. The main choir contained a tabernacle of remarkable design, dating from c. 1365. There may originally have been plans for a third choir to be built around the tomb of St Adalbert located in the middle of the nave, the work on which was initiated in 1392.

The Royal portal of the cathedral of Bordeaux. Rediscovery of a masterpiece.
Inaccessible behind iron grids during several decades and blackened by pollution, the Royal portal of the cathedral of Bordeaux has recently been restored and reopened to the public. This restoration led to a genuine rediscovery: a masterpiece of 13th century sculpture in Europe. Moreover, the remains of the ancient polychromy still preserved allow us to reconstruct and to analyse the initial coloured appearance of the portal – an aspect that is still poorly known for French monumental sculpture of this period.
This publication gives an overview of the researches undertook recently on the occasion of restoration carried out between 2011 and 2014. It contains contributions written by art historians, archaeologists, staff in charge of the restoration (Monuments historiques) and a specialist of communication science. Their results renew entirely our vision not only of the portal’s sculpture, its iconography and its stylistic treatment, but also of its architectural framing and its initial colouring. They embrace the history of the Royal portal from the Middle Ages up to the 21th century.

About the Illustration:
Almost three decades after the publication, I asked the artist: do you recall the process by which you arrived at that composition?

Her response:

"I don't think anyone ever asked me this question before. 
Well, I may not be able to explain the exact creative process .
But I can give a few general rules I followed while doing an illustration.
I used images to capture the reader's attention and not to explain the article.
So I would play upon key motifs in the article and come up with interesting visuals.
In this article of yours... the key motif that I found was Climbing and Einstein.
The key image in this illustration is-  the action of the climber, creates the drama... intriguing the reader to find more. "

- Vidya Kamat 2021

The fire on 15 April 2019 was the worst catastrophe suffered by the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris since its construction in the twelfth century. Because of the immense fame of the monument, the emotion shook the planet. Commentaries and rumors proliferated, sometimes to the detriment of properly verified information, and all this well before the results of the police inquest into the causes, the extent of the damage, and the state of the monument were rendered public, as well as the place of the cathedral in the history of Gothic art and the range of solutions possible for the replacement of the timberwork, etc. It has been deemed essential that for the readers of the Bulletin monumental a judicious state of the question be given concerning what was destroyed by the fire, the current state of the masonry, and the perspectives and challenges that face both those responsible for the reconstruction and scholars who will deal with the cathedral in the future.