Architecture as Cosmology: Lincoln Cathedral and English Gothic Architecture 1433113163, 9781433113161

Table of contents :
Dedication
Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
1. Introduction
2. Precedents for the Architecture of Lincoln Cathedral
3. Interpretations of the Architecture of Lincoln Cathedral 1190–1250
4. The Geometries of Robert Grosseteste and the Architecture of Lincoln Cathedral
5. Early English
6. Decorated
7. Curvilinear
8. Perpendicular
Notes
Bibliography
Illustrations
Index

Citation preview

Hendrix_IBI_pb_NealArthur.qxd 5/7/2018 5:00 PM Page 1

Architecture as Cosmology

John Shannon Hendrix is Professor of Architectural History at the University of Lincoln. His previous books include Architecture and Psychoanalysis, Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Spirit, Platonic Architectonics, and Architectural Forms and Philosophical Structures, all published by Peter Lang, and The Relation Between Architectural Forms and Philosophical Structures in the Work of Francesco Borromini in Seventeenth-Century Rome and Robert Grosseteste: Philosophy of Intellect and Vision.

HENDRIX

Architecture as Cosmology examines the precedents, interpretations, and influences of the architecture of one of the great buildings in the history of architecture, Lincoln Cathedral. It analyzes the origin and development of its architectural forms, which were to a great extent unprecedented and were very influential in the development of English Gothic architecture and in conceptions of architecture to the present day. Architecture as Cosmology emphasizes the relation of the architectural forms to medieval philosophy, focusing on the writings of Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln (1235–53). The architecture is seen as a text of the philosophy, cosmology, and theology of medieval English culture. This book should be useful to anyone interested in architecture, architectural history, architectural theory, Gothic architecture, and medieval philosophy.

P E T E R

L A N G

Architecture as Cosmology LINCOLN CATHEDRAL AND ENGLISH GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE

PETER LANG

JOHN SHANNON HENDRIX

Architecture as Cosmology

PETER LANG

New York y Washington, D.C./Baltimore y Bern Frankfurt y Berlin y Brussels y Vienna y Oxford

JOHN SHANNON HENDRIX

Architecture as Cosmology LINCOLN CATHEDRAL AND ENGLISH GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE

PETER LANG

New York y Washington, D.C./Baltimore y Bern Frankfurt y Berlin y Brussels y Vienna y Oxford

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hendrix, John. Architecture as cosmology: Lincoln Cathedral and English Gothic architecture / John Shannon Hendrix. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Lincoln Cathedral. 2. Grosseteste, Robert, 1175?–1253. 3. Architecture, Gothic—England. 4. Architecture and cosmology—England. I. Title. II. Title: Lincoln Cathedral and English Gothic architecture. NA5471.L7 H46 726.609425’34—dc22 2010030793 ISBN 978-1-4331-1316-1 (paperback) ISBN 978-1-4539-0517-3 (eBook)

Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek. Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the “Deutsche Nationalbibliografie”; detailed bibliographic data is available on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de/.

Photo by author with kind permission of Lincoln Cathedral.

© 2011 Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., New York 29 Broadway, 18th floor, New York, NY 10006 www.peterlang.com All rights reserved. Reprint or reproduction, even partially, in all forms such as microfilm, xerography, microfiche, microcard, and offset strictly prohibited.

This book is dedicated to the memory of my father, John David Hendrix, and the memory of my mother, Margaret Shannon Hendrix.

Contents

List of Illustrations ......................................................................................... ix Acknowledgments......................................................................................... xv 1. Introduction................................................................................................. 1 2. Precedents for the Architecture of Lincoln Cathedral............................... 23 3. Interpretations of the Architecture of Lincoln Cathedral 1190–1250 ....... 71 4. The Geometries of Robert Grosseteste and the Architecture of Lincoln Cathedral .............................................................................. 117 5. Early English........................................................................................... 153 6. Decorated ................................................................................................ 179 7. Curvilinear .............................................................................................. 203 8. Perpendicular .......................................................................................... 247 Notes ........................................................................................................... 279 Bibliography ............................................................................................... 283 Illustrations ................................................................................................. 289 Index ........................................................................................................... 345

Illustrations

Figure 1. Durham choir vault...................................................................... 291 Figure 2. Durham nave vault....................................................................... 291 Figure 3. Lincoln, St. Hugh’s Choir, vault.................................................. 292 Figure 4. Lincoln, Bishop’s Eye ................................................................. 292 Figure 5. Lincoln, Dean’s Eye .................................................................... 293 Figure 6. Canterbury, Becket’s Crown ....................................................... 293 Figure 7. Canterbury choir .......................................................................... 294 Figure 8. Canterbury presbytery ................................................................. 294 Figure 9. Lincoln nave ................................................................................ 295 Figure 10. Canterbury presbytery north aisle.............................................. 295 Figure 11. Canterbury presbytery south aisle ............................................. 296 Figure 12. Canterbury north transept .......................................................... 296 Figure 13. Lincoln southeast transept ......................................................... 297 Figure 14. Gloucester nave vault ................................................................ 297 Figure 15. Lincoln chapter house................................................................ 298 Figure 16. Lincoln west front central portal................................................ 298 Figure 17. Lincoln west front central portal................................................ 299 Figure 18. Lincoln Consistory Chapel ........................................................ 299 Figure 19. Lincoln crossing ........................................................................ 300

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Figure 20. Lincoln Angel Choir.................................................................. 300 Figure 21. Lincoln northeast transept ......................................................... 301 Figure 22. Wells nave ................................................................................. 301 Figure 23. Bristol chapter house ................................................................. 302 Figure 24. Ely Galilee Porch arcade ........................................................... 302 Figure 25. Hereford retrochoir .................................................................... 303 Figure 26. Lincoln north choir aisle............................................................ 303 Figure 27. Winchester retrochoir ................................................................ 304 Figure 28. Lincoln northeast transept ......................................................... 304 Figure 29. Canterbury presbytery north aisle.............................................. 305 Figure 30. Beverley northwest transept ...................................................... 305 Figure 31. Peterborough nave aisle............................................................. 306 Figure 32. Chester cloister, east walk ......................................................... 306 Figure 33. York south transept elevation .................................................... 307 Figure 34. York south transept vault........................................................... 307 Figure 35. Worcester retrochoir .................................................................. 308 Figure 36. Worcester choir.......................................................................... 308 Figure 37. Salisbury nave elevation............................................................ 309 Figure 38. Salisbury west front ................................................................... 309 Figure 39. Southwell choir.......................................................................... 310 Figure 40. Ely presbytery vault................................................................... 310 Figure 41. Ely choir vault ........................................................................... 311 Figure 42. Wells cloister south walk........................................................... 311 Figure 43. Salisbury cloister ....................................................................... 312 Figure 44. Gloucester nave north arcade .................................................... 312 Figure 45. Tewkesbury nave....................................................................... 313 Figure 46. Westminster cloister east walk .................................................. 313

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Figure 47. Westminster cloister west walk ................................................. 314 Figure 48. Hereford north transept east elevation....................................... 314 Figure 49. Wells chapter house stairs ......................................................... 315 Figure 50. Beverley nave elevation............................................................. 315 Figure 51. York chapter house arcade......................................................... 316 Figure 52. York chapter house vault ........................................................... 316 Figure 53. Exeter retrochoir vault ............................................................... 317 Figure 54. Chester choir elevation .............................................................. 317 Figure 55. Southwell chapter house arcade................................................. 318 Figure 56. Southwell chapter house vault ................................................... 318 Figure 57. Wells chapter house................................................................... 319 Figure 58. Norwich cloister east walk ........................................................ 319 Figure 59. Bristol choir aisle....................................................................... 320 Figure 60. Bristol choir vault ...................................................................... 320 Figure 61. Bristol nave vault....................................................................... 321 Figure 62. Bristol, Berkeley Chapel antechamber ...................................... 321 Figure 63. Wells crossing............................................................................ 322 Figure 64. Gloucester nave north aisle........................................................ 322 Figure 65. Southwell pulpitum.................................................................... 323 Figure 66. Wells retrochoir / Lady Chapel.................................................. 323 Figure 67. Ely Lady Chapel arcade............................................................. 324 Figure 68. Ely Lady Chapel vault ............................................................... 324 Figure 69. Ely crossing ............................................................................... 325 Figure 70. St. Mary Redcliffe North Porch................................................. 325 Figure 71. Gloucester south transept / crossing .......................................... 326 Figure 72. Wells choir vault........................................................................ 326 Figure 73. St. Mary Redcliffe nave vault.................................................... 327

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Figure 74. St. Mary Redcliffe choir aisle vault........................................... 327 Figure 75. Ottery St. Mary nave vault ........................................................ 328 Figure 76. Exeter nave vault ....................................................................... 328 Figure 77. Chester south transept vault....................................................... 329 Figure 78. Gloucester cloister south walk................................................... 329 Figure 79. Gloucester cloister west walk .................................................... 330 Figure 80. York nave vault ......................................................................... 330 Figure 81. Winchester west front portal...................................................... 331 Figure 82. York retrochoir vault ................................................................. 331 Figure 83. Norwich presbytery ................................................................... 332 Figure 84. Durham Prior’s Kitchen............................................................. 332 Figure 85. Worcester southwest transept vault ........................................... 333 Figure 86. Worcester northeast transept ..................................................... 333 Figure 87. Tewkesbury choir vault ............................................................. 334 Figure 88. Tewkesbury crossing vault ........................................................ 334 Figure 89. Winchester nave ........................................................................ 335 Figure 90. Tewkesbury Founder’s Chantry ................................................ 335 Figure 91. Canterbury cloister vault ........................................................... 336 Figure 92. Tewkesbury Beauchamp Chantry.............................................. 336 Figure 93. Worcester cloister west walk..................................................... 337 Figure 94. Norwich nave vault.................................................................... 337 Figure 95. Sherborne choir vault................................................................. 338 Figure 96. Sherborne nave vault ................................................................. 338 Figure 97. Chester nave vault ..................................................................... 339 Figure 98. York crossing vault.................................................................... 339 Figure 99. Oxford Divinity School ............................................................. 340 Figure 100. Christ Church Oxford, choir .................................................... 340

List of Illustrations

xiii

Figure 101. Ely, Bishop Alcock’s Chapel................................................... 341 Figure 102. Winchester, Bishop Langton’s Chapel .................................... 341 Figure 103. Peterborough retrochoir vault .................................................. 342 Figure 104. Winchester choir vault............................................................. 342 Figure 105. Bath Abbey nave ..................................................................... 343 Figure 106. Bath Abbey choir vault............................................................ 343 Figure 107. King’s College Chapel vault.................................................... 344 Figure 108. Ottery St. Mary, Dorset Aisle vault ......................................... 344

Acknowledgments

I would like to acknowledge the University of Lincoln, in particular Nicholas Temple, Head of the School of Architecture; the Rhode Island School of Design, in particular Margaret Lewis, and the Professional Development Fund, for a grant to photograph the cathedrals and churches; Roger Williams University, in particular Stephen White, for travel funds; Lincoln Cathedral, in particular Nicholas Bennett, the Archivist, and the masons of the cathedral; Lincoln Academy; and colleagues in England for their support, in particular Nader El-Bizri. All photographs are by the author with permission from the cathedrals and churches. Marta Bustillo, in the Visual Resources Center at the Rhode Island School of Design, digitally enhanced some of the photographs. The photographs are published with kind permission of Lincoln Cathedral, with kind permission of the Dean and Chapter at Canterbury, by permission of the Vicar and PCC of Beverley Minster, with kind permission of the Dean and Chapter of Bristol Cathedral, by kind permission of the Dean and Chapter of Norwich Cathedral, with kind permission of the Dean and Chapter of Hereford, by permission of the Chapter of Chester Cathedral; by kind permission of the Dean and Chapter of Southwell Minster, Nottinghamshire; by kind permission of the Vicar of Sherborne, Canon Eric Woods; by kind permission of Christ Church, Oxford; by kind permission of the Dean and Chapter of York; by permission of Ottery St. Mary, Tewkesbury Abbey PCC, Wells, Salisbury, Exeter; Durham, Winchester, Worcester, St. Mary Redcliffe, Peterborough, Oxford Divinity School, Bath Abbey, and Westminster Abbey (exterior). Permission was requested from King’s College Chapel, Ely and Gloucester. I would like to thank Caitlin Lavelle and Jackie Pavlovic at Peter Lang for the production of this volume.

1 Introduction I am a Professor of Architectural History at the University of Lincoln in England. For several years I have been researching and writing about the architecture of Lincoln Cathedral, its influence in the development of English Gothic architecture, and the relation between the vocabulary forms of the architecture and the geometrical cosmologies of Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln 1235–53. I have given many lectures and presentations on the subject, at the University of Lincoln and elsewhere. I have taken hundreds of photographs of the cathedral and thirty other cathedrals and churches in England, supported by a Professional Development Grant from the Rhode Island School of Design, where I am an adjunct professor. The research was carried out under the direction of Nicholas Temple, Head of the School of Architecture at the University of Lincoln. Input for the project has been received from other colleagues in England, including the Archivist of Lincoln Cathedral, Nicholas Bennett; members of Lincoln Academy, and masons at Lincoln Cathedral; and other architectural historians at Lincoln and other universities. The project is supported by Lincoln Cathedral and the University of Lincoln. No archives exist of the medieval building fabric, so interpretations are based on the built work, and the writings of previous scholars. All available recent scholarship, including publications of the British Archaeological Association, is taken into consideration. Any controversy about the dating of the parts of the cathedral, and any information resulting from recent archaeological work which is relevant to the project, is addressed in the text. This book examines the architecture of Lincoln Cathedral, one of the great buildings in the history of architecture, in the context of English Gothic architecture. Lincoln Cathedral is profoundly influential in the development of forms and ideas in architecture. Amazingly, there is no good book in print on the architecture of Lincoln Cathedral. This book proposes to make the architecture of the cathedral familiar to readers, and to convey the importance of the architecture of the cathedral in the history of architecture. The book is intended for anyone who is interested in architecture, Lincoln Cathedral, and

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medieval culture. A goal is to explain the relevance of English Gothic architecture to contemporary architecture and contemporary concerns, as well as to do justice to the beauty and complexity of English Gothic architecture in its own right. The aim of this project is to establish the importance of Lincoln Cathedral in the origin and development of English Gothic architecture. This study examines precedents for the architecture of the cathedral, the circumstances of its building, the new architecture which emerges at Lincoln between 1190 and 1250, and the architecture in relation to the culture of the time period, including the theology, philosophy, and epistemology, as particularly evidenced in the writings of Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln, 1235–53. The extraordinary importance of the architecture of Lincoln Cathedral in the history of architecture has not been established before this project. Beyond the enormity of its influence, what is most significant about the architecture of the cathedral is the invention of an architectural vocabulary, in a departure from the French style of Gothic architecture, which had never been seen before, and which subsequently became the defining vocabulary of English Gothic architecture. In particular, the ridge pole, the tierceron (non-structural rib), the lierne (or a precedent for the lierne rib, the segmented ridge rib), the flying rib, the conoid springer vault, triradial vaulting, double syncopated arcading, and the bundled and ribbed umbrella column and vault, all originate in some form or are developed at Lincoln. Some of the vocabulary can be explained in part by related precedents and parallels, while some of the vocabulary has as yet no explanation at all. The aim of this project is to provide an explanation, by examining the precedents and parallels, by interpreting the architectural forms in relation to the culture, and by revealing how the architectural forms are related to a geometrical catechism of the structure of matter which was the focus of the new scientific philosophy developed by Robert Grosseteste and the Oxford School. The main forms of English Gothic architecture are not just decorative, but play an important role in representing the understanding of the structure of the physical and metaphysical worlds, the structure of being, on the part of the medieval culture of England. English Gothic architecture, beginning at Lincoln Cathedral, is intended to function as a catechism or edificium for the geometrical structure of matter, and for the relation between the material or sensible world and the intelligible world, that is between man and God or reason and faith, as it is understood through the mechanisms of intellect and perception, and translated into architectural forms.

Introduction

3

The survey of English Gothic architecture is divided into four sections, based on periods established by Thomas Rickman in the Attempt to Discriminate the Style of Architecture in England in 1815. The periods are Early English (1180–1250), Decorated (1250–90), Curvilinear (1290–1380), and Perpendicular (1380–1540). The divisions are used just for convenience; the limitations of the categories are discussed in due course. The development of English Gothic architecture throughout the Middle Ages, from 1180 to 1540, is relatively homogeneous and consistent. Almost all of the architecture contributes to the same campaign, the same particular use of vocabulary elements, with surprising and innovative variations, and the same expressive intentions. Consistently throughout the development of English Gothic architecture, there is an intention in the architecture which can be traced back to the precedents at Lincoln Cathedral: the intention to express an idea through the juxtaposition of non-structural geometries with the structural geometries of the architecture. The characteristic “handwriting” of English Gothic architecture, the linear networks, surface patterns, geometrical articulations, and spatial interpenetrations, contribute to the creation of an architecture in which form contradicts function, resulting in a poetic expression. In order for architecture to be art, its form must contradict its function, as architecture, unlike the other arts, can never be free and independent from its function. The cathedrals and churches of English Gothic architecture represent some of the greatest achievements of architecture as art in the history of architecture, and some of the most poetic expressions in built form. All of the buildings contribute to an expression of a coherent idea, representing the theology, philosophy, and epistemology (Scholasticism) of medieval England. There is no doubt that the buildings are intended as catechisms, as three-dimensional models for didactic purposes, to represent and communicate to everyone basic ideas about man, God, and being. The buildings are models of the structure of the universe, conceived in terms of a geometrical substructure of matter which can be related to the cosmology of Robert Grosseteste, De lineis, angulis et figuris (On Lines, Angles and Figures), written at the beginning of the thirteenth century. The buildings enact the role of lux spiritualis, the spiritual light of God, as it is transformed into lumen spiritualis, reflected spiritual light, into the physical world, which is then transformed into matter, in reflection, refraction and rarefaction, in lines, angles and figures, that is, geometry and mathematics. The geometrical and mathematical structure of the buildings, the intelligible or conceptual structure as opposed to the physical structure, enacts the

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formation of matter through light, so that the buildings are models of the understanding, in the developing natural or scientific philosophy, of the physical structure of the cosmos. Such an understanding began with the work of Robert Grosseteste at Oxford and Lincoln. It was the product of a synthesis of Catholic theology (in particular the Neoplatonic theories of light from St. Augustine to Pseudo-Dionysius); Neoplatonic philosophies filtered through works such as the Liber de Causis, Theology of Aristotle, and the writings of the Greek and Arabic commentators on Aristotle; and Neoaristotelian concepts as they conformed to Catholic and Neoplatonic concepts. The result was the beginning of natural or scientific philosophy, the beginning of the “Oxford School,” the beginning of the “Franciscan School,” and the beginning of the “Great Synthesis.” The extent to which Grosseteste’s writings constitute the beginnings of modern science, as argued by Alistair Cameron Crombie in Robert Grosseteste and the Origins of Experimental Science 1100–1700, in their experimental or empirical methodology, is subject to debate. It is much easier to see their legacy in the architecture of the cathedrals, in a unified cosmology and a philosophy of intellect and perception made visible in built form. The closest relation between text and Gothic architecture can be found in the writing of the Abbot Suger in France (the Libellus Alter De consecratione ecclesiae sancti dionysii), which refers to the metaphysical concepts of Pseudo-Dionysius in relation to a description of the building project at the Abbey Church of St. Denis in the twelfth century. The interest in PseudoDionysius was continued by Grosseteste, with translations and commentaries of the work of Pseudo-Dionysius during Grosseteste’s bishopric at Lincoln. It is not an over-estimation to say that the beginning of the thirteenth century in England was a pivotal period in the course of Western civilization, a true renaissance which established the groundwork for cultural expression for the next three hundred years, leading up to the “Renaissance” itself, which in reality is as much defined by cultural, economic, and political shifts as by radical developments in cultural expression. In fact, this survey of English Gothic architecture hopes to contribute to a picture of continuity between the cultures of the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, in terms of relations between church and state, and philosophical outlooks. The buildings are models of the structure of the universe; they express an idea through an intelligible structure which is juxtaposed to the physical, sensible form. Robert Grosseteste, in works such as the Commentary on the Posterior Analytics, distinguished between the species sensibilis, sensible

Introduction

5

perceived form, and the species apprehensibilis, intelligible form, in the processes of perception. The intelligible form is the form as understood in order to be perceived; it is illuminated in the oculus mentis, the mind’s eye, by the lux spiritualis, spiritual light. In order to see the intelligible form clearly, a person must develop his or her intellect through their will, solertia. The lowest form of intellect, virtus cogitativa (from the nous hylikos, or material intellect, of Aristotle’s De anima, also called the nous pathetikos), is intellect which is completely connected to sense perception and the material world. In order to cleanse the lens of the oculus mentis and see the intelligible form, intellect must be developed from the virtus cogitativa to a higher form of intellect, virtus intellectiva (from the nous poietikos, poetic or creative intellect, of the commentators on Aristotle), which is in part freed from connection with the physical world and sense perception. The virtus intellectiva operates in part based on the participation of intelligentia, divine intelligence (from Aristotle’s concept of active or universal intellect in the De anima), which is the source of the lux spiritualis which illuminates the oculus mentis. The English Gothic cathedral was designed to facilitate this ascension in intellect from the physical to the spiritual. As the eyes of the worshipper gradually turned away from physical existence and material necessity (as in the structural and functional requirements of the building), they began to focus on the geometrical patterns, spatial juxtapositions, and all the elements enacting a geometrical and mathematical intelligible structure of being. They were able to focus on the intelligible structure because of the lux spiritualis in the oculus mentis, which was represented in the architecture by the light through the stained glass windows, which were the oculus mentis of the building. The architecture thus led the worshipper through an intellectual ascension towards God and intelligentia, in a process of purification through the hypostases of being. The ascension was facilitated by the Scholastic characteristics of dematerialization, compartmentalization, and subdivision, exercises designed for the development of higher intellect, and which formed the compositional bases of the architecture. Such concepts of the structure of the universe, being and intellect, permeated the culture of medieval England, and from 1180 to 1540 contributed to a homogeneous cultural expression, particularly in the architecture of the cathedral. The architecture of the cathedral developed as a response to the zeitgeist of the era; there was little concept of individual artistic expression or creativity. The result is a lasting representation, in built form, of the theol-

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ogy, philosophy, and epistemology of a civilization in the Middle Ages in England. The first chapter seeks to explain the architecture of Lincoln Cathedral in relation to architectural and theoretical precedents at Durham Cathedral and Canterbury Cathedral, which constitute both the beginnings of Gothic architecture and the origin of the distinctive forms of English Gothic architecture. The architectural precedents are considered in both their technical formations and their expressive intentions. The rib vault, considered by some historians to be the most fundamental element of Gothic architecture, was possibly invented at Durham. There is debate among historians as to what caused the invention of the rib vault, whether it was purely a technical necessity or whether it conformed to concepts of dematerialization, Scholastic compartmentalization and divisibility (as in the summa), surface texture, or an intelligible structure distinct from the physical structure of the building. The rib vault forms the basis for what appears later at Lincoln. The chapter discusses some of the theories of architecture associated with the emergence of the rib vault, and pointed arch vault, beginning with Paul Frankl, and including Heinrich Wölfflin, Gottfried Semper, Marc-Antoine Laugier, Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc, and Willi Drost. There is a discussion of the debate over the roles of Platonism and Aristotelianism in Gothic architecture, and the extent to which cultural epistemologies extended to the masonry of the cathedrals. There is a long discussion of a letter written by Robert Grosseteste, quoted by John Harvey in The Medieval Architect, which links craft and masonry to ideas about the archetypal design of the cosmos, the understanding of divine intelligence, the structures and relationships of the church and clergy, and the dialectic between the perceived form and the intelligible form, which is a model for the relation between human intelligence and divine intelligence. The discussion widens to concepts outlined by Grosseteste in the Commentary on the Posterior Analytics, with references to other writers such as Plotinus and Marsilio Ficino, and the Metrical Life of Saint Hugh, the biography of Hugh of Avalon, Bishop of Lincoln 1192–1200. The discussion then moves to the symbolic role of the stained glass window, in particular the Dean’s Eye and Bishop’s Eye at Lincoln Cathedral. The building of the east end of Canterbury Cathedral is outlined, as chronicled by Gervase of Canterbury. The innovations of William of Sens are described, initiating the departure from French Gothic architecture and the beginnings of the particular characteristics of English Gothic architec-

Introduction

7

ture, including the use of materials, a syncretic approach to composition, the dematerialization and divisibility, and the contradiction of structural logic. William the Englishman, who succeeded William of Sens at Canterbury, introduced even more syncretism and departure from precedent. It is believed that Geoffrey de Noyers, the master mason at Lincoln, had worked at Canterbury. There follows a discussion of the writings of Anselm of Canterbury, Archbishop of Canterbury, who is sometimes called the “Father of Scholasticism.” The discussion focuses on the concepts of mystical light in the Monologion, and the dialectic between the sensible and intelligible, reason and faith, in the Oratio ad sanctum Nicolaum, with references to Plato, Plotinus, Pseudo-Dionysius, Nicolas Cusanus, and the writings of Grosseteste. A brief history of Lincoln Cathedral follows, and a description of the architectural elements in relation to the precedents at Durham and Canterbury, in particular the ridge rib, diagonal ribs, triradial ribs, tierceron and lierne (segmented ridge rib), syncopated double arcading, and crocketing. The precedents at Durham and Canterbury established the groundwork for the explosion of a new architecture and a new set of architectural forms at Lincoln, which should be seen as a “handwriting” of Scholastic ideas in linear networks, layered treatments, spatial interpenetrations and geometrical articulations, and which should be seen as in turn establishing the basic vocabulary for the development of English Gothic architecture. The next chapter includes a brief history of Lincoln, the building of the Norman cathedral by Bishop Remigius, and the rebuilding of the cathedral in the Gothic style begun by Bishop Hugh of Avalon. The research builds upon the work of architectural historians G. H. Cook, A. F. Kendrick, Christopher Wilson, Paul Frankl, Nikolaus Pevsner, John Harvey, Peter Kidson, Folke Nordström, John Baily, and Peter Draper. The chapter includes a chronology of the completion of the parts of the cathedral, and a description of Saint Hugh’s Choir, with a discussion of the debate over the chronology of the building of the choir. During the bishopric of Grosseteste at Lincoln, it is probable (though debatable) that Saint Hugh’s Choir, the nave and chapter house were vaulted, the tower was rebuilt, the Galilee Porch was completed, and the central portion of the west front was completed. There is a description of the transepts, the rose windows, the nave, the west front screen façade, crossing and tower, and chapter house. The originality of the architecture has been established by a number of historians, including Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc, George Gilbert Scott, Edmund Venables, and J. H. Parker.

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An important part of the interpretation of the architecture is a challenge to the interpretations of Paul Frankl and Nikolaus Pevsner: Frankl’s attribution of the architecture to “Gothic Mannerism” or “akyrism,” and Pevsner’s attribution to the “visionary genius” of Geoffrey de Noyers, his “sense of play” and “experiment in vistas.” The interpretation also challenges Pevsner’s continual description of the vaulting in English Gothic architecture as purely decorative, and seeks to redefine the term “mannerism” in a way that would be applicable to the architecture. The interpretation considers important themes from Erwin Panofsky’s Gothic Architecture and Scholasticism: the “urban professionalism” of the time, the diffusion of knowledge from the university and clergy to the artisans and masons, the importance of the manifestatio in the underlying structure of both the summa and the cathedral, and the principles of transparency and “progressive divisibility” as they are applied to architecture. There is a discussion of the relation between the architectural forms and images in contemporary illuminated manuscripts, representing the hierarchical structure of the church, and a discussion of Byzantine and Early Christian precedents for the vaulting. There is a brief discussion of the optical theory of Robert Grosseteste, or his theories of perception and intellect, in relation to the vaulting, which are more thoroughly discussed in the subsequent chapter. In particular there is a discussion of the lux spiritualis, or spiritual light, in relation to PseudoDionysius and the Abbot Suger, as it is manifest in the architecture, and the species apprehensibilis of Grosseteste, the intelligible form in perception, and the virtus intellectiva, or higher form of intellect in which divine intellect participates, as they are manifest in the architecture. The architecture of the cathedral is seen as a catechism of the relation between the sensible and intelligible, and between reason and faith. There is a discussion of Greek and Arabic influences on Grosseteste, and the theory of perception of Plotinus. The architecture of the cathedral is seen as entailing a purposeful disjunction between form and function, between the visual organization of vocabulary elements and the logical structural system. In the architecture of the cathedral, which constitutes the beginning of the English Gothic, it is a demonstrative geometry which is the driving force of the architecture. The geometries are generated in relation to architectural precedents and structural purposes, but ultimately they are departures from both of these, and their intended function is a didactic one: they are intended as catechisms for a structural model of matter and being based in geometry, mathematics, and optics. This would explain their radical novelty and innovation, which was so influ-

Introduction

9

ential to subsequent architectural developments. The architecture of the cathedral introduces a new element into architectural design: the forms of the architecture depart from their structural necessity, in a disjunction between form and function, for the purpose of expressing an idea. The next chapter considers the origin of the vocabulary elements of the architecture of Lincoln Cathedral, which become the main vocabulary elements of English Gothic architecture, in relation to the writings of Robert Grosseteste. It explains how the vocabulary elements were formed to create an architecture which is a catechism or edificium of the understanding of the structure of matter, intellect, and being. The chapter begins with a brief biography of Grosseteste, describing his career and writings, his role as the first Chancellor of Oxford University, chief supporter of the Franciscan School, and Bishop of Lincoln 1235–53. His influence on Duns Scotus, John Wycliffe, Roger Bacon, and John Peckham is briefly discussed, and the importance of his work to Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas in the Great Synthesis. Grosseteste wrote the first Latin commentary on Aristotle, and wrote the first scientific cosmology since the Timaeus of Plato. The principal writings of Grosseteste which are discussed are De Luce (On Light, c. 1215), Commentary on the Posterior Analytics (of Aristotle, c. 1230), De lineis, angulis et figuris (On Lines, Angles and Figures, c. 1235, the cosmology), and Grosseteste’s Hexaemeron (c. 1235). The scholarship on Grosseteste builds upon the work of Grosseteste scholars James McEvoy, Alistair Cameron Crombie, Richard William Southern, and Daniel Angelo Philip Callus. There are obvious parallels between the geometries which Grosseteste used to describe the substructure of light and matter and the geometries of vocabulary forms of the architecture at Lincoln Cathedral, some of which have no precedent. The De Lineis describes lines of light, which form matter, in geometrical terms. Rays of light emanate in cones, and are refracted and rarefacted to form various geometries, which correspond to the substructure of matter, as in the Timaeus of Plato. The De Lineis is the first scientific cosmology written since the Timaeus, and plays a key role in the beginnings of a new scientific or natural philosophy at the beginning of the thirteenth century in England. The geometries of refracted and rarefacted light as described by Grosseteste correspond to the vocabulary elements of the vaulting at Lincoln Cathedral, which appear for the first time without precedent: the ridge pole, tierceron, lierne (actually a segmental ridge rib), conoid springer vault, and bundled umbrella vault. The species (eidos) or visible form of matter is projected by light in straight and bent lines, over convex surfaces

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Architecture as Cosmology

(as in the piers at Lincoln), concave surfaces (the vaults), in acute or obtuse angles (formed by the tiercerons and liernes), and reflected off of concave surfaces, so that it is diffused and refracted, or multiplied, as in the arch tracery or Y-tracery, triradial vaulting, and double syncopated arcading, in what Erwin Panofsky, in Gothic Architecture and Scholasticism, would call the “principle of progressive divisibility” of the manifestatio of Scholasticism. The virtus (power) of the species is amplified in shorter lines (the liernes), and projected in three dimensions in the form of cones (as in the conoid springers in the nave, or non-structural rib-cones in the chapels behind the west front, or the umbrella vault in the chapter house). The role of the stained glass window is explained in relation to Grosseteste’s theories of the lux spiritualis (spiritual or immaterial light) and lumen spiritualis (reflected or material light), and the relation between the light of the stained glass window and the geometry and mathematics of the vaulting and elevations is discussed in relation to Grosseteste’s theories of the species sensibilis (sensible form as perceived) and the species apprehensibilis (intelligible form illuminated by the lux spiritualis in the oculus mentis) in perception. There is a discussion of Grosseteste’s scholarly interest in marginalia symbols, to reinforce his interest in the role that geometry plays as a mediator between the sensible and intelligible, as it is enacted in the architecture, along with number symbolism. The architecture of the cathedral should be seen as a microcosm of the structure of the cosmos, a catechism of the transformation of archetypal forms to sensible forms, and an edificium and facilitator for the ascent on the part of the viewer from the virtus cogitativa, material intellect, to the virtus intellectiva, active or creative intellect, all in relation to the traditions of classical philosophy, both Plato and Aristotle, and Christian theology, which Grosseteste synthesizes. Grosseteste’s concept of intellect originates in the De anima of Aristotle, Book III, where a universal, active intellect is distinguished from a material intellect (nous hylikos); in the commentators on Aristotle, productive intellect (nous poietikos) is distinguished from a potential intellect (nous pathetikos). For Grosseteste, the cosmic, active intellect or divine intellect (intelligentia) makes forms intelligible to the human, potential intellect (virtus scitiva or cogitativa), in the virtus intellectiva (nous poietikos), and the intellectus in habitu (dianoia or discursive reason), as light makes forms visible through geometry and mathematics. Clearly the architecture of the cathedral can be seen as an edificium of this process.

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11

The chapters on the development of English Gothic architecture examine details of twenty-five cathedrals and churches in England, seen in relation to Lincoln Cathedral. The survey is the result of extensive documentation, more than six hundred photographs of the details of the buildings, 108 of which are included in the text. It was necessary to include all of the buildings and details in order to explain the continuous and homogeneous project of representing in the architecture the ideas, beliefs, and theological and philosophical structures of medieval England. The chapter “Early English” examines architectural developments at Wells, Ely, Hereford, Lichfield, Winchester, Beverley, Chester, York, Worcester, Salisbury, Southwell, Lincoln, Gloucester, and Westminster Abbey. The first phase of building at Wells was contemporary with the first phase of building at Lincoln, and the two buildings represent radically different departures from the architecture at Canterbury, but each equally defining a distinctive English Gothic architecture, Wells more in its homogeneity and Lincoln more in its syncretism. Ely Cathedral is the earliest to show the influence of Lincoln, in the detailing of the west front and the Galilee Porch, in particular the syncopated double arcading. The vaulting of the retrochoir at Hereford Cathedral shows the influence of Lincoln, in the vaulting of the Consistory Chapel in particular. The vaulting of a choir aisle at Lichfield Cathedral (restored) displays an early example of the ridge pole, a key element of the architecture at Lincoln. Tiercerons also appear in the vaulting of the south transept at Lichfield as early as 1220. The eastern part of Winchester Cathedral, the Lady Chapel, shows the influence of Lincoln in the early thirteenth century. The syncopated double arcade occurs at Beverley Minster, along with Purbeck shafts and openwork arcading on the Lincoln model, reflecting the membrification and subdivision of the Scholastic composition. Vaulting in the chapter house at Chester Cathedral is based on Lincoln vaulting, while the vaulting in the chapter house vestibule at Chester goes back to Durham and Peterborough. The elevations of the south transept of York Minster, begun around 1220, are similar to Lincoln and Beverley, as are the elevations of the retrochoir of Worcester Cathedral, built in the 1220s; the vault of Worcester retrochoir is a tierceron vault derived from Lincoln. The motifs of the retrochoir elevations are continued into the choir at Worcester. The architects of Salisbury Cathedral, Elias of Dereham and Nicholas of Ely, incorporated Lincoln motifs into the new design in the thirteenth century, combining them with themes from Wells. The rib vaulting in relation to

12

Architecture as Cosmology

the elevations can be seen as a catechism of the geometrical cosmologies of Grosseteste, in the emanation of the lux spiritualis into matter, as can the elevations of the east transepts. The screen façade at Salisbury shows the influence of those at Lincoln and Wells. The choir of Southwell Minster, begun in 1234 by Archbishop Walter de Gray, is based on the Lincoln vocabulary, though a triforium is absent. The presbytery of Ely Cathedral was built under Bishop Hugh of Northwold, a friend of Robert Grosseteste. The presbytery is seen as an intermediary in the development from the Lincoln nave, by Alexander the Mason, to the Lincoln Angel Choir, by Simon Thirsk. The vault of the Ely presbytery is a copy of the Lincoln nave vault. It is possible that the vault of Saint Hugh’s Choir at Lincoln, the “crazy vault,” as it is called, was rebuilt in the 1240s, after the collapse of the tower in 1237 or 1239. The vaulting, probably from an earlier design, perhaps by Geoffrey de Noyers, introduced the ridge pole, tierceron, and triradial vault, in the only major asymmetrical vaulting in a Gothic cathedral. The original vaulting of the south cloister walk at Wells Cathedral is believed to date from 1240. It is a “lierne star” vault, perhaps one of the earliest uses of the segmental nonstructural rib, separating the form of the vault from its function, and constituting an architecture of linear surface texture. The nave vault of Gloucester Cathedral, completed around 1242, is a Lincoln-style tierceron vault. A tierceron vault also appears in the west cloister walk of Westminster Abbey, designed by Henry of Reyns between 1245 and 1255. The architecture of the choir, transepts and chapter house of Westminster Abbey, begun by Henry of Reyns and completed by John of Gloucester and Robert of Beverley, synthesizes French influences with influences from Lincoln, especially in the detailing, and tierceron vaulting. The chapter house of Westminster Abbey is based on the Lincoln chapter house, with the bundled umbrella column and vault, combining them with French tracery. In the next chapter, the Decorated period introduces variations to the Early English motifs. The Chapel of the Nine Altars at Durham Cathedral can easily be read as a catechism or edificium of the Celestial Hierarchies and the formation of the material world in the terms of Grosseteste. In the mid-thirteenth century, similar diapering or reticulation appears at Lincoln, Westminster Abbey, and Hereford Cathedral, corresponding to the geometrical subdivision and compartmentalization of Scholasticism, the cosmological geometries of Grosseteste, and the “handwriting” of linear patterns. The nave of Westminster Abbey, begun in 1253, again combines Lincoln and French influences, with a Lincoln-style tierceron vault. By now it is clear that the

Introduction

13

architecture of Lincoln Cathedral is being appropriated to represent a national identity. The stairwell to the chapter house at Wells, begun in 1255, contains elements of the Lincoln vocabulary—Purbeck shafts, ridge pole, transverse ribs. The Angel Choir of Lincoln, begun in 1256 by Simon Thirsk or Richard of Stowe, combines the Lincoln nave with the Ely presbytery, with an increased amount of architectural and sculptural detailing, and arcading and bar tracery which creates a transparency that enacts the relation between the lux spiritualis and the intellect of the worshipper. The transparency can be seen as both a physical transparency and a conceptual or phenomenal transparency, between human intellect and divine intellect. The nave elevations of Lichfield Cathedral, begun in 1258 by William FitzThomas, combine influences of Lincoln and Westminster Abbey. The chapter house of Salisbury Cathedral, constructed between 1263 and 1279, is also on the model of the Lincoln chapter house, with sixteen ribs forming a cone at the center blooming into the vault, corresponding to the rarefaction of light in the formation of matter. The vault of the nave of Lichfield Cathedral, complete by 1293, was a copy of the Lincoln nave vault. The vault of the nave of Westminster Abbey is a tierceron vault based on the Lincoln nave vault. The vault of the Lady Chapel of Chester Cathedral is also based on the Lincoln nave vault. The architecture of the chapter house at York Minster, from between 1275 and 1290, represents significant departures from the Early English style. It includes overhanging canopies and foliate corbels which can be seen as “pendants,” a motif developed later in the Perpendicular period. While the forms are a departure, the overlapping and undulation of the arcade can be seen to be products of spatial experiments carried out at Lincoln. The vault of the chapter house at York is a centralized tierceron and lierne vault. At Exeter Cathedral, the vault of the Lady Chapel shows the influence of Lincoln. The Bishop of Exeter at the time, Bishop Quivil, was present at Lincoln Cathedral in 1280 for the consecration of the Angel Choir. The vaulting at Exeter is an elaboration of Lincoln vaulting; the profusion of tiercerons suggests the fan vault to come; the excessive membrification follows the principles of Scholasticism. Vaulting in the retrochoir aisle at Exeter presents a syncopated composition which refers back to vaulting at Lincoln. It is possible that masons at Exeter had worked at Lincoln. The “leaves of Southwell,” the carved foliage in the chapter house at Southwell Minster, reflect a humanist concept of the human mind as a microcosm of the cosmos, in a synthesis of the human mind and nature which

14

Architecture as Cosmology

can be found in natural philosophy and the writings of Grossseteste. The vault of the chapter house is a centralized lierne star vault. The architecture of the Decorated period begins to display a kind of mannerism which has its roots at Lincoln; it can be seen as a rhetorical or poetic language with a tropic vocabulary, as can the vocabulary elements invented at Lincoln. The chapter concludes with a summary of the relation between those vocabulary elements and the tropic elements of a cosmology. The next chapter, “Curvilinear,” begins with a discussion of the historical classifications of English Gothic architecture, citing definitions and dating of the Curvilinear and Perpendicular by Thomas Rickman, John Harvey, Christopher Wilson, Edmund Sharpe, and Paul Frankl. The main concern, which will also be discussed later, is the distinction between Curvilinear and Perpendicular, as they are formally distinct but overlap chronologically. The Curvilinear period begins in the last decade of the thirteenth century. The vault of St. Mary Undercroft of St. Stephen’s Chapel in Westminster Palace, designed by Michael or Thomas of Canterbury, established an important precedent for the development of lierne vaulting, a defining motif of the Curvilinear and Perpendicular. This chapter examines architectural details at York, St. Mary Redcliffe, Wells, Norwich, Bristol, Lichfield, Exeter, Canterbury, Lincoln, Salisbury, Worcester, Tewkesbury Abbey, Southwell, Ely, Gloucester, Beverley, Ottery St. Mary, Chester, Winchester, Durham, and Westminster Abbey. The lierne vault in the transept of St. Mary Redcliffe in Bristol represents a new level of detachment of the vault pattern from the vault structure. The chapter house at Wells combines the Lincoln model with Curvilinear tracery, combining geometrical and organic forms, as an elaboration of a geometrical understanding of forms in nature. At the turn of the century, the flying ribs which appear in Bristol Cathedral can be related to the tiny flying ribs in the Easter Sepulcher at Lincoln, and to the experiments in spatial vistas attributed to Geoffrey de Noyers at Lincoln. The flying rib constitutes an intelligible structure visibly separate from the structure of the building. Vaults in the Eastern Lady Chapel and choir at Bristol are lierne vaults with conoid springers, tiercerons and transverse ridge ribs, as developed from Lincoln. The liernes of the choir vault at Bristol have an organic structural quality, as an intelligible organism, blurring the line between sensible and intelligible form. In the north transept at Lichfield, overlapping planes in the elevation are developments from experiments at Lincoln and in the Early English style, and the vault is a Lincoln-style tierceron vault. The elevations of the Exeter

Introduction

15

choir, between 1300 and 1310, can be seen as Decorated variations of Lincoln nave, with stonework grilles. The nave vault at Bristol, reconstructed in the nineteenth century, is a Lincoln-style tierceron vault. The flying rib appears again in the antechamber of the Berkeley Chapel in Bristol Cathedral, designed by William Joy in 1310. Here the architecture has become a mannerist mock-up of itself, displaying openly the disjunction between form and function which allows the architecture to express an idea, a metaphysic, outside its physical presence. The nave elevations at Worcester, from around 1320, are based on the nave elevations of Lincoln. The pulpitum of Lincoln, from the same time, represents an early example of the use of the ogee arch and carved decoration associated with the Curvilinear style. The pulpitum at Exeter, designed by Thomas Witney, incorporates ogee arches, cusping and crocketing, and a lierne vault. The nave vault of Tewkesbury Abbey combines the lierne patterns of St. Mary Redcliffe with the thick ribs of Exeter to create a catechism of the vault of the cosmos, as an architectonic texture in the form of a “net” vault. The vault of the Lady Chapel at Lichfield is a Lincoln-style vault with longitudinal ridge rib, transverse ribs and tiercerons. The pulpitum at Southwell Minster contains flying ribs, ogee arches and crocketed gables, and fragments of architectural vocabulary elements which produce a tropic, mannerist composition, a literary or poetic architecture. The Lady Chapel at Wells, by Thomas Witney, is a composition based on the Lincoln vocabulary (umbrella column, ridge rib, tierceron, lierne), with a domed vault with liernes forming an eight-pointed star pattern, similar to patterns found in contemporary illuminations, as a representation of the celestial vault. The adjoining retrochoir, by William Joy, contains clusters of Purbeck piers, influenced by Lincoln. The arcade of the Lady Chapel of Ely, perhaps designed by John Ramsey, is composed of nodding, cusped ogee arches and crocketed gables in the Curvilinear style, the undulating surface forming a kind of epigenetic landscape: organic surfaces formed by underlying geometrical matrixes, as described by Robert Grosseteste in treatises on natural philosophy such as De Natura Locorum, applying the geometrical cosmology of De lineis, angulis et figuris to natural phenomena. The vault of the Ely Lady Chapel is a Lincoln-style tierceron vault with lierne star patterns, resulting in a crystalline organic intelligible form. The elevations of the choir of Ely, designed by John Ramsey, feature ogee arches and curves, and arches with rippling cusped borders, transforming Platonic geometries into organic forms, blurring the line between inorganic and organic, between geometry and na-

16

Architecture as Cosmology

ture. The vault is a lierne star vault, based on vaulting at Lincoln and St. Mary Undercroft, accommodating the intellectual ascension of the worshipper through intelligible forms, but with increased sensuality. The octagonal crossing at Ely, designed by Alan of Walsingham, topped by the timber lantern designed by William Hurley, is the most elaborate edificium of the Curvilinear style, consisting of a geometrical and material progression from the material to spiritual, through the hypostases of being, and the progression from the virtus cogitativa to the virtus intellectiva, to the origin of the lux spiritualis. The vault of the North Porch of St. Mary Redcliffe is a centralized tierceron vault taking on the appearance of a crystalline organic form, merging the sensible and intelligible forms of the architecture. The remodeled south transept of Gloucester, from 1331 to 1336, is seen as the first manifestation of the Perpendicular style, with its vertical paneling and mullions, and tracery, derived from the exterior elevations of St. Stephen’s Chapel, but with Curvilinear elements such as ogee arches and cusping. The vault in the Gloucester transept is a lierne net vault developed from the Lincoln vocabulary, taking on the form of an organic structure based on underlying geometrical and mathematical proportions. The choir vault of Wells, built by William Joy between 1333 and 1340, introduces a geometrical net pattern which displays a dematerialization through surface texture and the membrification of Scholasticism, in the “principle of progressive divisibility.” The vaulting pushes the mannerist disjunction between form and function, enacting the intelligible form in relation to the sensible. The lierne star patterns in the choir aisle vaults suggest a crystalline form or cosmic diagram. The Percy Tomb at Beverley Minster, designed by William de Malton, is a masterpiece of the Curvilinear style, with nodding ogee arches, cusping and crocketing. The choir arcade of Lichfield was rebuilt in 1337 in the Lincoln style, with Curvilinear stone grillwork, as at York, Worcester, and St. Mary Redcliffe. The nave vault of St. Mary Redcliffe is a development of the transept vault there, with liernes zigzagging, folding and undulating across an uneven vault surface, suggesting the matrixes of vectors in the epigenetic or topographical landscape, or the virtus of natural forms described in geometrical terms by Robert Grosseteste in his treatises on natural philosophy, cosmology, light, the heavenly bodies, and meteorological phenomena. Between 1337 and 1367 the elevations of the choir and presbytery of Gloucester were covered with Perpendicular paneling, and densely textured lierne net vaulting was designed by William Ramsey, taking to an extreme

Introduction

17

the vault as intelligible structure, surface texture, and catechism of Scholastic membrification, and creating a stupefying effect, suggesting the negative theology of Pseudo-Dionysius. The choir and nave vaults of Ottery St. Mary were designed by William Joy between 1338 and 1342, showing the influence of the Wells choir vault. William Joy’s nave vault at Exeter is a Lincoln vault with the tiercerons increased in size and density. The vaulting suggests organic form, but as in any architecture, the forms can never be organic, they can only symbolize the organic, allegorically, because of their inability to be separated from structural function, or the representation thereof. William Joy’s screen façade at Exeter is in the tradition of Lincoln and Wells. The vault of the south transept of Chester, from around 1350 (restored) is a Lincoln-style vault, as is the nave vault at Worcester. The first full fan vault in English Gothic architecture was constructed in the Gloucester cloister between 1351 and 1364, attributed to Thomas of Cambridge. The fan vaulting can be seen as a logical consequence of the development from the Lincoln tierceron vault, as it consists of conoids of tiercerons with liernes applied to the surface. The fan vaulting merges the geometrical and organic, the human mind and nature, or the human mind and the divine mind, with underlying geometrical matrixes, in a cognitive or intelligible structure. The original nave vault of York Minster, replaced by a timber reproduction in the nineteenth century, is a simplified version of the Lincoln tierceron vault. Tierceron and lierne patterns fluctuate, as do the concave surfaces of the vault, resulting in a form in between structure and surface pattern, and in between intelligible form and sensible form. The vault was painted to symbolize the vault of the cosmos, the celestial intelligence. A more complex version of the vaulting appeared in the choir and retrochoir of York between 1361 and 1370, continuing the fluctuating, “in between” phenomenon. Lierne vaulting in the central portal of Winchester Cathedral, begun in 1360, recalls the vault in the North Porch of St. Mary Redcliffe. Openwork arcading in the presbytery at Norwich recalls the treatments of Geoffrey de Noyers at Lincoln and William the Englishman at Canterbury, in their dematerialization and subversion of structural logic. The vault of the Prior’s Kitchen at Durham, designed by John Lewyn between 1366 and 1374, recalls Islamic vaulting at Córdoba and Isfahan; Islamic influences could also be found at Lincoln and Ely. The vault at Durham is part of a series of experimental vaults designed in the late fourteenth century, using the tierceron and lierne vocabulary to create crystalline organic patterns. Vaults in the tran-

18

Architecture as Cosmology

septs at Worcester also appropriate the Lincoln vocabulary. The choir and nave of Westminster Abbey, completed by Henry Yevele, beginning in 1375, are copies of the Lincoln nave, for the purposes of nationalistic representation. The lower part of the west front of Westminster Abbey, by Henry Yevele, displays the transformation from the Curvilinear to the Perpendicular. It has been seen that the Curvilinear and Perpendicular overlap, as elements of the Perpendicular appear in the early fourteenth century. The Perpendicular style is dominated by vertical lines, linear patterns, repeated cusped panels, the lierne rib, and overlapping ogee curves forming reticulated patterns. The Perpendicular, the subject of the final chapter, is the last period or style in the continuous development of English Gothic architecture from the precedents at Durham, Canterbury, and Lincoln. The choir vault at Tewkesbury Abbey, from between 1375 and 1390, is a Lincoln-style tierceron vault with lierne star patterns composed of curved liernes, which are segments of ogee arches, blurring the distinction between organic and inorganic, structure and pattern, sensible form and intelligible form. The vault in the crossing at Tewkesbury is a centralized lierne vault in the form of a mandala, a cosmological catechism with octagons and squares and a figure of the sun in the center, symbolizing emanation and creation, and synthesizing Christian theology and classical philosophy. The vaulting in the crossing tower of Lincoln Cathedral synthesizes the Lincoln vocabulary elements—conoid springers, tiercerons, liernes, ridge ribs, and membrification in compartmentalization—to form what could be read as a catechism of the celestial hierarchies, a diagram of the order of the church (imago generalis ecclesiae), the vaulting of the cosmos, or an epigenetic or topological landscape with an underlying matrix of geometrical vectors. The vaulting of the nave of Canterbury Cathedral, designed by Henry Yevele or Thomas Hoo, contains ridge ribs, tiercerons, and lierne lozenges added to a quadripartite vault. The vaulting of the cloisters at Canterbury, designed by Henry Yevele and Stephen Lote, combines conoid tierceron springers with sprays of fan vaulting and liernes forming cusped rosettes. The Founder’s Chantry at Tewkesbury Abbey contains an early model of the fan vault, with vaulting ribs as applied decoration, and Perpendicular grilling. The Beauchamp Chantry at Tewkesbury Abbey features fan vaults with pendants in its lower and upper levels. The pendant becomes a defining vocabulary element of the Perpendicular style, as in the vaults at Oxford, Cambridge, Windsor and Westminster Abbey. The pendant can be seen as a development of hanging corbels, as in the York chapter house, the gradual

Introduction

19

minimalization of responds in elevations, or the removal of the umbrella column from the umbrella vault. The pendant is a hanging vaulting corbel with no support, defying structural logic, as in experiments at Canterbury and Lincoln. The contradiction of structural logic allows the architecture to be an edificium of a metaphysic, as a manifestatio of Scholastic thought, in the dialectic between reason and faith. The west cloister walk of Worcester Cathedral, built by John Chapman between 1435 and 1438, contains vaulting composed of the Lincoln vocabulary: conoid tierceron springers, ridge pole, transverse ribs, and lierne octagons. The choir vault of Sherborne Abbey, designed by Robert Hulle in 1445, is the first full-span fan vault. The vault of the Norwich nave, perhaps designed by Robert Everard or Reginald Ely, contains zigzagging liernes and lierne star patterns, in what can be read as a model for the emergence of material form from patterns of light. The choir vault at St. Mary Redcliffe, from around 1450, is a regularized version of the nave vault there, displaying orthogonal Perpendicular geometries in contrast to irregular or organic Curvilinear lines. The vaulting of the presbytery of Peterborough is a lierne net vault similar to the St. Mary Redcliffe choir vault, a surface texture rather than a structural system, or representation thereof. The nave vault of Winchester Cathedral, designed by Robert Hulle, is a stellar lierne vault with zigzagging liernes, as in St. Mary Redcliffe nave or Norwich nave, based on the Lincoln vocabulary. The remodeling of the crossing of Gloucester Cathedral between 1450 and 1475 by Robert Tully, features mid-air stone ogee arches set on flat fourcentered arches, supporting pendant conoid springers of a lierne net vault. The arches appear to be a development of the flying rib, continuing experiments in spatial juxtapositions and inverted structural systems which began at Canterbury and Lincoln, but with a Perpendicular vocabulary. The Lady Chapel at Gloucester is a Perpendicular “glass cage” with a complex lierne net vault as in the choir there, a dense surface texture in contrast to the Perpendicular geometries below it. The crossing vault at Bristol Cathedral is a centralized lierne star vault, the pattern of which is continued in the transepts, with tiercerons and lierne diamonds, appearing as matter unfolding from an intelligible geometrical structure. The crossing vault at York Minster is also a centralized lierne vault, where the lines appear to respond to forces created by the building, in a dynamic process suggesting an epigenetic landscape. The choir vault at Norwich consists of lierne star patterns and tiercerons which spring from the peaks of window heads in the clerestory, or hang

20

Architecture as Cosmology

from the vault like pendants, creating the effect that the elevations are suspended from the vault. The nave vault of Sherborne Abbey, designed by William Smyth, interweaves tiercerons, lierne patterns and fans, in a summation of the vocabulary of English Gothic vaulting. The choir screen in Winchester Cathedral is a development of the treatment of the arcades in York chapter house and Ely Lady Chapel, with cusping, crocketing, ogee arches and miniature pendant vaults in canopies. The vault of the Divinity School of the Bodleian Library at Oxford University is a pendant lierne vault designed by William Orchard in 1478. The vault is divided by bundled transverse ribs which appear to be almost flying ribs; spandrels between are decorated with openwork tracery. William Orchard also designed the vault of Christ Church choir at Oxford University, a pendant lierne net vault, with similar transverse ribs suggesting flying ribs, and pendants attached to the transverse ribs as secondary corbels. The crossing vault at Salisbury is a centralized cusped lierne net vault; the crossing vault at Wells, designed by William Smyth, is a centralized fan vault. The nave and choir vaults of St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle were designed by William Vertue and Robert Janyns. The vaulting is composed of tiercerons and lierne stars, with cusping and decorative tracery. Bishop Alcock’s Chapel in Ely Cathedral, designed in 1488 by either Adam Lord, Adam Vertue or Robert Janyns, features a fan vault influenced by St. George’s Chapel, with pendant cusping, and an undulating canopy screen filled with crocketed gables, ogee arches, and filigree tracery. The composition combines the recognizable vocabulary elements into an unprecedented form filled with overlappings and spatial inconsistencies, pushing the vocabulary of the English Gothic beyond any recognizable geometrical structure. The vault of Bishop Langton’s Chapel at Winchester features tiercerons, zigzagging liernes, and cusped tracery. The vaulting in the retrochoir or “New Building” of Peterborough was designed by John Wastell, designer of the vaulting of King’s College Chapel at Cambridge University. The vault at Peterborough is composed of steep conoid sections of fans decorated with tiercerons and reticulated tracery in the Perpendicular style. The vaulting of Henry VII’s Chapel at Westminster Abbey was designed by Robert Janyns Junior in 1503, and perhaps constructed by Robert and William Vertue, who designed the fan vaults at Bath Abbey. The vault in Henry VII Chapel is a pendant fan vault with crocketed flying ribs, or ribs with pendant cusping, developed from William Orchard’s vaults at Oxford. The ribs of the Henry VII Chapel vault dissolve into lines of pendant cusping

Introduction

21

across the surface of the vault, denying any structural role; the severies of the vault are filled with cusping, decorative tracery and reticulated patterns. The composition transforms the vocabulary of English Gothic vaulting into a symbolism of nationalism, royalty and wealth, an architectural regalia. The ceiling of the Bell Harry Tower at Canterbury is covered by fan vaulting completed by John Wastell. The vaulting at Bath Abbey was designed by Robert and William Vertue and constructed between 1504 and 1508, and restored by Sir George Gilbert Scott in the 1860s. The vaulting consists of steep conoid tierceron springer vaults or fans, transverse ribs, cusped tracery, and pendants. The fan vault of King’s College Chapel, the largest fan vault in the world, was designed by John Wastell in 1508. Fans are intersected by transverse arches and segmented by thin transverse ridge lines, and are covered by tracery of cusped arches and reticulation. The vault appears to defy gravity, hovering over the Perpendicular glass cage below, combining the functions of theological catechism and nationalistic regalia. The final fan vault in English Gothic architecture is the vault of the Dorset Aisle of Ottery St. Mary, featuring thick tiercerons and cusped ogee arch tracery. The upper parts of the fans can also be read as canted spandrels alongside the ridge ribs, creating a compositional ambiguity. Bishop West’s Chapel in Ely Cathedral, from 1539, is the last work of the Perpendicular period, and represents a transition from Gothic to Renaissance styles. Tierceron ribs in fans give way to reticulated patterns and coffering, displaying classical geometries. A canopied screen in the chapel consists of a profusion of late English Gothic elements—cusped ogee arches, miniature fan vaults, openwork pendant vaults, filigree tracery, crocketing and reticulation—displaying the kind of hybrid and experimental composition which brings English Gothic architecture to a close, finalizing the continuous development from Canterbury and Lincoln, and exhausting the expressive capacities of the vocabulary elements, which represented theological and philosophical points of view initiated at the beginning of the thirteenth century. Those points of view are best represented in the writings of Robert Grosseteste, and pervaded all aspects of medieval culture in England, filtered through a growing urban professionalism and influence of the clergy and clerical scholars. Architects and masons contributed to a culture-wide expression of ideas in built form, in a shared universal intelligence. Scholastic compartmentalization resulted in a unity of form and expressive intention, reconciling reason and faith through the manifestatio, the process of elucidation and clarification, as in the summa. The particular vo-

22

Architecture as Cosmology

cabulary of English Gothic architecture allowed the architecture to express a metaphysical idea, to be an edificium of cosmologies, hypostases of being, and models of human reason, in perception and intellection. The writings of Grosseteste provide a basis for these epistemologies, and a model by which architectural geometries can be catechisms for them in their intelligible geometrical structures. The architecture of the cathedrals and churches initiated the worshipper and viewer into the systems and structures of reason and understanding, and stand as a text or edificium of those systems as much as the writings of the period. I have thoroughly explored the philosophies of Robert Grosseteste in a companion volume to this one, also written as Professor at the University of Lincoln, entitled: Robert Grosseteste: Philosophy of Intellect and Vision, published by Academia Verlag. Papers which I have presented on the subject of Lincoln Cathedral include “The Geometries of Robert Grosseteste and the Architecture of Lincoln Cathedral,” at the Conference on Ancient and Medieval Philosophy at Fordham University in 2010; “The Architecture of Lincoln Cathedral and the Institution of Justice,” at a conference at the University of Lincoln in 2009; “Lincoln Cathedral and the Development of English Gothic Architecture” for the Lincoln Academy in 2009; and “Origins of English Gothic Architecture at Lincoln” for the University of Lincoln Lecture Series in 2008. Papers presented on the philosophies of Robert Grosseteste include: “The Philosophy of Vision of Robert Grosseteste” at Fordham University in 2009; “The Philosophy of Intellect of Robert Grosseteste” at Fordham University in 2008; and “Neoplatonic Influence in the Writings of Robert Grosseteste and the Formation of English Gothic Architecture” for the International Society for Neoplatonic Studies in New Orleans in 2008. A version of the last paper was also published in an anthology by Academia Verlag, Conversations Platonic and Neoplatonic: Intellect, Soul, and Nature, edited by John Finamore and Robert Berchman.

2 Precedents for the Architecture of Lincoln Cathedral According to Nikolaus Pevsner and Priscilla Metcalf in The Cathedrals of England: Midland, Eastern and Northern England, the rib vault, the most basic vocabulary element of Gothic architecture, first appeared at Durham Cathedral, thirty years before the so-called first elements of Gothic architecture appeared at St. Denis in France. The rib vaulting system, “the constructional foundation of Gothic masons,”1 was invented at Durham. The construction of the rib vaulting system involves the elimination of thick masonry walls. The rib vaults are placed on shafts which rise in the elevation between arcades, and the cells between the ribs in the vault are made less substantial than in a Romanesque tunnel vault or groin vault. Transverse arches and ribs in the Gothic vault are seen as “lines of action,” continuing the lines of the shafts, so that the architecture becomes a composition of points (as in the springing points of the rib vaults from the shafts) and lines in relation to solids, elaborating the classical philosophical conception of the composition of the material universe in a process from point to line to plane to solid, as described by Plato and Euclid and as theorized in the Renaissance by Leon Battista Alberti and Piero della Francesca. The invention of the Gothic entails a return to classical concepts, in distinction from medieval Christian Romanesque architecture. The invention of Gothic architecture corresponded with a revival of classical philosophical concepts in the development of Christian theology in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Classical philosophical concepts were interwoven with Christian theology, by Robert Grosseteste at the end of the twelfth century, for example, in the Neoplatonic approach that characterized the later Renaissance, in the same way that classical concepts were interwoven with Christian architecture. The “dematerialization” which occurred at Durham can be seen as the same dematerialization which occurred more dramatically at St. Denis. At Durham the structure of the architecture is dematerialized, while at St. Denis

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the plan, organization, and visual experience of the building are dematerialized as well, with the use of stained glass windows and thin columns to allow light to flood into the altar through the ambulatory. At Durham the dematerialization is limited to the structural logic of the building, and it is the structural logic, or contradiction thereof, which is always the most characteristic element of English Gothic architecture in relation to French Gothic architecture. It is the structural logic of English Gothic architecture which functions as its most important medium in the expression of ideas. The rib vaulting was probably constructed in the choir (Figure 1) at Durham around 1104, and in the nave (Figure 2) around 1130. Construction of the cathedral at Durham was begun around 1093 by Bishop William de Carilef. The pointed ribs which appear at Durham appear to be the product of experimentation to compensate for structural deficiencies and aesthetic inconsistencies in the vaulting, as illustrated by the earliest rib vaults in the choir aisles. Since the transverse arches and diagonal ribs in the vaulting were of different widths, the arcs of the ribs had to be adjusted below or above a semicircular profile, as suggested by Christopher Wilson in The Gothic Cathedral.2 The weakness of the rib in a shallow profile, and the excessive lateral thrusts on the walls caused by the increased horizontality probably led the architects to compensate with the invention of the pointed rib arch. Because the pointed arch has two radii instead of one, its width to height ratio can be varied from the set 2:1 ratio of the semicircular arch, and the widths of the vaults could be varied in relation to their heights, without sacrificing their structural integrity or aesthetic consistency. Pointed tunnel and groin vaults were in existence at Cluny in France, and may have inspired the structural innovation of the pointed rib at Durham. Pointed ribs appeared in France soon after Durham, but not in the same combination of transverse and diagonal ribs. The first innovation at Durham was to put the rib over the groin, or the intersection of surfaces, of the groin vault, which for Paul Frankl is an even more defining element of Gothic architecture than the pointed arch. The introduction of the rib in the vault entails an extra geometrical element, the arc of the circle, in addition to the surface of the half-cylinder or ellipse formed by the groin vault. The introduction of the rib has the effect of creating distinct and separate areas within the vault, as opposed to a homogeneous geometrical construct in space. The geometry is simplified in a way, and shifts the visible structural logic of the architecture from spatial geometrical construct to surface pattern, a reemphasis which would determine the course of English Gothic architecture,

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according to Paul Frankl and Jean Bony. In that Durham is a Romanesque building, and not a Gothic building, with its emphasis on mass, its huge cylindrical piers, the round arches in the elevations, and the low pitch of the vaulting, the rib vault and the pointed arch can be seen to be outgrowths of the Romanesque, and the Gothic can be seen to be the product of the central role that these assume in building construction, whether for technical or symbolic reasons. There are no precedents in England for the innovations at Durham, though it is believed that similar experiments may have occurred at Lincoln, in the choir of the Norman cathedral which was destroyed by an earthquake at the end of the twelfth century. While the rib vault appears immediately thereafter in France and plays an important role in the eleventh century there, it would take another century for it to play an important role in England, in particular at Lincoln. Whether the rib vault was developed for technical, aesthetic, or symbolic reasons is a much-debated issue. More often than not in architecture the three considerations are combined. According to Paul Frankl in Gothic Architecture,3 the Gothic style began when diagonal ribs were added to the Romanesque groin vault, the rib being defined as an arch added to the surface of the vault. The Gothic is thus defined as involving the articulation of structure, beyond structure itself. The rib can be seen as a signifier for structure, a linguistic element in architecture, which removes the reading of the architecture from the immediate presence of the architecture, in the same way that language functions as a system of signifiers which is removed from that which it purports to signify. Gothic architecture is architecture as a system of signification, resulting from the synthesis of theology and philosophy beginning in the eleventh century: the articulations of structure which are added to the structure correspond to the articulations of theological tenets in philosophical terms. As the material substrate is inaccessible to Aristotle in classical philosophy, so the existence of the divine is inaccessible in medieval mystical theology, and the material substrate of the architecture is inaccessible in relation to its intelligible structure, which is formed by the added structural articulation of the rib. The rib is the first vocabulary element in what would become an extensive language of forms developed for the purpose of the articulation of the intelligible structure of the architecture, that is the structure of the architecture as it is understood but not immediately perceived. The vocabulary would include the rib, ridge rib, pointed arch, tierceron, lierne, bundle column, conoid vault, umbrella vault, syncopated arcading, etc.

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Frankl traces the etymology of the “rib.” The Abbot Suger of St. Denis in around 1144 called the rib arcus, the word for arch; the rib was undifferentiated from the arch, as a visual form, though it did not have the same structural function in terms of support. The same signifier was applied to different signifieds, revealing the arbitrariness, or artificiality, of signification in the language of architecture. Gervase of Canterbury in around 1188 called the ribs fornices arcuatae, or arched vaults, as in the Roman tunnel vault formed from the fornix. Ribs existed in Roman vaults as “crypto-ribs,” not visible on the surface. They were used to facilitate the construction of the brick vault, probably to align the bricks; since the bricks were held together by mortar to form a solid vault, the crypto-ribs probably served no structural function, and since they were plastered over, they served no aesthetic function, or any function in terms of signification. Thus Gervase of Canterbury did not distinguish between the rib as a mechanism of signification and the rib as an instrument to facilitate construction. Villard de Honnecourt, in around 1230, called the rib the ogive, not to identify the pointed arch, but to identify the functional origin of the rib, as ogive is derived from the Latin augere, to strengthen, as the original purpose of the rib was believed to strengthen the vault, whether true or not. The English word “rib” suggests the skeleton of a body, but the rib in Gothic architecture does not play the role of the rib in a body, except in late isolated details at Bristol or Gloucester Cathedrals, for example. There are examples where the ribs on the vault certainly suggest the skeleton of a body, particularly at Exeter Cathedral, but they do not function like one in any way. Despite the mimesis the structure of the ribs is purely intelligible; natural forms are copied and applied in unnatural ways, resulting in an architecture of cultivated artificiality. Cultivated artificiality is usually a characteristic associated with the Gothic Revival in England as opposed to the Gothic: the PreRaphaelites, etc. Cultivated artificiality is associated with nineteenth-century Romanticism, the post-humanist view brought about by science that the human being does not belong to nature, that the human mind cannot understand the workings of nature and is incompatible with it, as in the self-alienation of reason as described by Hegel. It is not unreasonable to suggest that cultivated artificiality can be seen as an aspect of eleventh to thirteenth-century pre-humanist culture. At the very beginning of the development of empirical, scientific philosophies, as codified by the Franciscan School, for example, the human mind was seen as incompatible with nature. A core tenet of the new scientific philosophies, in

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the writings of Robert Grosseteste, for example, was the attempt to understand nature in terms of mathematics and geometries, as derived from the classical writings of Plato and Euclid. The intelligible design of the universe could only be understood by the human mind in material terms, by the material intellect, nous hylikos, as opposed to the active, creative intellect, nous poietikos. The material presence of nature is a shadow or derivative of the intelligible idea, so the rib in architecture is a shadow or derivative of the structure of the architecture, in a cultivated artificiality. Cultivated artificiality plays an important role in the Gothic as well as the Romantic Gothic Revival, and it also plays an important role in Renaissance Humanism, in the same derivations from classical philosophy. Though in Renaissance Humanism the human being is seen to belong to nature, and the human mind is a microcosm of the design of the universe, such a correlation was largely understood to be an intelligible one and not a physical, sensible one, that is, as given by mind and not the senses. Thus the element of cultivated artificiality in the Renaissance: the stylized figures in the paintings of Alessandro Botticelli, the false or intelligible structural designs in the architecture of Leon Battista Alberti, the geometrical compositions of Piero della Francesca, all consistent with the underlying premise of the Gothic. The architect at Durham, beginning in 1093, is believed to have been trained in Normandy, and may have been familiar with examples of remains of Roman transverse crypto-ribs. But at Durham, unlike anything in France, the arches in the choir aisles are connected to the groin vault as ribs and extended diagonally from the corner, thus initiating, according to Frankl, the Gothic. The choir aisles were finished in 1095, and the vault of the choir, with the same diagonal ribs, was finished in 1104, though it failed and had to be replaced in 1242. Thus far the rib was an arc rib, and not a pointed rib. The placement of the rib on the groin of the vault eliminated the problem of the “double curve,” the groin vault which has one curvature on one axis and another curvature on the other axis, usually because it is set on a rectangular plan. The rib also eliminated the distortion of the curvature due to the position of the masonry walls. The placement of the rib on the groin may have coincided with the development of the “cerce” and other forms of centering planks to make construction of the vault easier; the cerce, for example, was wide enough to carry a course of stones in the vault. It may be that the rib was developed at Durham to provide extra support for the groin, but it has been shown that the ribs in the choir aisles at Durham provide no support. Some ribs in other places in Gothic buildings have been

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shown to provide extra support, while some have not. The groin, the intersection of the curved surfaces of the vault, is already the thickest and strongest point of the vault. The structure of the vault never fails along the groin, but rather in the cells tangent to the groin; thus cracks appear perpendicular to the groin rather than along it. The use of the rib to strengthen the sturdiest part of the vault may have allowed the masonry of the vault to be thinner, and to be placed on thinner supports, thus facilitating the “dematerialization” associated with the Gothic, but the earliest vaults with ribs are not thinner. The ribs did nothing to alleviate the downward pressure created by the vault on its supports, though they did make the vaults appear lighter. The rib may have been seen as a logical continuation of the vertical articulation of the wall, the columns and shafts, in a visual signifying structure, but the earliest Gothic ribs are continuations of Romanesque wall articulations, with a discernable visual differentiation. So it is reasonable to assume that the rib was not introduced in relation to the wall articulation, nor to make the vaults thinner, nor to provide extra support for the vault, nor to represent the structure of the architecture as a skeletal body. Thus far the rib can be seen to have been developed for neither technical, aesthetic, nor symbolic reasons. Since there is no precedent for its development in England or anywhere else, it cannot be seen to be related to an agenda of cultural identity. Thus the rib should be seen in relation to the agenda of signification, the development of an architectural language for the purpose of signifying the complex relations developing between theology and scientific philosophy in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Such an agenda is not an aesthetic one primarily, nor a symbolic one, and obviously not a technical one. Geometrical elements in architecture in excess of the structural requirements of the building have always been labeled “aesthetic” or “symbolic,” but if architecture is seen as a language, as a signifying structure in itself, capable of being a catechism or edificium of knowledge, as the cathedral certainly was, then the language of architecture, its geometry, can be seen in certain cases as being neither aesthetic nor symbolic. Of course there are many cases in which the geometry in the architecture is aesthetic or symbolic, either in its structural function or in excess of it structural function, but it is the particular case of English Gothic architecture, especially in the Early and Geometrical periods, that for the most part the geometry is neither aesthetic nor symbolic. Geometry is aesthetic in architecture when it has no relation to structure, and it is symbolic when it refers to something other than itself. It is sometimes easy to read something as aesthetic or symbolic when

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it was not intended to be either, and it is easy to misread architectural intentions in those terms. Frankl suggests that the rib introduces a visual compartmentalization into the architecture, interrupting its homogeneity. The ribs create “the effect of division in the spatial form of the vaults,”4 contradicting Romanesque intentions, “and of diagonality in the optical form,” opposing or adding to the Romanesque emphasis on the orthogonality of the architecture, its definition as a composition of horizontal and vertical lines corresponding to structural forms. In the early development of English Gothic architecture, the introduction of compartmentalization and diagonal lines did not challenge the structural logic or integrity of the Romanesque, according to Frankl, as it was seen as extending the lines of statics and pressure in the structure of the building, but ultimately in the English Gothic the principles of structure were contradicted in the visual form, and the geometries of the architecture came to represent “texture” rather than structure, as in the net patterns of the vaults in the Decorated style. The vault of Saint Hugh’s Choir (Figure 3) at Lincoln Cathedral might be seen as an intermediary between structure and texture; the ribs in the vault extend the vertical shafts of the elevations, but diverge in such a way as to contradict the structural logic of the shaft/arch frame, suggesting a two-dimensional texture or pattern which is independent of the structure. The point is to make the intelligible structure independent of the actual structure, to display the disjunction between the material and spiritual, the passive and creative intellects. According to Jean Bony in The English Decorated Style, the emphasis on linear pattern and surface texture which characterizes English Gothic architecture begins at Durham. The “Romanesque in England had reached in its late stages a high degree of refinement in the treatment of surfaces: play of light, accents of modeling, interweaving of patterns,”5 and the “first definite indication of that trend” was at Durham Cathedral. Gothic, which grew out of the experiments at Durham, “stands out as an architecture of strong graphic accents, of sharply inscribed forms, in which space is caught and enclosed not so much by bounding surfaces as by networks of interwoven lines.” Space and structure in the English Gothic became intelligible, that is, as communicated through geometry and mathematics, as the natural world was coming to be understood through geometry and mathematics. The space and structure of the patterned and textured surfaces gradually become more and more disconnected from the structure of the building as represented visually by horizontal and vertical lines of statics, to the point that the sur-

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face patterns become ornament, for the purpose of expressing an idea independent of, and even in contradiction to, the structure of the building. A series of dialectical relations can be found in English Gothic surface treatments: structure and pattern, rational and emotional (mimetic), inorganic and organic. The structure is suggested in the pattern, but is negated in the process; the patterns are formed by mathematics and geometry, but they suggest organic forms. The visual forms evoke the dialectic between faith and reason at the core of late medieval theology and philosophy, between mysticism and intellectual ascension, between the material and spiritual, between intellect as it is a function of the material world and as it participates in divine intellect. Frankl distinguishes between structure and texture to qualify the development of the English Gothic. Texture (from the Latin tegere, to cover) is seen as the opposite of structure. Frankl suggests that the emphasis on texture facilitates an organic quality in the architecture, as it represents the continuity of organic growth. The continuity found in texture compensates for the compartmentalization caused by the introduction of the rib, in the dialectic of the organic and inorganic. The compartmentalization of the architecture caused by the introduction of the rib corresponds to the organization of the medieval summa of the Scholasticism of the time (which involved the dialectical method), as described by Erwin Panofsky in Gothic Architecture and Scholasticism. The goal of Scholasticism was not to prove articles of faith, thereby maintaining the element of mystical theology, but rather to elucidate and clarify them, as the rib can be seen to elucidate and clarify the static system of the vault. The elucidation of articles of faith was accomplished through a series of similitudines, correspondences in representation, like agent intellect to active intellect, or geometry to organic form. The similitudines required a process of articulation and subdivision in both the text and the architecture: the summa would be divided into partes, then membra, then quaestiones or distinctiones, then articuli, as the rib first divided the vault, and later arches would be divided into sub-arches, columns into bundles of shafts, transverse ribs into tierceron and lierne ribs. Emphasis on the structure of the manifestatio, on exposition and clarification, might lead scholars to introduce elements unnecessary to the argument, but necessary for the elucidation of the text, as geometrical forms might be introduced in the architecture which were unnecessary to the structure of the building, but necessary to the intelligible structure of what was being represented. Frankl suggests that it was not just a philosophical or theological point of

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view which was represented by compartmentalization, but the very identity of the individual in late medieval society. Individuals “no longer regarded themselves as totalities, but realized that they were parts of a higher, or even an infinite, whole.”6 The higher whole could be a national identity, or the authority of the Church. In theology the whole was identified as intelligentia, or the active intellect of Aristotle, which participates in all individual intellects. A function of the architecture of the church was to facilitate the participation of the individual, the individual material intellect, in the divine active intellect, a kind of collective consciousness. The result of compartmentalization was the juxtaposition of the parts to the whole in the architecture; the parts are absorbed into the whole, as the material intellect (reason and logic, as in the mathematics and geometry) is absorbed into the active intellect, the divine nous poietikos (that part of intellect inaccessible to material intellect, as represented by the continuity in the mimesis of organic form). For Frankl this identity “bears on the artistic unity of form and meaning, or style and culture, in the history of form.” The forms of the architecture are seen as the product of evolving individual and cultural identities, in the same way that Heinrich Wölfflin qualified the compositional elements of Renaissance and Baroque painting and architecture in relation to respective individual and cultural identities, in the Principles of Art History in 1915. Renaissance compositions were combinations of distinct parts, because Italian society was a combination of distinct nation states. In the Baroque composition, the distinct parts were subsumed in the whole, because in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the independent identity and autonomy of the nation states were lost in favor of the cultural hegemonies of the Spanish occupation and the Catholic Church in the Counter Reformation. In the development of Gothic architecture, the two phenomena are combined: the individual is represented as an autonomous whole by the compartmentalization first introduced by the vault rib, and then the individual is absorbed into the whole of the architecture of the Church. In Gothic architecture or society the whole cannot be conceived without the parts. If the “embracing shape of the whole…outweighs its divisions,” then the architecture must still be seen as Romanesque and not Gothic. In Romanesque architecture the transverse arch does not interfere with the unity of the vault, but as soon as the diagonal arch or rib is placed on the groin of the groin vault, the unity of the vault is lost and the space is divided, but at the same time the divisions of space are combined into a “smooth flow of forces,”7 the hegemony of the whole and the continuity of the organic. At

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Durham, the pointed arch was connected systematically with the rib vault for the first time, perhaps to compensate for the variations in the pitch of the transverse arches in the groin vaults. The pointed arch continues the process of compartmentalization, as it replaces a continuous curve with one radius with two combined arcs with separate radii. Segmental pointed transverse arches were incorporated in the vault of the nave by 1133. As there was no original intention to build a vault, there were no shafts built into the elevations to provide support for the ribs, so corbels were inserted into the gallery wall to provide the support, introducing a further element of compartmentalization. The segmental pointed transverse ribs are supported by corbels which are placed on responds which reach to the floor, while the diagonal ribs of two quadripartite vaults between the transverse arches are supported by corbels placed on either side of the transverse corbel, with smaller shafts below them, and free-floating corbels in the spandrel of the gallery in the center of the bay. Thus at Durham, already by 1133, major liberties are taken with the visual representation of a structural system, and vocabulary elements are introduced which exceed or contradict the actual system of forces in the building, seemingly for the purpose of responding to evolving and changing individual, cultural, theological and philosophical standards. The vocabulary elements introduced at Durham already constitute texture as opposed to structure, an intelligible structural super-system which both elaborates and contradicts the structural system of the building, allowing the architecture to express an idea, a representation of cultural identity. During the next few decades in England, the possibilities of the rib vault and pointed arch were expanded and improved. Groin vaults with ribs were placed over both rectangular and trapezoidal plans. But it was not until the construction of the new cathedral at Lincoln at the end of the century that the possibilities brought about by the experiments at Durham would be realized, and those experiments would blossom into a full-fledged original architectural expression. Gottfried Semper described Gothic architecture as “scholasticism in stone” in Style in the Technical and Tectonic Arts (Der Stil in der technischen und tektonischen künsten) in 1860, paving the way for Panofsky’s treatise in 1951. In The Four Elements of Architecture (Die Vier Elemente dur Baukunst) in 1851, Semper suggested that the origin of architecture was to be found in weaving, or texture, as opposed to structure, providing an alternative to the “primitive hut” of Marc-Antoine Laugier in French architectural theory, as described in the Essai sur l’architecture of 1753, where the

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origin of architecture is to be found in the most rudimentary structural elements. The idea of the primitive hut, inspired by the political theories of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, in the Discours sur les sciences et les arts of 1750, in the need to return to natural conditions in order to define the truest form of democracy, became the most important theoretical basis of modernism in architecture from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. The theory that the origin of architecture was to be found in structure, as illustrated by the primitive hut, also dominated interpretations of Gothic architecture during that time, most notably in the Structural Rationalism of Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc, as in the Entretiens sur l’architecture of 1859. Semper displayed the importance of texture in architecture in the exhibition of the Caribbean Hut in the Crystal Palace in London in 1851, paving the way for Frankl’s introduction of texture into the analysis of Gothic architecture. Frankl takes up a question posed by Willi Drost in Romanesque and Gothic Architecture (Romanische und gotische Baukunst) in 1944: “if the Gothic style corresponds to scholasticism, then what philosophy corresponds to the Romanesque?”8 Frankl comes to an interesting and much disputed conclusion, that Platonism underlies the Romanesque, while Aristotelianism underlies the Gothic. Frankl bases his theory about Romanesque architecture on the writings of Anselm of Canterbury (1033–1109), which express the Platonic metaphysical tenet that archetypes have existence outside of human thought. The archetypal organization of a Romanesque building, its underlying systems of mathematical and geometrical proportions, which include Pythagorean harmonic proportions, as at the Cistercian Abbey Church of Notre Dame at Fontenay (1139–47), is inaccessible to the sensible experience of the spectator, and the architecture provides no access to the archetypes for the viewer. The architecture is composed of regular, unbroken volumetric forms, the Platonic solids, staged to represent the Platonic Idea, the design of the universe in the mind of the Demiurge, based in mathematics and geometry. The regular volumetric forms of Romanesque architecture are composed in an additive process, as opposed to the Gothic process of division, and they represent a totality as opposed to the divisibility of Gothic forms. In sum, the Romanesque building represents a universalia corresponding to the Platonic Idea or archetype, a totality at the basis of the design of the universe. While the volumetric solids of Romanesque architecture present to the viewer the Platonic archetypes inaccessible to human intellect, the spatial subdivisions of Gothic architecture present to the viewer the Aristotelian intelligible, a variation of the Platonic archetype. Aristotle believed that the

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Ideas were not inaccessible to human intellect, that in fact they were a function of human intellect, and that intellect is capable of having access to and comprehending the Ideas through the intelligible, through various levels of intellectual development, which are only outlined by Aristotle, and subsequently developed by his commentators: the early Greek commentators, Alexander of Aphrodisias (second century), Themistius (fourth century); and the later Arabic commentators, Abu Nasr Alfarabi (ninth century), Avicenna (Ibn Sina, eleventh century), and Averroes (Ibn Rushd, twelfth century). In the De anima of Aristotle, Book III, a productive (active) intellect, capable of comprehending intelligibles, is distinguished from a potential (material) intellect, consisting of reason and logic. In the De anima of Alexander of Aphrodisias, for example, the productive intellect is the active intellect (nous poietikos), and the potential intellect is the material intellect (nous hylikos). The material intellect is perfected as intellection (intellectus in habitu) in discursive reason (dianoia). The nous poietikos is a purely spiritual substance acting on human intellect; the capacity for receiving the influence of the nous poietikos is the material intellect, the nous hylikos, through which knowledge is acquired. Frankl points out that while in Platonic philosophy the abstract concept in the universalia is taken as real, in Aristotelian philosophy only the intelligibles, the individual manifestations of the Ideas, are real, and the archetype can only be taken as a name, a representation (which is not unacknowledged by Plato, anyway). The vocabulary elements introduced in Gothic architecture, at the service of the subdivision of space, such as the rib, tierceron and lierne, provide the viewer with a means to access the intelligible structure of the building through the sensible experience of it, along Aristotelian lines. The vocabulary elements function as a mechanism for the ascension of the Aristotelian intellect, from the passive, material intellect, which is determined by sensible experience, to the creative intellect, which is determined by the intelligibles. The viewer in the Gothic cathedral ascends from the sense experience to the intellectual/spiritual experience in a way which is not accommodated by Romanesque architecture; the intellect of the viewer is absorbed into the Gothic architecture, and participates in the intelligible understanding of the world, while in the Romanesque building that understanding is presented to the viewer, but left inaccessible to him or her. Frankl’s theory is supported by the fact that while the Timaeus of Plato was known to Romanesque society (the only Platonic dialogue that was known), Aristotle was unknown until the end of the twelfth century, and it

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was the commentaries of Robert Grosseteste which really “introduced Aristotle to the West.” It cannot be a coincidence that the first fully realized expression of English Gothic architecture, with its newly invented vocabulary functioning to subdivide and compartmentalize space, and to facilitate the intellectual ascension of the viewer in Aristotelian terms, occurred at Lincoln Cathedral just before and during the bishopric of Robert Grosseteste, who had previously been writing his commentaries on Aristotle at Oxford. The main problem with Frankl’s theory is that Grosseteste’s writings, nor anyone else’s in the twelfth century, are not purely Aristotelian: they are filled with Platonism and Neoplatonism as well. And there was very little general understanding of Aristotelianism until later in the thirteenth century, following the work of Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas. Frankl speculates that it is unlikely that any architect in the eleventh to thirteenth centuries took these philosophical questions into account when designing the architectural details, that it is more likely that the issues were filtered into the architectural process through the involvement of the clergy. It was not that much later, in the fifteenth century, that Leon Battista Alberti’s treatise on architecture, De re aedificatoria, applied the concept of the distinction between the sensible and intelligible, what Alberti called the matter and the lineament, to architecture. Alberti was a well-educated scholar, not a mason. Is it unreasonable to assume that the same ideas were in the minds of masons, especially the magister operis (master of the works) or the magister fabricae (master of the fabric), or at least communicated to them in their interactions with the clergy, or any other educated professional, for that matter? In the twelfth century, the distinction between the sensible and intelligible was formulated by Grosseteste, as the distinction between the species sensibilis, the sensible form of an object perceived in vision, and the species apprehensibilis, the intelligible form of the object which must be in the mind before the sensible form of an object can be perceived. The distinction appears in Grosseteste’s most important commentary on Aristotle, the Commentary on the Posterior Analytics, written at Oxford between 1228 and 1235, the year Grosseteste became Bishop of Lincoln; the treatises on geometry, De Lineis, and light, De Luce, from about 1230–1233, which have direct applications to architecture; and the more accessible commentary on Genesis, the Hexaemeron, written after he became Bishop of Lincoln. It is hard to imagine that these persistent ideas, promoted by the most influential scholar of the time, were not part of the discourse of theologians, urban professionals, and architects and masons at the time.

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If Panofsky’s attempts to relate Gothic architecture to Scholasticism have proven insufficient, the writings of Grosseteste can go a long way to establish a more convincing relation between the architecture and the philosophy of the era, whether it be in Aristotelian or Neoplatonic terms, or both, as is more the case. Grosseteste’s writings are better described as syncretic, and so is Gothic architecture, in combining a variety of visual forms taken from previous styles, and recombining them to invent new forms, in the same way that Grosseteste’s writings combine a variety of philosophical systems in order to create a new philosophy. “Syncretic” is a term which is usually associated with Renaissance architecture and Renaissance Neoplatonism; despite the obvious visual differences, Renaissance and Gothic architecture have much in common in terms of their underlying theoretical premises, including the syncretism and Neoplatonism. According to Frankl, the masons’ lodges, which were responsible for the design and construction of the building, “did not exist in a vacuum. A bishop or an abbot decided on a certain program and discussed it with the architect,” and any other urban professional or member of the clergy involved in the building of the cathedral or church. The client, the clergy, and the artisans would all have shared a basic knowledge of philosophy or theology which provided a general basis for aesthetic and even structural decisions: this has to be the case, as there is no other explanation for the particular choices made by the masons and the extent to which those choices were proliferated. According to Frankl, the “connections between these spheres—that between politics and the Church, that between the Church and the universities, and so on—demanded the imposition of a common sense of direction,” a cultural zeitgeist which is evidenced by the stylistic unity of forms of the era. Individual creativity and personal expression are modern concepts and phenomena; the goal of the medieval artisan was not individual creativity or personal expression; the goal of the medieval craftsman was to respond to the zeitgeist of the era, to ask, as Ludwig Mies van der Rohe advocated for architects in the twentieth century, in the era of personal expression, “What does my era demand of me?” and to respond to it. There is no other explanation for the forms of Romanesque and Gothic architecture than that they are responses to the zeitgeist of their eras, the theological, philosophical, and cultural standards which dominated. Perhaps the best example of the relevance and influence that Grosseteste’s writings had to architecture is a letter written by him which was quoted by John Harvey in The Medieval Architect in 1972, if it is credible

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(there is no source given). The letter was written from Oxford in around 1200 (or closer to 1225, according to Richard William Southern) to Master Adam Rufus, a former student. Grosseteste began, “To make clear how God is the form of his creatures…the meanings of this word ‘form’ must be explained” (the Latin forma, which can be translated as design, form, mould, pattern, or shape).9 “It is said that the design is the model (exemplar) to which the craftsman looks to make (formet) his handiwork, in imitation of it and in its likeness.” The distinction between the design as exemplar (or archetype) and design as formed (formet), is the distinction made in the Renaissance, as in the writings of the Accademia di San Luca in Rome, between disegno interno (the design in the mind of the artist, as an intelligible) and disegno esterno (the visual design which is the result), or as in the writings of Alberti, between lineament (the geometry in the mind of the architect), and matter (the physical presence of the materials of the building). At the Accademia di San Luca, the imitation or likeness of the disegno interno is the segno di dio in noi, the sign of God in us, in the scintilla della divinità, the spark of the divine fire which occurs in the mind of the creative artist, as for Grosseteste God is the form of his creatures. In the classical world, Vitruvius, in De architectura, called the disegno interno the significatum, or that which is signified, while the disegno esterno was the significans, that which signifies, as the demonstration unfolded in systems of precepts. For Plotinus in the Enneads, disegno interno corresponds to the Shaping Principle, or the Intellectual Principle, or the Idea, a simple substance in the anima rationalis, in opposition to matter and the constituents of the anima rationalis. In the Enneads (V.9.3), in the anima rationalis or soul there is something representing matter and something else representing form. The form is represented by the Intellectual Principle, as the species apprehensibilis of Grosseteste, which corresponds both to the shape of the work of art or architecture, and to the artist creating the form. Plotinus described how the artist or architect acts as the architectus secundus deus, as the work of the artisan is the product of the mind of the artisan in the same way that the elements of matter take their pattern from the world soul of the cosmos through the Idea, which has been received by the soul from the Intellectual Principle, both in the cosmos and in the mind of the artisan. The Intellectual Principle is both the pattern of the soul and that which gives it its form or pattern, in the same way that the form of the work of art exists already in the mind of the artisan. Grosseteste continues, “Thus the last [a block shaped like a foot], to

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which the cobbler looks to form the sole accordingly, is called the pattern of the sole.” The philosophical basis for the design of the architecture is the philosophical basis for the activity of any artisan, any urban professional of the era, from the most banal to the most exalted. “Thus too the lives of good men, which we regard in order to form the manners of our life in their likeness, are called our pattern of living.” Grosseteste likens good design to ethical and moral behavior, on the model of the Platonic Good; the philosophical basis for all artistic activity is also the philosophical basis for the ethics and morality of the era. In his De Libero Arbitrio, Grosseteste compared the light shining through the stained glass window of the cathedral to the operation of divine grace through free will. In his Epistolae, Grosseteste compared his relationship as Bishop to the clergy of the cathedral, and the relationship between the Pope and his prelates, including Grosseteste, to a mirror reflecting light into dark places. The Bishop illuminates the minds of the clergy by reflecting the species apprehensibilis, the intelligible form provided by the lux spiritualis, the spiritual light, into the oculus mentis, the mind’s eye which perceives the species apprehensibilis, of the clergy, so that the species apprehensibilis can become the species sensibilis, the sensible, visual form, as a tangible rule of operation, or the model for behavior can become the rule for behavior, in the correct operations of the Church, and the Bishop can assert his authority. Peter Draper, in The Formation of English Gothic: Architecture and Identity, compared the contrapuntal arcading in the aisles of Saint Hugh’s Choir in Lincoln Cathedral (similar to the overlapping arches at Ely, Figure 24, or Beverley, Figure 30), to an illustration in the De statu ecclesiae or De usu ecclesiastico of Gilbert, Bishop of Limerick, the first papal legate in Ireland, which can be found in Cambridge University Library. In the illustration, tiers of arches are arranged in a complex pattern of arcading to illustrate the hierarchy of the Catholic Church. The arcades are offset so that the shaft of one arcade overlaps the arches of the arcade underneath, as in Saint Hugh’s Choir. The arches represent the people of the Church, which is seen as a macrocosm represented by the system of arcading. The arcading represents a diagram of the order of the Church, in what the text calls an imago generalis ecclesiae. The arcades are organized in a series of pyramids; the smallest units are at the bottom, and work up to the largest units at the top. The basic units are the parish, run by the priest, and monastery, run by the abbot. The units are divided into ranks and categories of the vita attiva and

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vita contemplativa. The parishes and monasteries are governed by the diocese, which is governed by the archdiocese, the district of the archbishop, which is governed by the highest ranking bishop, primatus, of the Church. The Church is governed by the Pope, who is governed by Christ. A secular hierarchy is established to correspond to the ecclesiastical hierarchy, and a visual hierarchy is established in the craftwork to correspond to a hierarchical concept based on the Good, as the species sensibilis corresponds to the species apprehensibilis, and the disegno esterno corresponds to the disegno interno, matter to lineament, the sole of the shoe to the pattern of the shoe, ethical behavior to the Good. “That is also called a pattern,” according to Grosseteste, “to which material to be shaped is applied and, by its application to it, receives the imitated shape of that to which it is applied.” Continuing, “we say of the silver seal that it is the pattern of the wax seal; and of the clay in which the statue is cast, that it is the mould of the statue.” The wax seal occurs consistently in the commentators on Aristotle as a metaphor for visual perception, in the transference from the a priori species apprehensibilis of an object to the form of the object as perceived, the species sensibilis, in the same way that the pattern of the exemplar is transferred to the craftwork. Alexander of Aphrodisias, in his De anima, described sensation, or sense perception, as that which “takes place by means of the apprehension of the forms of sensible objects without their matter,” which “must be conceived of as taking place in the way in which a piece of wax takes on the impress of a signet ring…” (Alexander’s De anima 83).10 In his Paraphrase of the De anima, Themistius compared the species apprehensibilis to the seal of a wax block on air, the wax block being the phantasia, the mechanism of forming images in intellect, “just as though the wax received the imprint of the seal right through itself, and after receiving the imprint and being enfolded in it had gone on to stamp the same imprint on the air” (92),11 the result being that “even though the wax and ring had gone away, the surrounding air had acquired a structure,” the intelligible structure of the active, creative intellect as processed by the agent intellect, through the mechanisms of material intellect. Following Alexander and Themistius, Alfarabi, in his Risala,12 used the analogy of the wax seal to describe the difference between the intelligible and the material, the species apprehensibilis and the species sensibilis. The essence of matter is that element of matter in which “form comes to be,” the potential for matter to be understood by intellect as form, in the same way that the essence of potential intellect is its capacity to understand the form.

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When a seal is stamped on a piece of wax, the seal takes possession of the matter, and the matter becomes the form in its totality, as an intelligible or archetype. Even the part of the wax which does not take the seal is defined in relation to the seal: there can be no species sensibilis without the species apprehensibilis, or work of art without the design first in the mind of the artisan. The totality is especially complete if the seal on the wax transforms the wax in three dimensions, in the form of a cube or sphere, as in architecture. In that case, there can be no distinction between the quiddity or essence of the wax in its material existence and the quiddity of the form of the wax. Architecture, more than any form of expression, reveals the relation between the Idea and the material presence. Thus for Grosseteste, “when the artist (artifex) has in his mind the likeness of his work of art (artificii) and regards only that which he has in his mind [as in the seal stamped on air], in order to shape his art in its likeness, that likeness of the work in the artist’s mind is called the design of the work of art (forma artificii).” Grosseteste’s letter exhibits a familiarity with the Enneads of Plotinus, which Grosseteste probably was not able to read directly but would have known through texts such as the Theology of Aristotle, a paraphrase of the Enneads. In the Enneads, Plotinus compares two blocks of stone, one of which is carved into a statue by a craftsman, so that in which “the form is not in the material; it is in the designer before ever it enters into the stone…” (Enneads V.8.1),13 the forma artificii of Grosseteste. In the soul for Plotinus there is “something representing Matter [the species sensibilis of Grosseteste] and something else representing Form [the species apprehensibilis, the wax seal without the wax], namely, the Intellectual Principle within it [the Aristotelian agent intellect; intelligentia or virtus intellectiva of Grosseteste], this corresponding both to the shape on the statue and to the artist giving the shape” (V.9.3). The craftwork, “the handwrought, with its metal or stone or wood, is not realized out of these materials until the appropriate craft has produced statue, house, or bed, by imparting the particular Idea [intelligible] from its own content.” Grosseteste then uses the analogy of architecture: “So imagine in the artist’s mind the design of the work to be made, as in the mind of the architect (architecti) the design and likeness of the house to be built; to this pattern and model (exemplar) he looks only that he may make the house in imitation of it.” The material of the building is organized in imitation of the idea in the mind of the architect; like the forms of nature in relation to the archetypes of the Platonic Demiurge, the building is only a shadow or reflection of the ar-

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chitectural idea. In the Enneads, Plotinus asked, “On what principle does the architect, when he finds the house standing before him correspondent with his inner ideal of a house, pronounce it beautiful?” (I.6.3). In the Renaissance, Marsilio Ficino compared the architecture of the building to the design of forms in nature. In De amore, or the Commentary on the Symposium of Plato, Ficino proposed, “If anyone asked in what way the form of the body can be like the Form and Reason of the Soul and Mind, let him consider, I ask, the building of the architect” (V.5),14 expressing the core idea of Renaissance Humanism, that the human mind corresponds to the workings of nature, an idea which played a role in medieval Scholasticism, but which is untenable in a scientific era. “Who will deny,” asks Ficino, “that the house is a body and that it is very much like the architect’s incorporeal Idea, in the likeness of which it was built?” As for Grosseteste, “In the beginning the architect develops a Reason or Idea, as it were, of the building in his soul. Then he builds, as nearly as possible, the kind of house he has conceived.” In his Commentary on the Posterior Analytics, Grosseteste defined solertia, a term from the Posterior Analytics of Aristotle, as translated into Latin by James of Venice, as the penetrating power of the oculus mentis, the mind’s eye, which is able to see beyond the surface of an image, such as a form, pattern, or symbol. If the eye sees color, for example, the oculus mentis sees the structure of which the color is an effect, as described in geometrical terms by Grosseteste in his De Iride (On the Rainbow, or on the Rainbow and the Mirror). Solertia, involving dialectical and discursive reasoning, is the ability to understand, in perception, the archetypal and intelligible forms that define perception itself, and define the process of intellection of the perceiving subject. Solertia is the clarity of the vision of the oculus mentis of the intelligibles of the intelligentia, the divine intellect, as illuminated by the irradiatio spiritualis in the lumen spiritualis, the radiated spiritual light, and is thus a faculty of sapientia in the virtus intellectiva, the higher part of the anima rationalis, the rational soul. In the letter to Master Adam Rufus, Grosseteste asks the reader to “imagine, even though it be impossible, that the will [solertia] of the same architect wishing to build the house were so powerful that this will alone need be applied to shape the material into the house of the design in the architect’s mind, so that by this application will be fashioned into the house.” The process of architectural design requires the penetrating ability and clarity of vision of the oculus mentis in relation to intelligentia, as aided by the irradiatio spiritualis, in the intellectual ascension of the virtus intellectiva. If

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the process of architectural design is successful, then the architecture will accommodate the same intellectual ascension in the mind of the viewer. Not only is the form of the idea in the mind of the architect copied in the material of the building, but also the process by which the form is realized. “Imagine also that the material of the house is fluid [the material substrate as described by Aristotle], and cannot retain the form it has received if it is separated from the design in the architect’s mind,” if the matter and the lineament do not coalesce, “as water stamped with a silver seal, when the seal is removed, immediately loses the form which is received,” as opposed to the seal of the wax block (phantasia, a product of the solertia of the oculus mentis) on air of Themistius, which is retained as the species apprehensibilis. “So imagine the will of the craftsman (artificis) applying the material of the house to the form in the architect’s mind, not only that by this application he may fashion it into the house, but also applying the material to the design that, as long as the house remains in being, the house may be kept in being in that form.” The building is a finite, material and perishable container for the architecture of it, which is an intelligible idea, not subject to the malleability of the material substrate. If the building crumbles, the architecture remains, as a wax seal stamped on air. This is particularly borne out in the era of mechanical reproduction, where the value of the architecture of a building is defined not by the material presence of the building itself, but by the reproduced images of it. The late twentieth century saw the phenomenon of “cardboard architecture,” where every element of architecture was included in the architectural conception except the building itself. The phenomenon is even more prevalent in computer-generated virtual architecture, which requires no material substrate, no building. “In such a manner then,” according to Grosseteste, “in which its design, in the mind of such an architect, is the design of the house, so is art (ars), or wisdom (sapientia) or the word of Almighty God [logos] the pattern of all creatures,” the imperishable Platonic archetype. “For it is at the same time both the model (exemplar) and the producer (efficiens), and what forms, and what keeps in the form given, while creatures are applied to it and removed from it.” As both the intelligible form and the process of design are mimicked in the form of the architecture, so are both the form and process of the divine intelligentia mimicked in both the nous hylikos or virtus cogitativa, material intellect, and in the forms of nature. There are many instances in Gothic architecture where it is clear that the architectural form is intended to function as the logos of the divine.

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Similarities to Grosseteste’s concepts of architecture, and descriptions of the architectural form as logos of the divine, can be found in passages of the Metrical Life of Saint Hugh, “How Saint Hugh built the cathedral church of Lincoln, 1192–1200.” The Metrical Life was the second biography of Bishop Hugh of Avalon, written by Henry of Avranches, a friend of Grosseteste, between 1220 and 1235, when Grosseteste became Bishop of Lincoln. In the Metrical Life, the round stained glass windows in the great transept, the Bishop’s Eye (Figure 4) to the south and the Dean’s Eye (Figure 5) to the north, are compared to heavenly bodies, whose “circular display, facing the north and south, outshines all the rest [of the windows in the cathedral] with its twofold light.”15 While the two windows in the transept can be seen as the sun and the moon, the rest of the windows “may be likened to common stars.” The two windows are not only like the sun and the moon, but “they excel: for the sun, reflected on the clouds, produces the rainbow; while these two flash without the sun…” The light of the Bishop’s Eye and Dean’s Eye is a lux spiritualis, a spiritual light whose source is not in the material world. The lux spiritualis illuminates the species apprehensibilis in the irradiatio spiritualis in the intelligentia; the reflected light of the lux spiritualis, the lumen spiritualis, illuminates the body of the church through the stained glass windows, as it illuminates the species sensibilis in the phantasia of the oculus mentis. The church is thus a catechism for the intellective processes involved in the ascension of the soul and intellect, and the intellective processes involved in the design of the architecture, in the solertia of the phantasia in the mechanisms of visual perception. The Bishop’s Eye and the Dean’s Eye represent the Bishop and the Dean, as the Bishop, as described by Grosseteste in the Epistolae, illuminates the minds of the clergy by reflecting the species apprehensibilis, the intelligible form provided by the lux spiritualis, as through the stained glass window, into the oculus mentis of the clergy, in order to establish the rules of operation for the church. As Grosseteste explained in De Libero Arbitrio, the light shining through the stained glass windows is the “operation of divine grace,” as a light without a corporeal source. Inscriptions above the windows describe “dwellers in the Heavenly City and the weapons with which they overcame the Stygian Tyrant,” so that the windows represent the heavenly cities, as in the De Civitate Dei of St. Augustine, of Bethlehem and Jerusalem. The windows allow the architecture to play the role of reinforcing standards of Christian justice in medieval society. In Byzantine architecture, the heavenly cities can be found in the spandrels of the triumphal arch sepa-

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rating the nave from the altar, as the gateway to paradise, as at the Church of Sant’Apollinare in Classe, outside Ravenna. The Bishop’s Eye in Lincoln Cathedral is the greater of the two windows, because it faces south to receive the Holy Spirit, while the Dean’s Eye faces north to protect the church against the devil. The two windows illuminate the cathedral from the “lantern of heaven,” the great transept, which “with these eyes surveys the gloom of Lethe,” the oblivion of the river of forgetfulness in Hades. While the two great windows symbolize the Bishop and Dean, the clerestory windows below symbolize the canons, and in the aisles, the vicars, in a descending hierarchy from spiritual to more material and mundane affairs. The hierarchy of windows can be seen in the same way as the syncopated arcading, as a diagram of the order of the Church, an imago generalis ecclesiae, and as the reflection of light described by Grosseteste in his Epistolae, from the Bishop to the clergy of the cathedral. The cathedral is compared to an organic body by Henry of Avranches, in the same way that ars, logos, and architecture are “the pattern of all creatures” for Grosseteste. In the Metrical Life, the cathedral is not just the body, but also the intellect and spirit. The “foundation is the body, the wall the man, the roof the spirit; a threefold division of the church. The body belongs to the earth, man to the clouds, the spirit to the stars.” The cathedral incorporates material intellect, nous hylikos or virtus cogitativa; creative or agent intellect, nous poietikos or virtus intellectiva; and active or divine intellect, intelligentia, as a catechism of the ascension of the anima rationalis. The tripartite division of the building as described by Henry of Avranches represents the Trinity, and it represents the tripartite division of being in esoteric and Neoplatonic philosophies: matter, intellect and spirit. The same tripartite division is represented in the structure of the pyramids at Giza in ancient Egypt, in the Egyptian Sphinx, and in the floor levels ascending towards the altar in the Byzantine Cathedral of San Marco in Venice. The tripartite division also corresponds to the levels of being described by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola in the Oration on the Dignity of Man, the manifesto of Renaissance Humanism. According to Pico, “God the Father, the Mightiest Architect,” the Platonic Demiurge, “had already raised, according to the precepts of His hidden wisdom,” the inaccessible archetypes, “this world we see, the cosmic dwelling of divinity, a temple most august.”16 In the Renaissance the church was always seen as a microcosm of the architecture of the cosmos. “He had already adorned the supercelestial region with Intelligences,” the intelligentia of Grosseteste, “infused the heavenly globes

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with the life of immortal souls,” the children of the Demiurge in the Timaeus of Plato who carry out the intelligible designs of the Demiurge in the material world, “and set the fermenting dungheap of the inferior world teeming with every form of animal life,” apparently devoid of intellect. “But when this work was done, the Divine Artificer still longed for some creature which might comprehend the meaning of so vast an achievement,” as divine intelligence might participate in human intelligence, as described by Plotinus in the Enneads, “which might be moved with love at its beauty and smitten with awe at its grandeur.” Love was described by Pico’s teacher, Marsilio Ficino, as desire for the Good and universal beauty. “When, consequently, all else had been completed…in the very last place, He bethought Himself of bringing forth man.” As human intellect takes its place in the hierarchy of being between the material and spiritual, its place is a privileged one because it alone can unite the material and spiritual, the species sensibilis and the species apprehensibils. Human intellect is thus to be placed on a pedestal in the Renaissance, due to its vital role in the order of things, forming an important tenet of Humanism, as expressed in the Vitruvian Man of Leonardo da Vinci, where man connects heaven and earth, the circle and the square, and both the body and intellect of man are a microcosm of the design of the cosmos, in mathematics and geometry. The colors of the body of the church represent the virtues of the heavenly cities in the Metrical Life. “The hewn white stone stands for the chaste and wise: whiteness is decency [and purity] and its shaping, doctrine [justice].” In the dark marble, “smooth, shining, dark, is signified the Bride [the Virgin Mary], frank, virtuous, afflicted. Its smoothness truly exemplifies her utter candor, the polish her virtues, and the darkness her distress.” The colors are the product of the lumen spiritualis, the spiritual light reflected in the corporeal world, in the species sensibilis, by the lux spiritualis. The “consummation of the whole allegory” is that “the insentient stones conceal the mysteries of stones that live; the fabric made with hands displays that of the spirit; the outward appearance of the church shines doubly, enriched with twofold array.” The architecture of the church combines the material and the spiritual, the virtus cogitativa and the intelligentia, the species sensibilis and the species apprehensibilis, in Grosseteste’s terms. The architecture is the imprint on matter of the idea of the architect, as the organic body is the imprint on matter of the divine intelligence, discernible to someone whose intellectual ascension allows divine intellect to participate in their material intellect. As in the Republic of Plato, the mental faculty of the initi-

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ate described by Socrates “will not rest content with each set of particulars which opinion takes for reality, but soars with undimmed and unwearied passion till he grasps the nature of each thing as it is” (490),17 as the species apprehensibilis. In the Enneads of Plotinus, in order for the soul to understand the Good, it must become like the Good, so “first let each become godlike and each beautiful who cares to see God and Beauty” (I.6.9). Such is the goal of the architecture of the cathedral, and the practices within. Having seen the important precedents for Lincoln at Durham Cathedral, in the rib vault, pointed arch, and the liberties taken with the floating corbels and quadripartite vaults, in a differentiation between an intelligible structure and a physical structure, the other building which provided important precedents for the architecture of Lincoln Cathedral was the Cathedral of Christchurch at Canterbury. The eastern part of Canterbury was destroyed by fire in September of 1174, as documented by Gervase of Canterbury, one of the monks. That part of the cathedral was rebuilt between 1175 and 1185, which was also documented by Gervase. According to Gervase, the monks of Canterbury summoned masons from England and France, and were impressed by the “lively genius and good reputation”18 of the French mason William of Sens, who decided to demolish the Norman arcades and clerestory which survived the fire. Gervase chronicled the construction year by year. In 1175 two piers on each side of the west end of the choir were constructed. In the next year an additional pier was added on each side, with arches and supporting aisle vaults for the first three bays. Two more bays were added the following year, along with a gallery, clerestory and vault for the first five bays of the choir. In 1178 the sixth bay of the choir and the transept were constructed. The building project went smoothly for the entire ten years, except for the accident of William of Sens in 1178, when he fell from scaffolding while supervising work on the vault over the high altar, after having completed the sixth bay of the choir and the transepts, which forced him to retire to France, and to be replaced by William the Englishman. The new architect completed a new crypt by 1181, and began construction of the outer walls of the Trinity Chapel. The piers for the chapel were completed by the next year, and the walls of the Corona behind it, Becket’s Crown (Figure 6). Everything was vaulted and structurally complete by 1184. The shrine of Thomas Becket, who was murdered in the cathedral in 1170 and canonized as St. Thomas of Canterbury in 1173, was added to the short Norman choir built under Bishop Lanfranc (1070–1077), after the

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Norman Conquest, which consisted of two bays and an apse, and was extended in the twelfth century under Bishop Anselm (Saint Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1093–1109) and Bishop Conrad (Prior Conrad, d. 1127) to include a pair of eastern transepts and the chapels of St. Anselm and St. Andrew. The body of Thomas Becket, which was originally buried in the crypt, was placed in the new shrine, Trinity Chapel, built by William the Englishman, in 1220. For the Trinity Chapel, William the Englishman followed the main lines of the choir. Becket was murdered after he returned from exile in Sens, which resulted from his arguments with King Henry II. In the north transept of the crossing, four knights, acting in support of the king, stabbed Becket to death. Afterwards, a hair shirt swarming with lice was found under his robe. He was recognized as a saint, and Henry II performed penance at his tomb, being flagellated by monks. The tomb of Thomas Becket became the most important pilgrimage destination in medieval England, as Becket became a symbol of resistance to tyrannical authority. The Canterbury Tales of Chaucer were inspired by the journey along the Pilgrim’s Way from London to Canterbury. So many offerings accumulated at the shrine that by 1538, when it was destroyed by Henry VIII, determined to destroy the symbol of resistance to the king, twenty-six wagons were required to cart all the offerings away. The importance of Canterbury was established long before the murder of Becket. In 597, the missionary Saint Augustine was sent by Pope Gregory from Rome to Canterbury to convert England to Christianity. He gave a sermon to the Anglo-Saxon King of Kent, Ethelbert, and later that year Ethelbert was baptized, according to Saint Bede the Venerable’s history of England. Augustine became the first Archbishop of Canterbury, and Canterbury became the see of the primate of England. Following the Norman Conquest, the Archbishops Lanfranc and Anselm, who initiated the building of the great cathedral, would also come to be considered the fathers of English Scholasticism, based on their writings and sermons. Archbishop Lanfanc built the largest monastery in England, with a complex of Benedictine buildings, including a cloister, chapter house, dormitory, refectory and cellarer’s lodgings on the north side of the cathedral. The rebuilding of the eastern end of Canterbury was directed by William of Sens, a French architect who imported stone from Caen in Normandy for the project, from 1174 to 1179. William of Sens’ work consists of the choir (Figure 7), which contains stalls for the monks across five bays between the central tower and the eastern crossing; the presbytery (Figure 8), across three

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bays east of the crossing, with a high altar raised on a few steps; and a final bay of the presbytery, containing the throne of St. Augustine, the first Archbishop of Canterbury in the sixth century. William of Sens was able to replace the piers in the new French Gothic style, but he was limited to the original Norman plan. The resulting new building was much higher, with slenderer proportions, pointed arches, and a ribbed vault. While Gothic elements appeared at Durham, and at Ripon and Roche Abbey, Yorkshire, around 1170, in the Cistercian building tradition, the choir of William of Sens is considered to be the earliest surviving Gothic building in England. The architecture is a compromise between the desire to build a new cathedral in the French style, and existing local requirements. The architecture is French in that it has a semicircular ambulatory, flying buttresses hidden under the aisle roofs, coupled columns, acanthus capitals, and two-bay sexpartite vaults. While the walls along the plan are thick Norman walls, with thick piers alternating between cylindrical and octagonal, a combination repeated in the sculpted capitals, the height of the arcade suggests the French cathedral; it comprises about sixty percent of the elevation, and the gallery and clerestory above look diminished in relation to it. Responds rising from the cylindrical columns support transverse ribs which transform a quadripartite vault into a sexpartite vault in the French style, but the continuity of the French system is interrupted by the alternating piers. A single shaft supports the extra transverse ribs, while tripartite bundled shafts support the diagonal ribs and the main transverse ribs, creating an alternation which expresses the hierarchy of supports, as at Notre Dame in Paris or Laon. The ribs of the vault rise from corbels with alternating square and canted abaci, corresponding to the alternating circular and octagonal piers at the bottom of the respective responds. The square abaci are placed on top of the single slender shafts, which support the extra transverse ribs which intersect with the diagonal ribs at a boss along the ridge line of the vault, while the canted abaci are placed on the tripartite bundled shafts, which support the diagonal ribs and the main transverse ribs which delimit the bays of the vault. The corbels are placed at the bottom of the round arches of the gallery, at the same level of the abaci of the arches and sub-arches, so the springing of the vault is carried to below the base of the clerestory, in contradiction to French standards. At Durham, the corbels were placed about halfway between the sub-arches of the gallery and the base of the clerestory, in the spandrels between the main arches, but the spandrels are much reduced at Canterbury, given the height of the arcade and clerestory.

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The diagonal ribs receive the most well-articulated support, as opposed to the nave of Durham, where the diagonal ribs rest on the corbels floating in the spandrels of the arcade. At Durham the structural system is contradicted by the visual composition; at Canterbury the visual composition represents a logical structural system, but it is a false one, an intelligible structure, as the vault is supported by the arcade wall and hidden buttresses. The responds rest on top of the abaci of the piers, propped up on their projecting ledges, as in contemporary French cathedrals, such as Notre Dame in Paris (similar arrangements can also be found at Ripon, Reims, Laon, Senlis, Sens, and Vézelay). At that point the structural logic does not coincide with the visual composition, as it is impossible to imagine an entire vault being supported on the ledges of abaci of shafts. While the arcade is extended and the gallery is well-articulated with arches set in arches and doubled Purbeck columns, the clerestory is pushed back behind Purbeck columns and almost hidden under the severies of the vault. The sexpartite vault was the first in England, and its use was short-lived, as variations developed by the end of the twelfth century, beginning with the ridge rib at Lincoln. The sexpartite vault was used at St. Denis in France in the 1140s, and at Senlis and Noyon, though those vaults have not survived. The best example of the sexpartite vault in France can be found at Sens, though it was partially reconstructed in the thirteenth century. As at Canterbury, the diagonal ribs at Sens are semicircular arcs, and the transverse ribs are pointed and all the same pitch, reducing the thrust of the vault. Unlike Canterbury, the shafts in the elevation are designed to correspond to the static forces from the ribs; they rise from the ground, and continue in front of the clerestory, forming a complete skeletal structure, as opposed to the variety of subdivisions to which the shafts are subjected in the elevation of the Canterbury choir. This is made possible in part at Sens by the use of the flying buttress, which allowed the vault to be supported without a heavily articulated clerestory level, like the one at Canterbury, and allowed for greater expanse of glass in the clerestory, thus more light. The profiles of the ribs at Sens were excessive and inconsistent, and this problem was corrected at Notre Dame in Paris, begun in 1163. The culmination of the development of the sexpartite vault in France occurred at Bourges, begun 1172, and soon thereafter it was replaced by the quadripartite vault, as the additional thrusts were no longer needed with the development of the flying buttress. Along with the sexpartite vault, the proportions of the elevations in the choir, the profiles of the bases and archivolts, and paired columns with at-

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tached shafts, have been cited as derived from the cathedral at Sens, the home town of the architect in France. The cathedral at Sens had an important symbolic connection to Canterbury, as it was where Thomas Becket spent his years in exile, and it contained the only important relics of Becket outside of Canterbury, namely his mass vestments. The necessity to build in relation to the original Norman church at Canterbury prevented the result from being French Gothic architecture, so the architecture consists of elements of pure French Gothic architecture, distorted French Gothic architecture, and local Norman traditions. The upper walls of the elevations at Canterbury are much thicker than in France; they are supported by transverse arches in the galleries and aisles, and an internal passage above in the clerestory. This combination has some precedent in Norman churches, and in French churches like Laon, so, as in other details, the architecture is a compromise between French and Norman traditions. Many of the decorative motifs used by William of Sens, including chevron and roll mouldings on the vault ribs, dogtooth in the stringcourses, waterleaf capitals, and polished Purbeck marble shafts, are derived from previous work at the cathedral under Prior Wilbert (1153–74), which is classified as Romanesque. Wilbert supervised several changes to the Norman cathedral, and the construction of the Infirmary Chapel and the Treasury. French influences were already present in the work under Wilbert, and many of the masons and sculptors continued on with William of Sens, perhaps further inspired by his origins. Along with stone from Normandy, William of Sens made liberal use of polished Purbeck marble (fossiliferous limestone from the south coast of England) for shafts and stringcourses, as did his successor from 1179 to 1184, William the Englishman, set against a light-colored stone background. The eclectic polyphony of French and Norman themes, materials, colors and patterns, was to be very influential in the development of English Gothic architecture, establishing a precedent, as did Durham, for pattern and texture. Gervase described the excessive articulation of the cathedral: “There used to be no marble shafts, while here they are numberless.”19 The influence can be seen in a new nave and choir at Chichester after a fire in 1187, with piers surrounded by freestanding Purbeck marble shafts. The influence can be seen in the retrochoir of Winchester Cathedral, built between 1189 and 1204, and a new presbytery at Rochester, built in 1214, with sexpartite vaults. The influence can be seen in the nave at Lincoln Cathedral (Figure 9) in the height of the arcade, the archivolts of the pointed arcade arches, the Purbeck marble shafts around the piers, and the bundled responds which rise from

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each pier to about the same height of the arcaded gallery. William of Sens’ choir aisles are two-storied, because he preserved the original windows and arcading from the choir built under Anselm. The responds in the first level are the original, while the responds in the second level were designed by William. In the triforium, trefoil windows replace the original tribune windows. William inserted an arcaded interior wall passage above the aisles and behind the clerestory, a motif which did not exist in France. The wall passage provides additional support for the vault, independent of the buttressing. The presbytery of William of Sens was complete by 1178, including ten piers for the three bays and altar, aisle vaults, gallery and clerestory. The design of the elevations is the same as the choir, based on contemporary French architecture, except for a more elaborate, eccentric and experimental treatment of the freestone piers and attached marble shafts (the fact that they were experimental is shown by the fact that the designs were revised more than once during construction). From the eastern crossing, the first piers are encased in a number of thin Purbeck marble shafts with acanthus capitals, which continue through the arcade level, similar to Notre Dame in Paris. The second pier is a simple thick cylindrical pier with a Byzantine version of a composite Roman capital. The third pier is octagonal with widely spaced thin attached Purbeck shafts, then a pier consisting of coupled columns with attached marble shafts, then finally a pier which is octagonal at the floor but becomes circular halfway up. The eclectic and eccentric variety of designs in the presbytery of William of Sens exceeds any structural exigency, or structural logic, and seems to be a display of eclecticism, or syncretism, for syncretism’s sake, as if to display a new international, or multi-cultural, historicist culture or architecture, perhaps to formulate a national identity, toward the end of the reign of Henry II, the first “King of England,” as opposed to “King of the English.” Such excessive eclecticism would be the defining characteristic of the architecture at Lincoln Cathedral of Geoffrey de Noyers, who supposedly worked at Canterbury prior to going to Lincoln, and it would become a defining characteristic in the development of English Gothic architecture. The excessive eclecticism also reveals an abundance of resources. The design of the aisle vaults of the presbytery is eccentric as well, with lopsided five-part vaults (Figure 10) on the north side, connecting the original Norman aisle wall with a new arcade, and distorted quadripartite vaults (Figure 11) on the south side. This eccentric vaulting can certainly be seen as a precedent for the “crazy vault” of Saint Hugh’s Choir (Figure 3) at Lincoln

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Cathedral, believed to have been designed by Geoffrey de Noyers. The vaults in the north presbytery aisle at Canterbury connect two bays of the Norman aisle with one bay of the new arcade, so William set additional responds in the aisle wall and created a ribbed groin vault, as at Durham, with transverse ribs which are not parallel, and a fifth rib in each bay which is a transverse rib in the severy on the aisle wall side. According to Gervase of Canterbury, this was necessitated by the preservation of the eastern towers above the chapels of St. Anselm and St. Andrew, which formed part of the Norman ambulatory. William had to tear out the masonry between the towers, and build an arcade wall to shore up the towers. William the Englishman is not known to have worked under William of Sens, and the work under his tenure represents a significant departure in many ways, while there are also important continuities, given that he was directing the same workshop, and was probably working largely from the same plans. The earliest work of William the Englishman, the eastern transept (Figure 12), disregards William of Sens’ work entirely. In place of the French-based tripartite elevation, consisting of arcade, gallery and clerestory, in measured proportions, William the Englishman inserted tiers of arcades, a blind arcade above a solid wall, with alternating light and dark shafts, then above that an arcade, with alternating round and pointed arches, with a passage behind it, then above that, rather than a true clerestory, a tall arcade with a passage behind it. In chapels in the transept, almost Islamic-looking pointed arches, with shallow arcs and multiple archivolts, are supported by extremely thin shafts with round abaci and round bases, unlike anything produced by William of Sens. In appearance the shafts have no structural relation to the arches, as they do not in actuality. The clerestory windows are not aligned with the existing windows in the chapels, but rather with the sexpartite vaulting above, in mathematical sequences, so that the vault and the clerestory do not match the elevation. The transverse ribs in the vault are “stilted,” that is the curvature is flattened out above the clerestory, as are the diagonal ribs, in order to let more light in through the clerestory. The proportions of the arches in the tier below are irregular, with long flat cycloid-like arches alternating with squeezed pointed arches, so that between the vault and the elevations the architecture looks very strange and disproportionate, nothing like logical French Gothic architecture. Again, it is not hard to make a leap from the architecture of William the Englishman at Canterbury to the original and eccentric architecture which would be produced shortly thereafter at Lincoln Cathedral (suppos-

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edly by Geoffrey de Noyers), taking complete liberties with French precedents (and Norman precedents as well) in their structural logic and clarity. At the north and south ends of the transept William inserted a rose window in the gables, but then placed thin shafts in front of them in the clerestory passage. He completed the sexpartite vault over the west high altar bay of the presbytery begun by William of Sens, and by 1180, the vaulting of the presbytery was complete. In the design of the Trinity Chapel, William the Englishman did not have to conform to any pre-existing Norman conditions. A shrine was necessary for the martyred Saint Thomas, who had already become a popular cult figure, and the shrine was placed directly above the tomb in the crypt where Thomas was previously buried. The floor level was raised above the high altar to create a procession through the choir and presbytery, culminating in the Trinity Chapel and Corona. For an unknown reason, the aisles of the chapel are not parallel, and the arcades bow outwards from the presbytery arcade walls of William of Sens. The chapel is supported by the massive walls of the crypt below, which is spacious because of the raised floor level. The architecture of the crypt is plain, undecorated, and Romanesque, recalling the architecture of Durham. The Trinity Chapel above is filled with richly colored marbles, sculpture and sparkling stained glass, creating a luxuriant opulence, an opulence that could originally be found in many English Gothic cathedrals, as walls and furnishings were often originally painted to create a colorful fantasia in combination with the stained glass windows. The clerestory and gallery of the chapel are the same as in the presbytery, with the minimal amount of masonry in the clerestory, just twin slender piers modeled on the clerestory of Sens, to maximize the light in the chapel. The vault behind the arcade is not supported by the outer aisle wall; instead its ribs terminate on freestanding bundles of shafts, and a passage, wide enough to walk through, is inserted between them and the exterior wall, which is filled with tall lancet stained glass windows. William the Englishman rejects the thick wall arcade of William of Sens, and dematerializes the architecture to allow the chapel to be flooded with light. The vaults are separated from the wall to create a skeletal structure, made possible by one of the earliest uses of flying buttresses. The dematerialization is reminiscent of the ambulatory of Abbot Suger at St. Denis north of Paris, where arcade walls are replaced by thin arcade shafts. The Abbot Suger is believed to have been inspired by the light mysticism of Pseudo-Dionysus, to allow the worshipper to enjoy as much as possible the presence of light, to signify the presence of God, but the most

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important thing that St. Denis and the Trinity Chapel have in common is their function as national shrines, so the light would play an important role in the illumination of ritual nationalistic ceremony. The same would be true later in the Sainte Chapelle in Paris, and at Westminster Abbey. The skeletal structure of the chapel aisles, considered to be William the Englishman’s most important innovation as an architect, establishes an important precedent for experiments in later English Gothic architecture, at Bristol and Gloucester, for example, where the vaulting arrangement becomes independent of the structure it is in theory supporting, and independent of a structural system altogether, as in the pendant vault. William the Englishman’s aisle vaulting is an example of Gothic dematerialization, and it is also an example of English Gothic compartmentalization, where the vocabulary of the architecture is elaborated and subdivided, as in the rib vault at Durham, in a way that corresponds to the organization of the Scholastic summa, into partes, membra, quaestiones, distinctiones, and articuli, for the purpose of clarifying and articulating articles of faith in the manifestatio. The articles of faith can be clarified and articulated in excess because they do not need to be proven, as they are given to and products of the mystical and ineffable divine. This was reflected in the motto of Anselm of Canterbury, “faith seeking understanding” (fides quaerens intellectum), as expressed in his Monologion, in the goal of establishing a faith based in reason, a project which culminated in the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas, giving reason for Anselm, who succeeded Lanfranc as Archbishop of Canterbury, to sometimes be called the “Father of Scholasticism.” In the aisles of the Trinity Chapel the articles of faith, clarified and articulated in the skeletal vaulting structure, stand before the ineffable presence of the divine in the mystical light entering the stained glass windows. The mystical light is the lux spiritualis, which is diffused through the windows into the chapel as the lumen spiritualis, illuminating the material world with reflected light from the incorporeal light. The lumen spiritualis is diffused, reflected and refracted in the corporeal world according to mathematics and geometry, which then form material or organic objects, as archetypes form material or organic objects through mathematics and geometry in the Timaeus of Plato. Anselm of Canterbury, influenced by the Divine Names of Pseudo-Dionysius, equated the Good with light in his Monologion. According to Pseudo-Dionysius in the Divine Names, “Light comes from the Good” (IV.4),20 as the lumen spiritualis comes from the lux spiritualis in Grosseteste’s terms, the material from the immaterial. The Good according

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to Pseudo-Dionysius both participates in and remains inaccessible to all things. In the Divine Names, “The goodness of the transcendent God reaches from the highest and most perfect forms of being to the very lowest. And yet it remains above and beyond them all, superior to the highest and yet stretching out to the lowest.” In the Republic of Plato, the archetypal intellect, the Good, is seen as “producing in the visible region light and the source of light,” being the source of light but not partaking of light itself, and “being in the intelligible region itself controlling source of truth and intelligence” (517). This constitutes what Plato called “the hymn of the dialectic,” the dialectic between the intelligible light and the visible light, the lux spiritualis and lumen spiritualis of Grosseteste. The visible light, diffused through space and illuminating the material world and the architecture as a catechism of it, is the imitation of the spiritual light, aspiring towards the essence of the Good, the intelligible, as in the Allegory of the Cave in the Republic, where the “ascent into the upper world and the sight of the objects there,” in the oculus mentis, can be connected to “the upward progress of the mind into the intelligible region,” or the virtus intellectiva of Grosseteste. In the dialectic, the intelligible can be represented in terms of vision, “by the progress of sight from shadows” (Republic 532), from the dark beyond human understanding, as described by Anselm in his Oratio ad sanctum Nicolaum, to beings and stars, or the articulated vocabulary of the architecture. The exercise of the dialectic is ultimately carried out by reason in the realm of faith without the aid of the senses, and culminates in pure thought, noesis, the “summit of the intellectual realm,” which is represented in the visual realm by the sun, or in the cathedral, the light of the stained glass window, in relation to the geometries of the tracery and vaulting, in a progression from the spiritual to material. According to Grosseteste, intelligibles are illuminated in the mind’s eye, the oculus mentis, if they are allowed to be by the individual, by the reflected spiritual light, the lumen spiritualis, from the lux spiritualis, which allows the intellect to be participated in by divine intellect, as facilitated by the architecture of the cathedral. In the Mystical Theology of Pseudo-Dionysius, God is sought in the “brilliant darkness of a hidden silence,” reflecting the via negativa of medieval mysticism, Negative Theology, and the docta ignorantia. Anselm, in the Oratio ad sanctum Nicolaum, described the judgments of God as an abyss, because they are beyond human understanding. While the divine mind can be qualified, clarified and articulated, it cannot ultimately be understood, as

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in the architecture, the clarification and articulation of the vocabulary elements and the structure are only elaborations of the ineffable light which illuminates the space, the essence of which remains inaccessible. As Nicolas Cusanus would describe in De docta ignorantia, visible things are understood as enigmas and images of divine creation, the unreachable spirit and symbol of origin, hidden and incomprehensible to us, but which nevertheless has proportion, and is the cause of the material world, and the source of everything intelligible in the virtus intellectiva. In the De coniecturis of Cusanus, God can be observed in the process of unfolding, and a similitude of Him is produced in our minds, called the similitudines intelligibilium impressas ab eisdem intellectui nostro at the Accademia di San Luca. As God himself is inaccessible to reason, he can be observed through proportion, as it is manifest in arithmetic and geometry, as in architecture, numbers and figures being symbols of divine reason, as hieroglyphs were for Plotinus. The skeletal structure of the vaulting in the aisles serves as a diagram or catechism of the mathematical and geometrical structures which form the universe from the originary lux spiritualis, and they provide a mechanism by which the worshipper in the church can become closer to God, by using the structure of the architecture as a guide for the ascension of the anima rationalis from the material intellect tied to the sensible world, to the agent intellect tied to the intelligibles, by which the active divine intellect can be understood. In De Luce (On Light, 1225–1228) and De lineis, angulis et figuris (On Lines, Angles and Figures, 1228–1233), written at Oxford, Robert Grosseteste would describe natural bodies (as suggested by the skeletal structures in the architecture) as being formed by mathematical and geometrical entities created from light, as reflected from the lux spiritualis, the incorporeal, mystical light; and in the Commentary on the Posterior Analytics (1228–1235) and the Hexaemeron (c. 1237), Grosseteste would describe the ascension of the anima rationalis from the material intellect, virtus cogitativa, to the agent intellect, virtus intellectiva, in the apprehension of the divine intellect, intelligentia. Anselm of Canterbury expressed the idea that the material world could be understood as an image of the divine mind, and that the forms of the world, and the ideas associated with them in human intellect, can be seen as fragmented and temporal copies, “the twilight world of change and decay” as described in the Republic (508), the shadows cast on the wall of the cave, of a perfect eternal unity which is the divine, as in the One of Plotinus, which is inaccessible to human intellect, but which participates in everything in the

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world, as given by faith. The One of Plotinus is as the First Cause in the Liber de Causis, an Arabic work derived from the Elements of Theology of Proclus, translated into Latin at least by 1187, perhaps by Gerard of Cremona. Like the One, the First Cause is “above all description” (V.57),21 inaccessible to intellect. It can only be described through the second causes which are illuminated by the light of the First Cause, the second causes being the intelligibles in the virtus intellectiva as described by Grosseteste, which are necessary to comprehend in order to comprehend that which is incomprehensible, as in the via negativa. The First Cause illuminates intellect with “a pure light above which there is no light” (V.58), as in the lux spiritualis described by Grosseteste in De Luce and the Hexaemeron, and represented by the stained glass window. The light of the First Cause is an eternal light which is not lit by any other light, not participated in by anything, but lights everything and participates in everything. According to Plotinus, “In the intellectual, the vision sees not through some medium but by and through itself alone,” in the irradiatio spiritualis, “for its object is not external” (V.3.8). As the mechanisms of vision are projected onto the sensible world through the anima rationalis, in the formation of the species sensibilis through the species apprehensibilis, in Grosseteste’s terms, so vision itself is not completely dependent on external light, but also on an internal light, which is the source of the truest form of seeing in vision for Plotinus: “there is an earlier light within itself, a more brilliant, which it sees sometimes in a momentary flash….This is sight without the act, but it is the truest seeing, for it sees light whereas its other objects were the lit not the light” (V.5.7). Such vision is the product of the irradiatio spiritualis from the lux spiritualis, and it is this kind of vision which the architecture of the cathedral encourages in the viewer. The vision of the Intellectual Principle of Plotinus depends on its withdrawal from the world of matter, so that it “must have its vision—not of some light in some other thing but of the light within itself, unmingled, pure, suddenly gleaming before it.” The pure light gleaming before it is the light of the Good, the primeval fire of Anaximander, the being prior to matter, the Platonic archê. Thus “It is a principle with us that one who has attained to the vision of the Intellectual Beauty and grasped the beauty of the Authentic Intellect will be able also to come to understand the Father and Transcendent of that Divine Being” (V.8.1), in the experience of the architecture of the cathedral, and in the intellectual ascension that it accommodates toward the virtus intellectiva. The architecture of the Gothic cathedral can be described as hieratic, that

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is, as representing a reality other than sensible reality, as hieroglyphs were believed to do, in the same way that Byzantine mosaics were described as hieratic, as facilitating ascension to another world, rather than representing the physical world. To that end, the spatial relations of the Byzantine mosaic were in deliberate contradiction of physical spatial relations, and it is believed that the mosaics were organized according to “reverse perspective,” with the vanishing point in the eye of the viewer, so that the mosaic was the projection of an internal image, the species apprehensibilis in the oculus mentis illuminated by the irradiatio spiritualis. The architecture can be called hieratic in that it represents the intelligible world of the divine intellect in its intelligible structure, as opposed to the physical world, and it is a projection of the internal intelligible structure in the mind of the viewer. As Plotinus says in the Enneads, “The faculty of perception in the Soul cannot act by the immediate grasping of sensible objects, but only by the discerning of impressions printed upon the Animate [soul] by sensation: these perceptions are already Intelligibles, while the outer sensation is a mere phantom of the other (of that in the Soul) which is nearer to AuthenticExistence…” (I.1.7). The phantom of the outer sensation is the transparency projected by the extramission of light from the eye of the impressions printed upon the Animate, the species sensibilis which has been formed by the species apprehensibilis in Grossteste’s terms, and which appears to discursive reason in material intellect to be an immediate perception of the sensible world. The sensible experience of the architecture is a product of the intelligible experience of the architecture, and the source of the sensible beauty and richness of the architecture is its intelligible structure, a product of divine intelligentia as it is perceived by the virtus intellectiva, as it is diffused from the lux spiritualis through the stained glass window into the refracted and rarefacted lumen spiritualis into the mathematical and geometrical proportions which define the intelligible and physical structure of the architecture. The refracted and rarefacted light and geometries would be more elaborately represented in Lincoln Cathedral in the form of ribs, tiercerons, liernes, conoid vaults, umbrella vaults, etc., a more thorough representation of the function of the cathedral in its representation of the mechanisms of human vision and understanding, and of the structure of being in relation to the ineffable source of being. Above the arcade in the Trinity Chapel at Canterbury, the gallery of the presbytery is transformed into a triforium with a wall passage, and William of Sens’ system of paired arches each with paired sub-arches is replaced by a

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series of thin lancets with pointed arches, archivolts, and sub-arches with their own supporting shafts on either side of the main shaft, as opposed to a shaft in the center in William of Sens’ scheme. The effect, based on the triforium of Laon Cathedral, continues the effect of the arcade vaulting: it is a more skeletal, attenuated, dematerialized system, more rigorous mathematically, and less decorative: in sum, more French than William of Sens. The Corona, or Becket’s Crown, continues the themes of the chapel: dematerialization, compartmentalization, and light, with tiers of arcaded galleries and extra light through the clerestory. William of Sens was the last important French architect to work in England (except perhaps Henry of Reyns at Westminster Abbey and Windsor in the thirteenth century), and the immediate influence of French architecture in the development of English Gothic architecture ends at Canterbury, until at least it is taken up again at Westminster in the Decorated style. To the extent that French motifs are employed at Lincoln, such as the sexpartite vault, they are subject to radical revision, and rendered unrecognizable. Nevertheless, the sexpartite vault, elevation scheme, bundled shafts, and experimental spatial relationships of Canterbury, along with the rib vault, pointed arch, and experimental structural relations at Durham Cathedral, all converge at Lincoln. Lincoln Cathedral was established by Bishop Remigius, following the Norman Conquest, who moved the see there in 1073 from Dorchester-onThames in Oxfordshire. Remigius was a Norman monk appointed by William the Conqueror, who built a castle in Lincoln. A Norman cathedral was built on axis with the castle, which provided protection for it, by Remigius, and it was consecrated in 1092 by the second bishop, Robert Bloet. Alexander, the third bishop, continued the building, including perhaps a stone vault over the nave, but only a part of the west front of that cathedral remains after an earthquake in April 1185. The rebuilding of the cathedral was begun by Bishop Hugh of Avalon, a Carthusian monk who reluctantly became Bishop in 1186. The rebuilding began with the choir, known as Saint Hugh’s Choir, and the eastern transepts (Figure 13), between 1192 and 1210, under the direction of Geoffrey de Noyers, who had worked at Canterbury, and Richard the Mason. An eastern apse with chapels was also constructed, but later demolished in order to build the Angel Choir. Most of the rest of the cathedral was built between 1215 and 1255, including the great transept, chapter house, nave, lateral extensions of the west front with chapels behind them, the Galilee Porch, and the crossing. The Norman west front was extended to form a screen, with tiers of blind arcad-

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ing forming an elaborate patterned or textured surface. Most of this work was directed by Master Alexander, and carried out during the episcopate of Robert Grosseteste (1235–53), whose prolific writings can be seen to reveal to a great extent the signification of the geometries used in the architecture. The east end of the cathedral, the Angel Choir, was built between 1256 and 1280, under the direction of Simon of Thirsk, to provide a shrine for the remains of the canonized Saint Hugh. The cloisters were added and the central tower was completed in the early fourteenth century, and by the end of the century the complex was completed by its spired west towers. For three hundred years, Lincoln Cathedral, with its towers and spires, was the tallest building in the world. Amazingly, the bulk of the cathedral was constructed in just sixty years. Bishop Hugh of Avalon, who was French, employed Geoffrey de Noyers (who may have been French—there is a Noyers near Sens in France—but who was more likely English), who had worked under William of Sens at Canterbury, and the influence can be seen in certain places at Lincoln. Geoffrey may also have worked under William’s successor at Canterbury, William the Englishman. The additive plan of Lincoln Cathedral, with two pairs of transepts, follows the plan of the rebuilding of Canterbury between 1175 and 1184, but is unlike anything in France, with its series of projections at right angles to the nave. The eastern apse with chapels built during the time of Saint Hugh, only the footprint of which remains in the Angel Choir, was very similar to the choir at Canterbury. Many of the details of the architecture at Lincoln can be seen to be elaborations of the details at Canterbury: plain piers surrounded by Purbeck shafts, crockets allowed to run down the piers, multiple-layered triforia and arcading, multiple clerestory windows per bay, sexpartite vaulting, and paired apses in the transepts. The use of Purbeck marble, inspired by Canterbury, is one of the most distinguishing features of the cathedral. The Metrical Life of Saint Hugh called it lapidum preciosa nigrorum materies, and described the cathedral as “repeatedly glittering like stars,” creating a “sparkling brilliance to the view.”22 It was brought in ships from quarries in Dorset which were close to the shore. The vaulting throughout the aisles at Lincoln is based on vaulting at Canterbury. The freestanding responds and multiple clerestory windows per bay at Lincoln can be found in the Trinity Chapel at Canterbury. Nevertheless, the most “French” features of Canterbury, including acanthus capitals, square abaci, flattened arch mouldings, and pure sexpartite vaulting, do not appear at Lincoln. Despite the French

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connections and precedents, and the influence of Canterbury, Lincoln represents a complete departure from French architecture. The first important addition at Lincoln was the ridge rib along the longitudinal vault crown. It appears in the vaulting of Saint Hugh’s Choir (Figure 3), which was reconstructed after the fall of the tower in 1237 or 1239, but may have been designed as such prior to 1200, perhaps in timber construction. Some scholars believe that only the first bay east of the crossing is a reconstruction. The piers in the choir were strengthened for the new vault, and it stands to reason that the syncopated double arcading in the aisles of the choir was the result of shoring for the vault. It also stands to reason that a new stone vault was built on the new piers and arcading, by the architect of the nave. Stylistically, the vault of the choir can be related to the vaults of the nave, great transept, and chapter house, in its experimentation and emphasis on pattern, and the appearance of the tierceron. Thus it may not have been the invention of Geoffrey de Noyers, nor the syncopated arcading. The ridge rib also appears in the east transept, the great transept, the nave, between 1235 and 1245, and the nave aisles. The continuous ridge rib in the choir (Figure 3), the first of its kind in a Gothic cathedral, which has been attributed to Geoffrey de Noyers, appears to provide bracing for the bosses or keystones of the vaulting. The ridge rib is slightly arched between the bosses, to stabilize the vault longitudinally. The ridge rib lessens the size of the transverse panels or severies between the transverse ribs, lightening the load of the masonry, and it covers the joint between the panels in the vault (especially desired if the joinery of the masonry is less than perfect). The vault of the choir began as a variation of a normal quadripartite vault. In each bay, two bosses were placed on the ridge rib, perhaps because of the short width of the bays, dividing it into three sections, perhaps to accommodate the three clerestory windows. Between the bays, four ribs spring toward the ridge rib from corbels placed between the arches of the triforium, slightly higher than at Canterbury; the corbels are supported by shafts which run down the wall to a corbel between the main arches of the aisles, not supported by a pier, as at Durham. The shafts alternate between circular and hexagonal, as at Canterbury, making no sense in relation to the system of the vault, indicating that the vault may have been built differently than originally planned, after the collapse of the tower. The diagonal ribs in the choir function in the same way as could be found in France and at Durham Cathedral: the rib is placed on the crown of the severy, as in the groin vault, in order to articulate the crown line, subdi-

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viding the bays. The ridge rib aids the offset diagonal ribs, which meet at different points along the ridge rib, to increase the amount of centering in the large transverse panels and making construction easier, with an extra boss or keystone in each bay. The ridge rib seems necessary in the choir to tie together the offset severies formed by the triradial ribs. It does not seem to be necessary to strengthen the vault, though. As was seen at Durham, the groin, the intersection of the curved surfaces of the vault, is already the thickest and strongest point of the vault. The structure of the vault never fails along the groin, but rather in the cells tangent to the groin, thus perhaps the additional offset diagonal ribs in the Lincoln choir vault. The use of the rib to strengthen the sturdiest part of the vault probably allowed the masonry of the vault to be thinner, and to be placed on thinner supports. Nevertheless, the ridge ribs or diagonal ribs did nothing to alleviate the downward pressure created by the vault, though they did make it appear lighter. The triradial rib, the three ribs meeting at one keystone or boss along the ridge rib, may have been based on vaulting of the original ambulatory of Saint Hugh’s Choir which was demolished to make room for the Angel Choir in 1256. The ambulatory was trapezium-shaped, with non-parallel walls, and may have required triangular vault supports, as in the ambulatory of Notre Dame in Paris Perhaps the “crazy vault” of Saint Hugh’s Choir was inspired by the eccentric vaults designed for the presbytery aisles at Canterbury by William of Sens, with Geoffrey de Noyers as an assistant, where lopsided five-part vaults and distorted quadripartite vaults connect the original Norman aisle wall with a new arcade. The vaults at Canterbury are ribbed quadripartite groin vaults, as at Durham, with transverse ribs which are not parallel, and a fifth rib in each bay which is a transverse rib in the severy on the aisle wall side. The design of the vault resulted from the necessity of connecting two bays of the Norman aisle with one bay of the new arcade, similar to the necessity of providing openings in front of tall clerestory windows in short (along the longitudinal axis) bays in Saint Hugh’s Choir. The syncopated arcading below the vault in the aisles of Saint Hugh’s Choir, with columns in a front stone tier standing in front of the apex of the arches of a back stone tier, can be related stylistically to the vaulting, in its syncopated rhythm, alternation, and creation of a geometrical pattern and set of spatial relationships that appear to be in excess of the structural necessities of the building. Whether or not these experiments can be attributed to the visionary genius of Geoffrey de Noyers, a unique sense of experimentation and play, inspired by the experiments at Canterbury, or perhaps to interests in

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optics associated with Grosseteste in the later period, or interests in geometrical relations as a catechism of a new scientific understanding of the structure of the material world, they represent a radical new approach to architecture, and a radical departure from precedent, though their relation to precedent can be easily established. This radical new approach to architecture at Lincoln becomes the basis for the development of English Gothic architecture, through the later Geometric, Decorated, and Perpendicular styles. These elements at Lincoln can be seen to be the beginning of the Geometric style in the English Gothic; in that sense, it may be best to assign them to after 1237 or 1239 (the collapse of the tower), or the bishopric of Grosseteste, in terms of how much a departure they are from the previous work at Lincoln and at Durham and Canterbury. This later period also sees a different approach to the piers in the choir, where the crockets, a motif from Canterbury, begin to show twisted leaves in the capitals, and crockets also begin to appear up and down the shafts of the piers. Crockets make sense in the capital of the column, where the viewer would expect to see forms mimetic of flowers and blossoming, like the acanthus leaves of a Corinthian capital, at the top of the column as representing a tree, but they seem excessive up and down the pier, as if their only purpose is to make the visual experience more complex, or to purposefully contradict the structural and symbolic logic of traditional architectural motifs. Perhaps the purpose of the crockets is to disassociate the architecture from its traditional metaphysical role, of providing shelter as structure, symbolically, for the purpose of establishing a separate metaphysical structure, the intelligible structure created by the non-structural geometries. The crockets up and down the piers are also partially hidden by freestanding Purbeck shafts; grooves are hollowed out in the shafts in front of the piers with the crockets, and grooves are also hollowed out in the piers behind them, creating a visual peek a boo experience, where the viewer is compelled to look behind one form and in front of another, to explore the spatial intricacies created, in a dialectical coincidentia oppositorum, coincidence of opposites, as in the Scholastic summa, which represents the dianoetic process from the virtus cogitativa to the virtus intellectiva, as well as the process of creation. Proclus, in the Commentary on the First Book of Euclid’s Elements, defined mathematical and geometrical thought as dianoetic, being composed of dialectical and discursive processes. As opposed to opinion and perception, which “fix their attention on external things and concern themselves with objects whose causes they do not possess” (Com-

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mentary 18),23 mathematical thinking begins with numbers and geometrical figures, which are copies of eternal ideas in the material world, and then proceeds by dianoetic processes towards the “ideas that it has within; it is awakened to activity by lower realities, but its destination is the higher being of forms.” The dianoetic process operates in two directions, unification and division, as in the simultaneous processes of addition and compartmentalization in Gothic architecture. “Consequently it is only natural,” according to Proclus, “that the cognitive powers operating in the general science that deals with these objects should appear as twofold, some aiming at the unification and collection of the manifold for us, others at dividing the simple into the diverse, the more general into the particular, and the primary ideas into secondary and remoter consequences of the principles” (Commentary 19). The dianoetic process of mathematical understanding operates in both dialectical and discursive thinking. “The range of this thinking extends from on high all the way down to conclusions in the sense world,” from nous poietikos to the objects of sense perception. Division and multiplication, as represented in the architecture, are dianoetic instruments of understanding, which attempt to lead knowledge toward the intelligible, or the “indivisible, which cannot be precisely measured,” in the same way that the overlapping, syncopated geometrical forms and spatial relations in the coincidentia oppositorum lead to the divine intelligentia, the ineffable First Cause. In the Commentary on the Posterior Analytics of Robert Grosseteste, intelligentia is distinguished from intellectus. Intelligentia is also distinguished from scientia, along with solertia, the penetrating power of the oculus mentis. The higher function of intellectus, the cognitio intellectiva, is the knowledge of first principles and intelligibles, as arrived at by the dianoetic process. In the Ecclesia Sancta of Grosseteste, the cognitio intellectiva is defined as the virtus intellectualis or supersubstantialis. The lower function of intellectus is capable of grasping abstract concepts and the principles of scientific reasoning, the scientia and ratio, defined in the Ecclesia Sancta as virtus intellectiva, dialectical reasoning, while still being above the scientia or ratio, discursive reason, and being illuminated by intelligentia. In the Commentary on the Posterior Analytics, the cognitio intellectiva quae est dignitatum, the highest function of intellectus, is able to grasp the dignitates, the first principles upon which science and reason are based, as derived from mathematics and geometry. Scientific knowledge, according to Grosseteste, is based on premises

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which must be accepted and cannot be proven. Scientific knowledge and reasoning, the scientia or virtus scitiva, is a demonstrative knowledge based in dialectic and discursive reasoning, as in the dianoetic of Proclus, concerning the permanent aspects of the material world, abstracted as concepts. Mathematics and geometry are aspects of the virtus scitiva, as are the principia essendi, the principles of the essence of things. There are four kinds of universals available to the virtus scitiva, leading from material to intelligible. Genus and species are abstracted from form or eidos in sensible perception. The species, the form or image of an object as it is perceived, is intelligible in a different way than the principle of the archetype, because it is connected to the sense object, and sense perception, so is subject to material decay and confusion, but is nevertheless abstracted from it as a permanent principle of knowledge. All levels of intellectus involve the abstraction of universal ideas from the particulars of sense experience. Universals do not exist in the material world, only in human intellect, so the essence of matter, as the principia essendi, must be extracted and abstracted from the confusion of the material world and understood in intellectus as the principia conoscendi, the principles of knowledge. The third universal is that found in intelligentia, contemplative knowledge of celestial beings which the human intellect, intellectus, in virtus intellectiva or virtus scitiva, is not capable of formulating, but which can be communicated to human intellect. The fourth universal is the archetype, the eternal ratione, the cause of being and knowledge. The forms of the architecture, as they are abstracted in mathematical and geometrical relations, lead the mind of the viewer toward the universals, the intelligibles and the divine archetype, the One. In the architecture, all of this results in an elaborated intelligible structure, which is not just a geometrical pattern superimposed on an architectural surface, but an architecture in itself, a three-dimensional structure of spatial and visual relationships, a kind of intellectual fun house, which is drawn out of the architecture and in excess of the architecture itself. Paul Frankl called this mannerism, or “akyrism,” from the Greek akyros, meaning “improper,” which involves the unprecedented use of form, and the contradiction of the previous intention of the form. In the vault of Saint Hugh’s Choir, the rib which is supposed to be placed on the groove of the groin vault is instead placed on the curved surface of the severy, contradicting the originating purpose of the rib, to facilitate the construction of the vault. Forms which are precedents are being used in perverse ways, contradicting their logic, and creating an elaborate self-referential syntactical game, to

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elaborate an intelligible structure. To that extent the forms are “mannerist,” but not to the extent that mannerism is taken to be a broader cultural phenomenon, or to the extent that mannerism involves a revolutionary vision on the part of an individual. This mannerism should be confined to the Scholastic desire to clarify and elucidate the articles of faith, and the desire to weave an intelligible structure into the physical structure of the architecture. The “akyrism” at Lincoln set the stage for the entire development of English Gothic architecture, true to the English character in its perversity (according to Pevsner), but nothing else in English Gothic architecture matches the unprecedented approach to architecture at Lincoln, what can be defined as its mannerism. Because the Gothic cathedral at Lincoln was built for the most part from the ground up, and because of elaborate resources of patronage, there was no necessity for restraint or compromise in the architecture. Because of the elaborate articulation of all the architectural vocabulary elements, especially the complex mouldings, the cost of building Lincoln Cathedral was more than any French cathedral. Artisans’ wages were high, but the Church in England was wealthy, and the country was experiencing an agricultural boom. In the thirteenth century, twelve of the forty richest dioceses in Europe were in England. Dioceses in England built ambitious projects for prestige, inspired by the influence of Canterbury, and invested in elaborate detailing to signify the growing wealth, prestige, and nationalism, and autonomous authority of the Catholic Church in the wake of political instability. Rebellion against authority in the architecture perhaps reflects rebellion against political authority, and the desire to establish a national identity. The Provisions of Oxford, in 1258, were the first official public document in English as well as French, declaring that commanders of castles and ports be English, and that no inheritable land would go to foreigners. As the ridge rib is necessary to tie together offset severies formed by the triradial ribs in Saint Hugh’s Choir, it makes possible the tierceron, the nonstructural rib, introduced for the first time in this vault. It also eventually makes possible the lierne, the non-structural rib which does not extend to the springpoint of the vault. Although purists would not call them liernes, the first ribs which do not extend to the springpoint of the vault appear in the nave at Lincoln, in the form of short transverse ribs centered on the ridge rib. Technically the lierne is any rib other than the ridge rib which does not rise out of the cone of ribs in the vault springers, but it came to be identified as the rib that links transverse and tierceron ribs together.

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The lierne was first used in the nave at Lincoln (Figure 9) to focus attention on the ridge rib, to soften the longitudinality of the vault, to separate the clusters of tiercerons in each bay (so the clusters could easily be read as alternating with the elevation bays), and to create a separation between the vaulting along the ridge rib and the severies above the clerestory windows, to give the vault the appearance of solidity and perhaps to allow the severies to reflect the light from the windows downward into the nave. From such functional and compositional purposes, the lierne evolved to be primarily the main vocabulary element in pattern compositions on the surfaces of vaults. The French word lierne designates a ridge rib in French architecture, while in England the lierne is the opposite, the “contre-lierne” which mollifies the visual effect of the ridge rib. The more tiercerons and liernes in a vault, the smaller the size of the vault panels, and the easier and more secure the construction. The nave vault at Lincoln is eight feet higher than the choir and transept vaults, but it is still too low in relation to the elevations of the nave. The tierceron is the “third rib”; in the “crazy vault” it reinforces the triune grouping of elements in the vault, as it forms part of a triradial vault, with three ribs connected at a boss, and there are three lancet windows in each bay of the clerestory. The Trinity, which is the manifestation of the One, divine intelligentia, transforms the lux spiritualis through the windows into the lumen spiritualis reflected in the choir, and the lumen spiritualis is further materialized through the Trinity, as it presides over the corporeal world, in the form of the triune groupings in the vaulting, which describe the structure of the corporeal world. Nikolaus Pevsner called the tierceron vault of Saint Hugh’s Choir “the first rib-vault with purely decorative intentions,”24 that is to say, the first non-structural geometrical composition of architectural forms in the history of architecture. It is clear that the intentions were not decorative, though they may be connected with the interest in texture or pattern which begins at Durham and is present throughout the development of English Gothic architecture. Texture is seen in contradistinction to structure, and may have been seen as a means to incorporate an additional intelligible structure into the architecture of the cathedral, in other words, an additional vocabulary to create a catechism to express theological, philosophical, or cosmological ideas. The longitudinal ridge rib appears shortly after Lincoln in quadripartite vaults, with no tiercerons or liernes, or transverse ribs, in the Worcester Cathedral choir after 1224, Westminster Abbey choir after 1245, and Gloucester Cathedral nave (Figure 14) around the same time. In these cases the ridge

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rib merely serves to mark the ridge line and create a longitudinal effect. Nevertheless, tiercerons and liernes were developed from the rudimentary forms introduced at Lincoln and began to proliferate in English cathedrals, becoming among the most defining characteristics of English Gothic architecture. Besides the added centering they provide, and the reduction of the vault panel size, the tierceron and lierne vaults would play an important role in contributing to the geometrical articulation of the architecture of the cathedral for the purpose of allowing the cathedral to be a cosmology, a catechism of the material world and the hypostases of being, and to be an edificium of Scholastic thought. The architecture at Lincoln Cathedral represents the initiation of the defining characteristic of English Gothic architecture: a “handwriting” of thin, delicate lines, layered treatments, spatial interpenetrations and linear networks, which transform thick structures into complex structural and geometrical articulations. The linear networks have an intellectual and scientific value, as catechisms of cosmologies and instruments of analysis both for the self-explanation of the structure of the building and the representation of intelligible structures for intellectual and spiritual development, all of which can be related to the writings of Robert Grosseteste. The development of the tierceron and lierne ribs, along with the more complex articulations of elevations, in syncopated arcading, for example, led to an expansive experimentation with texture and linearity in architecture. The pattern becomes the main emphasis in the vault of the nave at Lincoln, where a proliferation of tiercerons, and the proto-lierne, produce a longitudinal sequence of star patterns, or if the focus is on the cluster of ribs (which is the tendency, in contradiction to the bay system), a series of “palm fronds,” as described by Nikolaus Pevsner or Christopher Wilson. In either case, the geometry produces an organic association, as if organic bodies are composed of geometries, as described in the writings of Grosseteste. Below the vault in the nave (Figure 9), the arcades, which are the widest in England except at York, allow clear views of the aisles from the nave, so that the aisles can be seen together with the nave as one space, articulated and divided, in the Scholastic spirit of compartmentalization and subdivision, by the arcade piers, creating complex spatial vistas and interpenetrations, like the syncopated arcading and attached piers in the choir. The aisles are lined with blind arcades, with Purbeck shafts supporting trefoil arches. The piers, archivolts, and gallery arches of the nave are articulated far beyond those of Durham or Canterbury, given the lack of restraint in means of

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production, and corresponding to the elaborated articulation of the vaults. The Metrical Life of Saint Hugh observed that “the little columns which surround the large column seem to perform a kind of dance.”25 The eight Purbeck shafts around each pier are freestanding, but are attached to the pier with annulets or shaft rings, which cover joints in the shafts, as the Purbeck marble could only be obtained in limited lengths. The Purbeck shafts are repeated on the gallery and clerestory levels. Almost no square inch of the cathedral is saved the multiplicity of articulation, as if, acting as a catechism of the makeup of matter, matter were divided and subdivided to the point of infinity, or to the point of the ineffable First Cause, and the arguments of the Scholastic summa were articulated and divided to the point of infinity, again, to the point of the ineffable First Cause. The vaulting of the chapter house at Lincoln (Figure 15) can perhaps be seen as the culmination of the experiments which define the beginning of the Geometrical period, though the later vaulting of the tower might represent a further culmination. There is evidence, in the Metrical Life of Saint Hugh, written between 1220 and 1230, that the chapter house was begun before 1220, but, although the Metrical Life states that it was completed by Bishop Hugh of Wells before his death in 1235, there is no evidence that it was vaulted by then, and was most likely vaulted later, around the time of the nave construction, during the bishopric of Grosseteste. This would make sense stylistically, as the vaulting of the chapter house shows knowledge of the vaulting of the choir and nave. This is agreed upon by most historians. The east walk of the cloister is contemporary with the chapter house, while the rest of the cloister was constructed after 1290. The chapter house, as the principal meeting place, was built as a symbol of the wealth and power of the cathedral community, which the Metrical Life makes clear: “the like of its pointed roof never Roman possessed…within, its space is round, vying with Solomon’s Temple in material and craftsmanship.” An elaborate chapter house would have been a high priority for the dean and clergy, while the nave was probably partially funded by outside secular patronage. The names of mayors of Lincoln were found inscribed on the nave vault. The centralized plan of the chapter house, adopted from examples such as at Worcester, features a central column and ten walls elaborately articulated with shafts, blind arcades with pointed arches, and lancet windows with pointed arches, all emphasizing the vertical orientation of the otherwise horizontal building. The decagonal chapter house at Lincoln is the first prominent polygonal chapter house in England, soon followed by Beverley and

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Westminster Abbey. The bundle column in the center, surrounded by ten Purbeck shafts, blooms into a cone of twenty ribs, mimicking organic form and growth. The bundle column recalls the bundled papyrus columns of Ancient Egypt, or the Roman fascio, symbol of unity in diversity. The twenty ribs blooming from the column alternate as transverse springer ribs going to corbels on Purbeck shafts in between and halfway down the lancet windows, and “lierne” ribs which go to the edge of the severies above the windows, as in the nave vault. The ribs are crossed by a kind of segmented ridge rib, which creates triangular severies, as in the vault of the choir, on the springers between the windows. It is debated as to whether the segments of this “ridge rib” can be called liernes as well. The vaulting is non-structural; it is a catechism of organic form, an intelligible structure.

3 Interpretations of the Architecture of Lincoln Cathedral 1190–1250

In order to explain the invention of the architectural forms of Lincoln Cathedral, and to establish a relation between the writings of Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln 1235–1253, and the architecture of the cathedral, the investigation will build upon the work of architectural historians George Henry Cook, Albert Frank Kendrick, Christopher Wilson, Paul Frankl, Nikolaus Pevsner, John Harvey, Peter Kidson, Folke Nordström, John Baily, and Peter Draper. The conclusions will ultimately not follow Frankl’s characterization of the architecture as a kind of “Gothic Mannerism,” which he calls “akyrism,” a kind of architecture seeking to confuse the viewer. Nor will they follow Pevsner’s romantic view of the architecture as the result of the visionary genius of Geoffrey de Noyers, the supposed architect of Saint Hugh of Avalon, Bishop of Lincoln 1186–1200, in his “sense of play,” “experiment in vistas,” or desire for the viewer to “see one thing behind another,” as influenced by Frankl’s akyrism. Nikolaus Pevsner wrote, in An Outline of European Architecture, “A bicycle shed is a building; Lincoln Cathedral is a piece of architecture.”1 Pevsner’s criterion for a building as architecture was that the forms of the building were combined with the forms of the other arts: sculpture, painting, and stained glass, so that the building would be a representation of the aspirations of its culture. This research will agree with Pevsner’s conclusion, but for different reasons. A building is architecture if it expresses an idea external to the forms of the building itself, the idea being a philosophical or epistemological structure. The forms of the Gothic cathedral are a visual catechism of the structures of Scholastic thinking in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, as described by Erwin Panofsky in Gothic Architecture and Scholasticism. The forms of the cathedral are a visual and structural model of

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the way that people thought in that period, in terms of philosophy and theology, and the organization of all forms of cultural production. The forms of the cathedral tell us how the people of the culture understood the structure of the cosmos, the relation between the human being and the world, and the relation between faith and reason. The cathedral has a metaphysical structure as well as a physical structure, and the cathedral can be called architecture if architecture is taken to be an art, expressing an idea, in the Platonic sense, as separate from the material itself; in this sense, a bicycle shed would not be called architecture. The interpretation will not follow John Harvey in supposing that Richard the Mason was the principal original designer, rather than Geoffrey. In English Medieval Architects, Harvey proposes Richard as the architect, though there is no document linking Richard directly to the cathedral. Richard held land near the gate leading to Nettleham. The interpretation will not follow Nordström’s controversial thesis that the architecture in this period is the result of a desire to create optical illusions, as influenced by Grosseteste’s writings on optics. The interpretation will not follow Kidson’s argument that there could have been no relation between Grosseteste’s writings and the architecture, given Grosseteste’s acrimonious relation with the clergy at Lincoln, as all matters of building had to be approved by the Bishop. The interpretation will follow Kidson’s argument though that the desire for three lancet windows per bay in Saint Hugh’s Choir played a key role in the invention of the triradial ribs in the asymmetrical vault, and that there is a relation between the tierceron ribs in the choir vault and the lierne ribs in the nave vault, though probably designed by different architects. A major debate among historians which is crucial to this investigation is whether the present form of the choir was conceived prior to the collapse of the tower, or its supporting piers, in 1237 or 1239, or whether it was invented after the collapse, during the bishopric of Grosseteste. Nordström convinced Frankl of the latter, but the interpretation will not follow the suggestion of J. H. Parker that the original was a flat wooden ceiling, which Baily argues against. While it is agreed upon that the piers in the choir were strengthened for the new vault, there is debate as to whether the syncopated double arcading in the aisles was the result of shoring for the vault, which Kidson argues against, but which this interpretation will attempt to establish. The asymmetrical vault and syncopated arcading should be seen in relation to the bishopric of Grosseteste, as part of a new “Geometrical” style, as it is agreed upon that the reticulated patterns in the ornamental latticework in the tower and

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west front, and the intersecting arch tracery (Y-tracery) of the west window were executed under Grosseteste. The interpretation will argue, following Pevsner and Nordström, that the vaulting of the decagonal chapter house was completed after 1235, under Grosseteste, as the triangular vaulting and lierne ribs correspond to the Geometrical style. Although the chapter house is mentioned in the Metrical Life of Saint Hugh, the second biography of Bishop Hugh of Avalon, written between 1220 and 1235 by Henry of Avranches, a friend of Grosseteste, there is no evidence that the vaulting had been completed by then. The interpretation will follow Draper’s argument that the geometry of the syncopated arcading and Y-tracery corresponds to contemporary illustrations of tiers of arches representing the hierarchy of the Church, that the geometries can be seen as “imago generalis ecclesiae.” Bishop Grosseteste had an invested interest in the metaphorical hierarchy of the Church. All of the elements of the Geometrical style constitute the first appearance in the history of architecture of non-structural geometrical architectural forms. The only role that the geometrical forms can be seen to play is as an edificium of a philosophical system, or manifestatio as described by Erwin Panofsky. History of Lincoln Cathedral “Lincoln” is a derivation of “Lindun,” a word used by ancient Britons to describe the site; the dun is the hill where the dwelling was located, the lin is the mere or pond at the foot of the hill.2 The mere is now Brayford Pool, and the dun was a Roman colony, Lindum Colonia, at the convergence of five roads on the plateau. Ruins of the Roman colony survive on the dun, including the walls and gates. William the Conqueror built a castle there following the Norman Conquest, in 1068, and Bishop Remigius, a Norman monk appointed by William the Conqueror, began building a Norman cathedral in 1072; it was consecrated in 1092 by Robert Bloet, the second bishop. It was built there because of the protection of the castle. The cathedral provided a chapel for canons, and the nave served as a parish church for Saint Mary Magdalene. Lincoln Cathedral is the Cathedral Church of Saint Mary in Lincoln. It is on top of the dun, near the castle, and is approached up the hill on a street called Steep Hill. It is cruciform in plan, and is the second largest Gothic church in England in square feet, second only to York Minster. It has a total length of 481 feet. Lincoln Cathedral was the tallest building in the world for

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three hundred years, during which time the towers were topped by spires. By 1235 nothing is believed to have remained of the original Norman structure of Lincoln Cathedral except for the central portion of the west façade built by Remigius. The original roof was destroyed by fire in 1141, and much of the original structure was destroyed by an earthquake on 15 April 1185. Alexander, the third bishop, made repairs after the fire. He is credited by Giraldus Cambrensis for building the first masonry vaults at Lincoln. Rebuilding after the earthquake was begun by Saint Hugh of Avalon, the seventh bishop, who became bishop in 1186, and continued under Hugh for eight years, from 1192 to 1200. Hugh was a French Carthusian monk who was invited to England by Henry II, and was the only bishop of Lincoln to be canonized by the Catholic Church, although great efforts were made to canonize Robert Grosseteste as well. Hugh was the only person to supervise the building of a Gothic cathedral to become a saint. A statue of Saint Hugh stands on the southern end of the west façade; the south tower is called Saint Hugh’s Tower. The Angel Choir, the part of the cathedral to the east of Saint Hugh’s Choir, also called the retrochoir, chancel, or presbytery, was built to house Saint Hugh’s shrine, which is off in the corner, as he requested, out of the way. It also contains the tomb of Remigius. It was probably begun in 1256, after the period of Robert Grosseteste, following the obtaining of a license from Henry III to remove part of the eastern city wall. It took about fifty years to complete the building of the Angel Choir. Bishop Hugh of Avalon employed Geoffrey de Noyers, who had worked at Canterbury. Geoffrey worked under William of Sens at Canterbury, and the influence can be seen in certain places at Lincoln. Geoffrey may also have worked under William’s successor at Canterbury, William the Englishman. The plan of Lincoln Cathedral, with two pairs of transepts, follows the plan of the rebuilding of Canterbury between 1175 and 1184. The east end of Lincoln, which was built during the time of Saint Hugh, only the footprint of which remains in the Angel Choir, was very similar to the choir at Canterbury. A footprint of the original apse of Remigius can be seen in Saint Hugh’s Choir. It is triangular in shape, and was discovered in 1885 and recorded by Precentor Edmund Venables, director of the choir. From excavations, there were a hexagonal chapel at the east end of the choir for the relics of Bishop Remigius, and eastern transepts, based on the architecture at Canterbury. These were destroyed in 1255 to make room for the new Angel Choir. In general, details of the architecture at Lincoln can be seen to be elaborations of the details at Canterbury: plain piers are surrounded by

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shafts, crockets are allowed to run down the piers; multiple-layered triforia, multiple clerestory windows per bay, sexpartite vaulting, the paired apses in the transepts, and an abundance of Purbeck marble. Purbeck marble was from the beginning one of the most distinguishing features of the cathedral. It is referred to in the Metrical Life of Saint Hugh as lapidum preciosa nigrorum materies, and was seen to evoke the most spiritual qualities of light and material. The Metrical Life describes the cathedral as “repeatedly glittering like stars.” Purbeck marble is not actually marble, but a fossiliferous limestone polished to simulate marble, from the Isle of Purbeck. The vaulting throughout the aisles at Lincoln is based on the vaulting of one bay at Canterbury. The freestanding responds and multiple clerestory windows at Lincoln can be found in the Trinity Chapel at Canterbury. Lincoln also derives from Canterbury the inverse of the structural logic which characterized the French Gothic cathedral, with thick upper walls supported by thinner arcades in the elevations. This contradiction in the structural logic of the cathedral was a manifestatio of Scholastic thinking, in the relation between faith and reason, and of Platonic and Neoplatonic bases of early thirteenth-century thought, as demonstrated in the treatises of Grosseteste. The building of Canterbury Cathedral, especially the reconstruction of the choir beginning in 1174, inspired a proliferation of cathedral building in England. Minsters around England were inspired by the activities of Thomas Becket, in fighting for the liberties of the church against the king, to build new buildings and reliquaries for patron saints. Communities also became increasingly nationalistic in response to the expansion of French power, especially after the Norman Conquest and the invasion of England in 1216, which goes a long way in explaining the radical departure from the French style at Canterbury which occurs at Lincoln. Such a departure can be seen as an implicit rejection of the French style, and a conscious establishment of a new national style, beginning at Lincoln, which would become English Gothic architecture. After 1214, French influences were almost nonexistent in English architecture. There is at Lincoln a geometrical elaboration beyond any precedent. While many, in particular Nikolaus Pevsner, have created a romantic view of the architecture in the succeeding years as being a product of the visionary genius of Geoffrey, it is uncertain what exactly his role was in the design of the architecture. That he was involved is certain, as reported in the Magna Vita, the first biography of Saint Hugh, written by Adam of Eynsham in 1210. There he is called nobilis fabrice constructor, which means he would

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have been either the architect or the Clerk of Works. Constructor or construxit could mean the person for whom the work is built, such as the bishop or other members of the clergy, or a canon acting as custos fabricae, keeper of the fabric. In the Metrical Life of Saint Hugh, Geoffrey was instructed by Saint Hugh on his deathbed to finish the work quickly for the council of the king and bishops. The nave and chapter house may have been built by the “third master,” Alexander the Mason, who held property in Lincoln at the time. The rebuilding of the cathedral began with Saint Hugh’s Choir. Lincoln is seen as the first significant departure from the French Gothic style, and the first instance of pure English Gothic architecture. While many of the elements of the architecture can be related to Canterbury Cathedral, and cathedrals in France, such as Noyon, Senlis, Sens, Chartres, or Rouen, the treatment of the architectural forms represents a significant departure, and new approaches to architecture are introduced, which can be seen to be the product of a particular English character. This was established by Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc, in a letter to Gentleman’s Magazine in 1861. Viollet-le-Duc wrote, “But after the most careful examination I could not find in any part of the cathedral of Lincoln, neither in the general design, nor in any part of the system of architecture adopted, nor in the details of ornament, any trace of the French school of the twelfth century…”3 Viollet-le-Duc refers specifically to Saint Hugh’s Choir, which he had heard showed French influence, but in which he found purely English or Norman forms on the exterior, including acutely pointed arches, blank clerestory windows, a low triforium, and aisle bays divided in half by buttresses. On the interior, the slender arch-mouldings, round abacus, tooth ornament, and vault construction have no relation to French architecture. The rose window in the north transept, called the Dean’s Eye, from around 1200 or later around 1220, is divided into four compartments, unlike anything in France. The shafts in Lincoln Cathedral with hexagonal concave sections, and crockets placed between shafts, are unique to England. Viollet-le-Duc concludes that the architecture at Lincoln displays a “tendency to originality” and “a style of ornament which attempts to emancipate itself,” with no precedent, but which displays a uniquely English character. “The construction is English, the profiles of the moldings are English, the ornaments are English, and the execution of the work belongs to the English school of workmen of the beginning of the thirteenth century.” Viollet-le-Duc’s conclusion was supported by Sir George Gilbert Scott in the nineteenth century, and Edmund Venables, Precentor of Lincoln, who

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called the architecture, in an essay in Archaeological Journal, Volume Forty, “the first perfect development of what is known as the Early English style.”4 Venables confirms that the architecture has no precedent; it is “without any lingering trace of transitional feeling.” J. H. Parker, in an essay in Archaeologia, Volume Forty-Three, confirmed that Lincoln was the first purely English Gothic cathedral. The question which Lincoln Cathedral demands, then, is where did the forms come from? Many of the basic vocabulary elements of English Gothic architecture, which can be found at the cathedrals at Salisbury, Wells, Exeter, or Westminster Abbey, appear at Lincoln for the first time. There are certain elements which derive from Canterbury Cathedral, the first Gothic cathedral in England, where Geoffrey de Noyers was probably trained, but most of the defining elements at Lincoln, which are repeated and become the hallmark of English Gothic architecture, such as the continuous ridge pole in the vault, triradial syncopated vaulting, tierceron and lierne ribs, syncopated arcading, and Y-tracery in the stained glass, all constructed between 1190 and 1250, have no precedent anywhere. What explains the generation of the forms? Paul Frankl attributed them to a “Gothic Mannerist” tendency; Nikolaus Pevsner attributed them to the visionary genius of a particular architect, Geoffrey de Noyers. These and other attempted explanations have been proven to be inadequate, and the great mystery of the origin of English Gothic architecture remains unsolved. The purpose of this project is to suggest that many of the forms were generated, as entirely original, in relation to philosophical and epistemological structures which pervaded the culture at the time, and which can be found primarily and most succinctly in the writings of Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln, 1235–1253. The purpose of this research is not to suggest that the architectural forms were dictated to architects or masons directly by Grosseteste in his functions as Bishop, though he certainly would have been aware of the conception of the forms, along with the clergy, and they would have required his approval, as that of his predecessors, beginning with Saint Hugh of Avalon. Saint Hugh’s personal involvement with the building process was documented and is well-known, especially his carrying the building stones on his own shoulders. Grosseteste probably did not have the same kind of personal involvement with the building process, given his many activities in writing, translating, reform and diplomacy during his bishopric. Hugh of Avalon also established a Guild of Saint Mary at Lincoln in order to finance the building of the cathedral. Members of the fabric contributed one thousand marks a year, and further-

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ance of the guild by Hugh’s successors was granted by the king. Building during Grosseteste’s bishopric benefited from offerings to the tomb of Saint Hugh, Jewish moneylenders, cheap labor, and locally quarried freestone, a brownish oolithic limestone, with concentric layers of calcium carbonate. This research will follow the model suggested by Erwin Panofsky in Gothic Architecture and Scholasticism, that a particular way of thinking and understanding would have pervaded all aspects of early thirteenth-century culture in England, as it does all cultures, and that architectural forms would be a product of that cultural zeitgeist, or spirit of the time. The architectural forms of Lincoln Cathedral and the philosophical systems of Grosseteste only stand as the best and most complete realizations of the philosophies and epistemologies of the time, and an analysis of the forms of the architecture in relation to the writings of Grosseteste can provide a more convincing solution to the great mystery of the emergence of the forms, and a more thorough understanding of the relation between architectural forms and cultural systems of thought in general. Following Panofsky, it is not reasonable to assume that the builders of Lincoln Cathedral read the treatises of Grosseteste, but it is reasonable to assume that they were immersed in ways of thinking that pervaded the culture, from the treatises of the scholars to the liturgical and iconographic programs that would have been devised by the clergy. The builders were welleducated, and they would have been in constant contact with the ways of thinking of the time in sermons, disputations, and lectures. The Franciscans probably played an important role in England in making higher forms of knowledge more accessible to the average person, even the natural sciences, mathematics and optics which were the subject of Grosseteste’s treatises. The growing “urban professionalism” of the time played an important role as well, and contributed to the diffusion of knowledge through a variety of professions that were connected to the Church, such as the publisher or stationarius, producing manuscript books available to everyone; the bookseller, booklender, bookbinder, illuminator, painter, sculptor, jeweler, and architect. All of these professionals would have access to the knowledge circulating in the manuscripts. The urban clerical scholars, or scholastics, would have devoted their careers to the diffusion of knowledge in writing and teaching. The architect of the time was well-educated and well-read, a well-traveled, trained professional, like Geoffrey de Noyers, who had great social prestige, and worked directly with the bishop.

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According to Panofsky, it is the manifestatio, in the process of elucidation or clarification, which is the controlling principle of medieval scholasticism. The dominant agenda of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries is the reconciliation of faith and reason, which can be found in the writings of Grosseteste and can be used to explain the excessive articulation of the architecture, in its complex intellectual structuring. Grosseteste is sometimes credited with introducing Aristotle to the West, and interweaving the natural and scientific philosophies of Aristotle with the mystical theologies of the Franciscan, Neoplatonic, and Arabic traditions. As a result Grosseteste is seen as a progenitor of the Franciscan School at Oxford, which included scholars like Roger Bacon, and the beginnings of modern scientific experimental thought, and at the same time he is seen as a progenitor of the Great Synthesis of Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas, the synthesis of Aristotelian philosophy and Catholic theology. For Thomas Aquinas, for example, the goal was not to prove articles of faith, but to elucidate and clarify them. This would be done through a series of similitudines in a self-sufficient system of thinking, through the manifestatio in literary or visual representations, for example, the architecture, which would make reason clear to imagination and faith clear to reason in the mind and vision of the viewer. Panofsky compared the excessive articulations and subdivisions of the architecture to the articulations and subdivisions of the medieval text, the summa in particular, which would be divided into partes, then membra, quaestiones or distinctiones, then into articuli, as the architecture might be divided into arches and sub-arches, pillars into shafts, vaults into tierceron ribs, etc. The emphasis on the structure of the manifestatio, according to Panofsky, on exposition and clarification, sometimes led the scholars to introduce elements unnecessary to the argument, as geometrical forms were introduced in the architecture which were unnecessary to the structure; and it might lead to “the neglect of a natural order of presentation in favor of an artificial symmetry,”5 as can be seen in Lincoln Cathedral, in the vaulting of Saint Hugh’s Choir, for example. This “mental habit” of clarification, excess, and artificiality pervaded every aspect of cultural production, including certainly the architecture. In architecture, according to Panofsky, the determinate and impenetrable space of the Romanesque cathedral corresponded to an impervious barrier between faith and reason, where reason was drowned in faith by mysticism. The “principle of transparency” of Gothic architecture dissolved the barrier between faith and reason, creating an indeterminate and penetrable spatial

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experience. The Gothic cathedral is organized so that the overall organization can be understood from any vantage point. The uniform division and subdivision of the Gothic cathedral corresponds to the structure of Scholastic writing, which entails an arrangement “according to a system of homologous parts.” Rather than the variety of architectural types which make up the Romanesque cathedral, the Gothic cathedral is composed of parts which all constitute variations on one theme or type; for example, at Lincoln, the vaulting of the nave, transepts, choir and retrochoir are all variations of the same system, as are the triforia of each part. As in the Scholastic treatise, the different parts of the cathedral are designed to stage a series of relationships with each other based on the visual connections created by the variations in theme. Panofsky calls this the “principle of progressive divisibility,” and it can be seen in the vaults, triforia, piers, shafts, window tracery, arcades and mouldings. Every detail of the cathedral participates in the same logical system, to express the idea that the natural world can be understood by reason, by philosophy and science, as in the treatises by Grosseteste, and that scientific reasoning can be synthesized with religious faith. Of course the beginning of the Gothic in France corresponds with the desire of the Abbot Suger to manifest the light mysticism of Pseudo-Dionysius in the Abbey Church of St. Denis, so the light of the stained glass windows plays a fundamental role in the transparency of the logic of the Gothic cathedral, as it does at Lincoln, particularly in the Dean’s Eye and Bishop’s Eye in the main transept. Grosseteste translated the entire corpus of Pseudo-Dionysius as Bishop of Lincoln. In the writings of Grosseteste, in particular his treatise on light, De Luce, light is the mediating element between body and spirit, and between reason and faith. The articulated details of the architecture, as the manifestatio of the principle of progressive divisibility, are the product of the diffusion and rarefaction of light into the physical world, as it transforms from lux, the spiritual light, to lumen, the corporeal light. The rose windows at Lincoln, and the multiplicity of the forms bound together in a single comprehensive system, stage the Scholastic understanding of the operations of the cosmos based on the synthesis of theology and natural philosophy, the basis of Grosseteste’s writings. The all-encompassing interrelationships of all the membrification of the Gothic cathedral constitute what Panofsky calls a “postulate of mutual inferability,” creating a variety of visual transitions and interpenetrations, spatial juxtapositions and overlappings, which Nikolaus Pevsner describes at length at Lincoln Cathedral. The Scholastic system also delights, according to Pan-

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ofsky, in defying the “rule of correlation,” in contradicting the very logic of the similitudines which constitute the manifestatio. In this way reason and faith co-exist; reason does not prove the articles of faith, it only manifests them, in a self-contradictory and self-subsistent system. In the architecture, this can be seen in the “over-membrification of the ceiling and undermembrification of the supports.” The result of all this, for Panofsky, is that Gothic architecture, and in particular the idiosyncrasies that appear for example at Lincoln, should not be explained as “illusion in the sense of modern l’art pour l’art aesthetics.”6 In other words, the architecture should not be seen as a kind of mannerist eccentricity, as Nikolaus Pevsner and Paul Frankl describe Lincoln Cathedral, but as a “visual logic,” a manifestatio, corresponding to the way of thinking of the time, which is best exemplified at Lincoln in the writings of Grosseteste, and which is filtered through the entire culture at every level, given the structures of production and professional activity at the time. By the beginning of the bishopric of Grosseteste in 1235, and the end of the bishopric of Hugh of Wells, Bishop from 1209 to 1235, it is probable that much of the eastern portion of Lincoln Cathedral was complete: Saint Hugh’s Choir, the eastern and western transepts, the walls of the nave, and the walls of the chapter house, although some damage may have been done during the battle and capture of Lincoln in 1216–17, when barons fighting against King John captured Lincoln and plundered the treasury of the cathedral. The events were recorded by Matthew Paris, the Benedictine monk, in the Historia Anglorum, the last volume of the Chronica Majora, written right around the death of Grosseteste in 1253. The original choir and transepts are believed to have taken form by the end of the bishopric of Saint Hugh, but the nave was begun after his death in 1200. During the bishopric of Grosseteste, it is probable that the nave and chapter house were vaulted, the Galilee Porch was completed, and the central portion of the west front was completed, including the rose window and cinquefoil window, though the tracery in the rose window dates from a later period, in the Perpendicular style. According to Venables, Bishop Hugh of Wells bequeathed to the cathedral fabric in his will of 1233 a large amount of money and a large amount of timber from his land. It is speculated that the timber was for the roofing of the nave, or possibly for scaffolding for vaulting, and that a new central tower was begun at the same time, which collapsed only a couple years later. Thus the nave, west front, and tower were

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built during the time of Grosseteste. Hugh of Wells succeeded William de Blois as Bishop, who succeeded Hugh of Avalon. Though the decagonal chapter house is mentioned in the Metrical Life of Saint Hugh, an argument can be made that it was not vaulted until after 1235, during the time of Grosseteste. Albert Kendrick argues, in The Cathedral Church of Lincoln, that the building of the chapter house coincides with the building of the nave, after the time of Saint Hugh, but not after 1235. Paul Frankl argues that the present vaulting of Saint Hugh’s Choir comes from the same period. The West Front The remains of the original Norman wall in the west front contain Norman sculpture from the time of Bishop Alexander. The figures represent incidents from Biblical history but are haphazardly arranged, suggesting that they were not original to Lincoln. The figures are three feet six inches tall, and are placed above eye level. From north to south, the figures depict the torments of the wicked, and Christ triumphant over Satan in the jaws of Hell. Jamb figures represent saints, Christ weighing souls, Lazarus taken up to Heaven, the expulsion of Adam and Eve, the call of Samuel, Samuel and Eli, and God’s injunction to Noah. Other figures on the wall represent Man tilling the soil, Noah building the Ark, entering the Ark, and Daniel in the lion’s den. More statues were added later in the mid-fourteenth century by Treasurer John Welbourne, of English kings from William I to Edward III (Figure 16). A large arcaded wall was added to both sides of the remains of the Norman façade on the west front during the bishopric of Grosseteste, stretching it to one hundred and seventy-five feet. The result was that the facade was dislocated from the interior, and it is a screen façade, as at Wells or Exeter, though there is no close at Lincoln. A close usually justifies the presence of the screen façade, as the screen façade functions as a billboard for people gathered in front of the cathedral, or to filter music from the choir inside to the exterior, so there is a disjunction at Lincoln between the façade and the exterior as well. A pointed arch was placed above the center recess, along with a round stained glass window and reticulated patterns in the masonry above the window (Figure 17). Chapels were built behind the extended walls of the front, behind two towers each two hundred and six feet high, on either side of the original Norman nave. The chapels were built to the same height as the aisles of the nave: the Morning Chapel on the north side, or the Chapel

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of Mary Magdalene, and the Consistory Chapel (Figure 18) on the south side. There is a free-standing pier of clustered Purbeck shafts in the center of the Morning Court supporting eight arches which form four quadripartite vaults around the column. The vault of the Consistory Court has no column support, perhaps to make more space for the council meetings, but is rather a kind of ribbed dome, with a reticulated pattern of non-structural ribs on the surface. The vaults of the chapels date from around 1230. Two lancet windows in the Consistory Court are filled with Y-tracery, a reticulated pattern formed by overlapping Y’s, which may have filled the window in the west front, though the present tracery dates from the fourteenth century. The Ytracery can be seen as the same type of articulation as the reticulated patterns and geometrical vaulting, that is, in the Geometrical style. The Crossing Tower In 1237, according to the Peterborough Chronicle, or 1239, according to Matthew Paris, and the Dunstable Annals, much damage was done by the collapse of structural bays underneath the central tower. According to Matthew Paris, the tower collapsed just after a canon of the church declared, in denunciating actions of the Bishop Grosseteste, “If I should not speak, the very stones would cry out!” Paris, a supporter of monastic orders, denounced Grosseteste’s scheme of monastic reform in the Historia Anglorum. The colorful story is probably the product of Paris’ zeal for monastic defense; nevertheless, the collapse of the tower became a symbol of the acrimony between the clergy and the Bishop, though the Peterborough Chronicle more prosaically reported that the collapse was due to structural failure, insecure foundations. The Peterborough Chronicle, written by John, Abbot of Peterborough, also known as the Laud Manuscript, formed part of the Anglo-Saxon chronicles, recording the history of England after the Norman Conquest. The Dunstable Annals reported that it was not actually the tower that collapsed, but a portion of a supporting wall behind the Dean’s Stall. Three people were killed in the incident, and repairs were made immediately. The reticulated pattern, or latticework ornament, on the interior and exterior lower walls of the new tower, are seen to be a mark of the architecture produced during the bishopric of Grosseteste, and of the architect, believed to be the “third master,” Alexander. The reticulated pattern can also be seen on the west front, and on the side walls of the nave, extended above the original Norman clerestory. When the tower was rebuilt following the col-

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lapse in 1237 or 1239, the piers supporting the arches on the four sides were reinforced; they are each surrounded by twelve banded shafts of Purbeck marble and twelve of stone. The spandrels between the giant pointed arches are filled with the reticulated pattern, and above the spandrels were inserted two rows of arcading. Thick cones of springer ribs, ribs rising from the springer shaft, rise from corbels placed at the top of shafts in the center of each of the four walls. The shafts rise from corbels placed at the apexes of the giant arches; the shafts rise along the height of the lower arcade, and the springer cones are placed at the center of the upper arcades. The ribs of the springer cones spread to a ridge pole that extends halfway from the center in each direction. The four ridge poles for each wall form a square in the center of the ceiling of the tower, two hundred and sixty-eight feet high. The ribs that extend from the springer cones to the ridge poles are doubled or reflected on the other side of the ridge poles, all converging in the center of the ceiling. The lines of the ridge poles are extended to the walls in vaults recessed above the springer cones; these recesses are divided by diagonal ribs running from corner to corner of the ceiling. The vaulting (Figure 19) was possibly not completed until the fourteenth century, as suggested by Pevsner. The ceiling is divided into nine compartments, as in the Celestial Hierarchies, the nine levels that mediate between the mind of man and God, from the Celestial Hierarchy of Pseudo-Dionysius, translated by Grosseteste in about 1235. The three levels of the Trinity are each divided into three levels of choruses: Angels, Archangels, and Principalities of the Spirit; Dominations, Virtues, and Powers of the Son; and Thrones, Cherubim, and Seraphim of the Father. The compartments of the ceiling are divided by the ridge poles, in consistent mathematical divisions of orthogonal and diagonal lines. Robert Grosseteste used the Celestial Hierarchies as a metaphorical ordering device to organize the hierarchy of the clergy of the church as Bishop. The visual effect of the severies of the vaulting, the areas between the ribs, is like that of a billowing tent being stretched to the corners and centerpoints of the walls, structured by the geometries. It seems to be a skeletal and structural variation of the effect found in the Byzantine building, such as the Baptistery of the Orthodox in Ravenna, or the Hagia Sophia, designed to represent the vaulting of the heavens, and complete the metaphorical role of the building as a microcosm of the cosmos. The ridge poles and conoid springers in the tower repeat those in the nave, as if the linear vaulting of the nave has been taken and wrapped around to form a square, not unlike the early Christian rotunda basilica in Rome, for example the Mausoleum of Santa Co-

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stanza, where the nave of the basilica, with its ambulatory, colonnade and clerestory, is wrapped around in a circle. In the terms of contemporary architecture theory and science, the severies of the vaulting of the tower might be seen as an epigenetic landscape. In Complexity Theory, organisms undergo structural changes in morphogenesis, in increasing complexity to avoid torpor or entropy. In morphogenesis, the organism can undergo changes as a result of influences on it from its environment, in epigenesis. In Topology Theory, an epigenetic landscape, in the form of waves, fields, or fronts, is the result of the action of the environment on unstable, structureless forms. The relief features of the folds or fields of an epigenetic landscape, as in waves or dunes, for example, are the product of a complex network of interactions underneath the surface, in the form of vectors, nodal points, and directional movements. The undulating folds of the severies in the vaulting of the tower can be seen as a topological field, an epigenetic landscape. Robert Grosseteste also described the fields and forms found in nature, such as hills, valleys, clouds, etc., as the product of underlying geometrical and mathematical forces. These are described in his treatise De Natura Locorum, an extension of the treatise De lineis, angulis et figuris, which attempts to apply the mathematics and geometry which are understood to be the underlying structure of light as it diffuses into matter in De Lineis, to natural phenomena. The relation between surfaces in natural forms and geometry is on display in the vault of the tower. The Nave The vault of the nave (Figure 9) is almost ten feet higher than the vault of Saint Hugh’s Choir, at eighty-two feet. The height of the nave is equal to the width of the nave and aisles, that is, it was designed “on the square.” It was probably built between 1235 and 1245. The nave is two hundred and five feet long. The bays of the nave, at twenty-seven feet east to west, are longer than Saint Hugh’s Choir, allowing for more openings and shafts in the elevations, and allowing for three bosses per bay along the ridge pole instead of two, and a symmetrical vault. The two western bays of the nave behind the screen façade are five feet shorter, east to west, and they are two feet below the other bays, in order to accommodate the two western towers. The nave is also not centralized between the towers. The bays of the vaulting alternate with the bays of the elevations, thus the rhythm of the rib patterns does not correspond to the rhythm of the arcades. The vaulting contradicts the French

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model, where the vault is always a “logical termination of the bay system,”7 as described by Nikolaus Pevsner. From each springpoint dividing the bays of the elevations, seven ribs rise from a corbel to the ridge pole. The rib perpendicular to the wall elevations on both sides of the ridge pole marks the bays of the elevations, and three additional ribs rise on either side of it in each bay to the ridge pole. The perpendicular rib and the ribs on either side of it connect to the three bosses in each bay of the vault. The ribs to the outside of the central three in each bay connect to the bosses which divide the bays of the vault. The ribs to the outside of the central five in each bay connect to bosses placed between the ridge pole and the walls, about one third of the way toward the wall. The visual effect is that from below, the ribs of each bay of the vault look like four-pointed stars, and from an angle, because of concave surfaces between the ribs, the vaulting looks like a series of “palm fronds,” as described by Nikolaus Pevsner and Christopher Wilson. The visual effect of the vaults as autonomous organic forms contributes to the disjunction between the vaulting and the bay system in the elevations, in contradiction of the French model. The vaulting conceals the structural system of the nave; the form contradicts the function, in consistency with every other part of the cathedral. At many places in the cathedral, especially in the vaulting of the nave and choir, an irrational design appears to be the result of a rational process, or system of structural logic. This occurs in many places in architectural history. In Baroque Rome, the apparently irrational shape of the worship space of Francesco Borromini’s San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, the undulating walls in a diamond-shaped plan, are the result of the same geometries used in Renaissance architecture, always used to transparently logical effect, but superimposed and combined by Borromini in original ways to disguise the organizational logic, for the purposes of expressing the mysticism of the Counter Reformation, that logic itself, while being the basis of Humanism, is insufficient to explain the structure of the cosmos or the mind of the Demiurge, the creator god. The selfcontradictory elements of the architectural forms at Lincoln reflect the mystical element of the period, as for example the influence of PseudoDionysius, when faith was in the process of being synthesized with reason. Such an element is displayed in the architecture at Lincoln Cathedral, at the service of the mysticism of Catholic theology, and the relation between faith and reason. According to Pevsner, the presence of the irrational in the rational is as defining of the English national character as anything else, and

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an important characteristic of the English national style in architecture. “In all this,” he writes, “the Early English style appears the true representative of a national character that seems scarcely changed to this day. There is still the same distrust of the consistent and logical…”8 The “palm fronds” in the vaulting of the nave appear to be irrational, organic forms, but they are the product of a development of a rational sequence of geometries. Architects are interested in producing forms like this because it is understood that this is how nature produces forms. The task of the architect or artist, as Plotinus wrote in the Enneads, is not just to copy the forms of nature, but to copy the principles by which the forms of nature are created. The geometrical and mathematical basis of the generation of organic forms is described by Grosseteste in his De Natura Locorum, and it is confirmed in modern science, in the epigenetic landscape in Topology Theory, for example. Scientists have also observed that DNA cell reproduction follows rational mathematical and geometrical structures, but in every sequence of reproduction a “kink” is thrown into the system, throwing the rational sequence off, and producing unique, irrational life forms. Lincoln Cathedral can be read in this way, as a series of rational geometrical sequences which are set up in composition, but in which kinks are inserted to throw the systems off, resulting in unique, seemingly irrational forms, at every turn, in the nave vaulting and elevations, transepts, choir vaulting, etc., to produce an architecture which, while based on precedents, in its recombinations appears to be completely original and without precedent. The same can be said of the architecture of Borromini in the Baroque: the precedents are there, but they are hidden, and manipulated in such a way as to be unrecognizable in the new original forms that are produced. The vaulting in the nave achieves the effect of a continuous surface, with the ridge pole, as does the vaulting of Saint Hugh’s Choir, but at the same time each bay can be read individually, unlike Saint Hugh’s Choir. In relation to the vaulting of the choir and transepts, the vaulting of the nave constitutes a variation on a theme not only in terms of the formal articulation but also in terms of the visual effect. In the visual effect of the nave vaulting, the distinction between geometry and organic form is blurred, as it is so often in Gothic buildings, as described by Henri Focillon in The Life of Forms in Art. The blurring of the lines between geometry and natural forms is particularly relevant to the writings of Grosseteste, who in De Natura Locorum, attempted to explain all of the natural forms of the earth’s formation—valleys, mountains, clouds, etc.—in geometrical terms. The apotheosis of this devel-

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opment in vaulting occurs at Exeter Cathedral, where the proliferation of tiercerons takes the form of a skeletal, organic body. According to Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, in the Introductory Lectures on Aesthetics, in 1818, the function of architecture as art includes “shaping external inorganic nature that it becomes homogeneous with mind.”9 Architecture has the potential to realize the identity between the organic and inorganic, overcoming the duality between mind and nature, and making nature accessible through mathematics and geometry, as for Grosseteste. The identity between organic and inorganic for Hegel is Spirit, or Geist. Architectural forms, as they are based in mathematics and geometry, can only imitate or suggest the organic, like the ribs in the vault; they can never be organic, and can only ever be symbolic of the identity between the organic and inorganic, as a linguistic form. Architecture can thus not achieve pure spirit; it can only represent it. Architecture succeeds as art when it appears to synthesize the organic and inorganic, but in fact does not. According to Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling, in The Philosophy of Art in 1802, architecture can only be an allegory of the organic. It can never achieve an absolute identity between idea and matter, universal and particular, or inorganic and organic. The only way that any identity can be achieved is when architecture imitates itself in its functional requirements as structure and metaphysical shelter, as does Lincoln Cathedral, and contradicts them in its form, as does Lincoln Cathedral, so that the identity of the inorganic and organic, or universal and particular, is unimpeded. Architecture is only art when as form it is released from its functional requirements, and allowed to represent spirit in the synthesis of human reason and the organic, or in Scholastic terms, reason and faith. Pevsner’s bicycle shed is not architecture because its form does not contradict its function in structure or shelter, as does Lincoln Cathedral. According to Schelling, “Architecture can appear as free and beautiful art only insofar as it becomes the expression of ideas, an image of the universe and of the absolute,”10 as precisely the cathedral. Architecture cannot be organic form, so it must represent organic form in the Idea. The symbolic is necessarily divorced from the organic as the human mind is divorced from nature, requiring faith. The symbolic is the self-realization of the artificial construction of meaning, the signification of the impossibility of meaning in language, as in Deconstruction. The Great Synthesis of Scholasticism, in its philosophical basis and visual forms, contains such a self-realization. Phi-

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losophy is “symbolic science,” as described by Schelling, as seen in Scholasticism. In The Philosophy of Art of Schelling, §111, “allegory of the organic is expressed through the anorganic.” As the imitation of the organic in the inorganic, in mathematics and geometry, architecture as art is a “parody of the mechanical building arts,” an imitation of the act of building in allegorical representation, as in the elevations and vaulting of the nave at Lincoln. The organic form which best serves architecture, which architecture is best suited to imitate in the inorganic, according to Schelling, is the plant form, as in the ribs of the vaulting as palm fronds, because the plant form is already seen only as an allegory of the organism of the animal or human body, which is the ultimate function of the architecture, as realized at Exeter Cathedral. The plant form is easily reducible to arithmetic and geometric structures, symbolic structures which are translated into the inorganic forms of architecture. The plant form is the closest form in nature to the crystalline, mineral form; it is the most inorganic of organic forms. As the closest form to the inorganic, it is the closest form to the structures of reason, which is why plant forms are easily described in mathematical and geometric terms, such as the Fibonacci Series and the Golden Ratio. According to Schelling, proportions in architecture are primarily analogous to the proportions of the human body, and it is through the analogy of proportions to the human body that the inorganic forms of architecture can imitate the organic. Such an analogy depends, as always, on the symbolic mediation of language. The harmony of proportions exists only in the mind, as they are abstracted from the sensible world, as Grosseteste would describe, under the influence of the Arabic commentaries on the De anima of Aristotle, and the Neoplatonic paraphrases of Plotinus in the Theology of Aristotle and Proclus in the Liber de Causis. Harmonic proportions in architecture are only allegorical, a poetic function of language, a mannerist trope. Through the allegorical, the temporal symbolic, or the narrativization of the symbolic, the universal is intuited through the particular, or the organic is intuited through the inorganic. Through the symbolic itself, the universal and particular are undifferentiated, and the symbolic is able to represent the synthesis of the inorganic and organic. The extra bosses in the nave vault at Lincoln are connected to the ridge pole by lierne ribs, non-structural ribs that do not reach the bottom of the vault. The severy bordered by the outside ribs forming the perimeter of each bay of the vault forms an indented concave surface which allows the light

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from the three clerestory windows in each bay of the wall to enter into the nave. The clusters of ribs between each concave severy are in the form of cones, spreading to the ridge pole. Each bay of the vault thus has seven ribs; four of which would be considered tiercerons, having no relation to the structure of the vault. In each bay, there is a pair of tiercerons in each transverse cell, and a pair of tiercerons in each longitudinal cell, creating the visual effect of the elongated star in plan. As in the vault of Saint Hugh’s Choir, the autonomous, delineated bays of the French vault have disappeared, replaced by a vault which reads continuously, aided by the ridge pole. The reading oscillates between a set of diamonds formed by the tiercerons and diagonal ribs on either side of the transverse ribs, somewhat like the vaulting of the choir, and the star pattern formed between the transverse ribs. The reading also oscillates between the boss at the top of each bay on the transverse rib as focal point, and the springer which is shared by two successive bays, with the seven ribs rising from it. As in many places in the cathedral, there is an oscillation in readings, a lack of clarity in visual effects. The experience of the perception of the architecture is not fixed and definitive; the experience is better described as an apperception, a combination of multiple perceptions that make up a whole experience, as defined by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, in what would be called a psychological flux. The distinction between material intellect and creative intellect is enacted at Lincoln Cathedral in a transformational relation created by the oscillation in visual readings, along with the structural contradictions, the irrational organic forms in relation to rational geometrical sequences, and the symbolically organic forms in relation to inorganic geometries. All of this depends on the function of language, in the function of architecture as a language, as a cosmology, and the relation between the word in language, the logos, to the divine spirit, or that which is inaccessible or unexplainable. The relation between the word in reason and the inaccessible in intellect is like that of an object and a mirror reflection; the material forms of nature are only reflections of the divine idea, as the material forms of the architecture are only a mirror reflection of the metaphysical idea which the architecture conveys. In the Enneads IV.7.6, Plotinus distinguishes between perception and what might be called apperception, or multiple perceptions. Actual perceptual experience is multiple and diversified; perceived objects have no necessary connections in size or position, and can be perceived in a variety of ways. In human perception all objects and acts of perception are unified to

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form a coherent whole which structures the world around us. When the fragmented and variable sensible objects of perception, like the variety of shapes in the vaulting, “reach the ruling principle they will become like partless thoughts…”;11 they are organized in a conceptual process through the mechanisms of language, with the forms of the architecture functioning symbolically, as words and syntax in a language. In Enneads I.1.7, “the faculty of perception in the Soul [lower intellect] cannot act by the immediate grasping of sensible objects, but only by the discerning of impressions printed upon the Animate [intellect] by sensation: these perceptions are already Intelligibles…” The architectural forms of the cathedral can be seen as intelligibles. Perception involves the immediate grasping of the sensible object, while apperception involves the processing of the sensible objects into the coherent whole, but that can only be done when the sensible objects are already intelligibles, that is, already have a symbolic function, in the terms of Schelling. The patterns in the vault are already intelligibles anyway: they are understood as constructs of reason, not just mute objects, and they are processed in the process of apperception as images, or imprints in perception, rather than material objects. The discerning of impressions printed upon the intellect by sensation as images or patterns is the function of discursive reason in language, not immediate sense perception; in Plotinus, perception is a function of language. The sensual impressions in visual perception are copies and derivatives of intelligible forms, mirror images. Both the vaulting of the nave and of Saint Hugh’s Choir in Lincoln Cathedral stage processes of perception as they were understood at the time. Matter itself, the material of the architecture, cannot be an object of intellection, in Enneads V.9.5, because ideas are only projected onto matter, and forms in matter can only be derivatives and traces of an original which is a product of intellection itself. A building is only a pile of materials without the idea which is projected onto it by the perceiver, what Alberti called the lineament, as opposed to the matter. A work of art can only be a work of art when a metaphysical idea is projected onto a material substance. According to Plotinus, the substratum of matter is indeterminate and shapeless, while everything in intellection is determinate and has shape; thus matter cannot exist in the Intellectual (nous). Without the observer, the cathedral is just a mute pile of stone and marble. There is no necessity for matter in the Intellectual for Plotinus, because there are no elements or compounds there, no shifting or derivatives, as in matter. Matter has no iden-

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tity nor permanence, and is in constant flux. Because it is already everything in the Intellectual, patterns in reason, there is no possibility of flux or impermanence, as described in Enneads II.4.3. In the De lineis, angulis et figuris of Robert Grosseteste, the species, or eidos, incorporeal virtue or likeness of matter, form or pattern, is transmitted by light in perception, and is reflected and doubled, as in the imprint of Plotinus in the Enneads, in intellect, as are the architectural forms of the cathedral. In the Commentary on the Posterior Analytics of Grosseteste, as light emanates from the sun, intelligibles are illuminated in the mind in the oculus interior. The intellectus or nous in mind abstracts universal ideas or principia from the particulars of sense to form principles. Species sensibilis is apprehended without matter; species apprehensibilis creates a likeness in understanding, as for Plotinus. Logic or ratio is the necessary knowledge of the forms of material things. This is also described in the Hexaemeron of Grosseteste, and commentaries on the Celestial Hierarchy and Mystical Theology of Pseudo-Dionysius which Grosseteste began in 1235, when he became Bishop of Lincoln. Grosseteste’s concepts of perception and intellection, as manifested in the architecture, come from studies of Greek and Arabic commentaries on Aristotle’s De anima. Grosseteste’s concept of intellect originates in the De anima of Aristotle, Book III, where a productive intellect is distinguished from a potential intellect, a nous pathetikos. In the De anima of Alexander of Aphrodisias, a second-century Greek commentator on Aristotle, the productive intellect is the active intellect, or nous poietikos, and the potential intellect is the material intellect, or nous hylikos. The active intellect, which is impassible and unmixed, illuminates the material intellect as light makes things visible, and immaterial form becomes enmattered form in an imprinting of an impression in the imagination. The material intellect is perfected as intellection, or intellectus in habitu, in discursive reason, or dianoia, which Grosseteste follows. In the Liber Naturalis, or al-Tabi’iyyat, of Avicenna, or Ibn Sina, in the eleventh century, the potential intellect is also the material intellect, and sensory thought, virtus cogitativa, is illuminated by the active intellect. Discursive thinking or logic is distinguished from intuitive thinking or noein, the ability to know intelligibles. In the Long Commentary on the De anima, or Sharh kitab al-nafs, of Averroes, or Ibn Rushd, in the twelfth century, potential intellect is material intellect and productive intellect is active intellect, and active intellect is compared to light as entelechy, the actualization of po-

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tentiality. In the Liber de Causis, known in Arabic as Kitab al-khayr almahd, thought to be a work of Aristotle and translated from Arabic into Latin by Gerard of Cremona in the twelfth century, active intellect is seen as eternal. In the principal source of the Liber de Causis, the Elements of Theology of Proclus, active intellect is “unparticipated intelligence,” which informs participated intelligence, potential intellect, in a process of irradiation. The vaults in the nave of Lincoln Cathedral can be seen as the species apprehensibilis of matter, abstracted by the intellectus to form principles, in the process of perception, or apperception. For Grosseteste, from Aristotle’s De anima, the cosmic intellect makes forms intelligible to the human intelhabitu, or discurlect, in the virtus intellectiva, or nous, and the intellectus intellect ininhabitu, sive reason, as light makes forms visible through geometry. Clearly the architecture of the cathedral can be seen as an edificium of this process. The geometry of the architecture enacts the process of the discerning of sensible objects as intelligibles, and functions like light as a mediation between body and spirit, reason and faith. As an Aristotelian, Grosseteste stressed the importance of sense experience, in the perception of sensible objects, in the formation of the intelligibles which lead to higher knowledge. The experience of the cathedral by the observer relies on sense perception, as well as apperception, as the architecture acts as a device for enacting the formation of intelligibles in the contemplation of the divine, in the mediation between the body and the spirit. The excessive amount of ribs in the nave vault at Lincoln reduces the surface area in the severies of the vault, and creates a form that looks like a skeletal structure, an organic form, though it does not function like one. The vault has no structural function in relation to the elevations anyway, except for possibly shoring them. The vault is not a roof, but is below the actual timber roof of the cathedral. The vault is an elaborate mock-up of a structure to suggest the vaulting of the body of the cosmos, and its lack of intrinsic structural function is revealed in its visibly non-structural elements. This approach to architecture can be called mannerist: not in the mannerism that Paul Frankl suggests at Lincoln Cathedral, in the purposeful idiosyncrasies of the designers, but in the linguistic play between the forms of the architecture and their functions. Mannerist architecture, in that it depends on tropic language, is poetic architecture. In the vaulting at Lincoln, the vaulting is a metaphor for the vaulting of the cosmos; the ribs are a metonym for the skeleton of the body, as a symbol of the cosmos; the severies are a metonym for the skin of a body, making the vault a metonym for the body as

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well. The metaphorical and metonymical function of the vaulting links the structure of the cosmos to the structure of the human body, suggesting the human being as a microcosm of the cosmos, which can be found in the writings of Grosseteste, anticipating the Humanism of the Renaissance. The lierne ribs in the vault are a synecdoche for a structural rib, a piece standing in for a whole, and the tiercerons are ironic in that they are structural forms that play no structural role. In fact the entire vault is a form of irony, as it is not the structural or functional roof of the cathedral. In this way, the architecture is fully tropic, poetic, self-referential, and mannerist. The piers in the nave at Lincoln are surrounded by eight circular shafts of polished Purbeck and Lincoln stone, in many variations. There is also another marble used in the cathedral, called Alwalton marble, from quarries near Peterborough. The arcades are built on a continuous foundation to ensure stability. The triforium is almost identical to that in the main transept, indicating a continuous building campaign including the transept and nave after the collapse of the tower. There are two arches in each bay of the triforium, each arch divided into three smaller arches with clustered shafts, in the spirit of the excessive division and articulation of Scholasticism, and in the spirit of the multiplication and rarefaction of matter from light, as described by Robert Grosseteste in his treatise on light, De Luce. The arches are allowed by the elongated bays. There are three tall narrow windows in each bay of the clerestory, corresponding to the three windows in each bay of the clerestory of Saint Hugh’s Choir, symbolic of the Trinity. As light comes through the windows and becomes matter for the observer in the cathedral, in its process of multiplication and rarefaction, it does so according to mathematical and geometrical principles, according to Robert Grosseteste, in his treatise on the mathematical and geometrical basis of the natural world, De lineis, angulis et figuris. The three clerestory windows in each bay are an important representation of the connection between the material world and the spiritual world, or body and soul, through the Trinity. That which connects the material and spiritual worlds, according to Grosseteste, following Saint Augustine, is light. Between the bays of the clerestory and triforium, the springer ribs in the nave vaulting form the shape of a cone, and rest on clusters of three long vaulting shafts, on top of a corbel which is three-quarters up the triforium, just above the abacus of the clustered pier. The vaulting shafts demarcate a clear division between the bays. The triforium is divided in half vertically by the arches in the top half, with the three minor arches inside, and columns

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supporting the arches in the bottom half. The corbels for the springers are at the midpoint of the top half of the triforium. In the divisions of the architectural elements, the numbers three and four are constantly present in combination, representing the trivium and quadrivium of Scholasticism, and the spiritual and material worlds, the Trinity and the logos of the Four Evangelists, or the four elements in matter, for example, connected by the mathematics and geometry of light. The three long vaulting shafts which support the corbel for the springer vaults stretch down to foliated corbels placed just above the octagonal bundle piers of the nave, at the bottom of the spandrels of each bay which the long vaulting shafts separate and divide. The springers begin below the clerestory, as in the transepts, and rise above the clerestory to the top of the vault, allowing the maximum amount of light through the clerestory windows and into the nave. All of this represents a skeletal, structural articulation that has nothing to do with the actual structure of the cathedral. It is often noticed that one of the strangest features of English Gothic cathedrals is that the walls are much thinner than the arcades or vaulting which they support, that the structural logic of the French Gothic cathedral is turned upside down. At Lincoln, the vaulting shafts attached to the nave wall obviously serve no structural purpose; they extend the springer ribs visually down the wall, and visually attach the webbed ribs of the vault to the wall, which connects the wall to the vault as a continuous enclosing envelope, but not as a coherent structural system. Architecture as structure is juxtaposed with architecture as enclosure. This system is actually similar to that of the Pantheon in Rome, where the shallow saucer dome sits on the thick rotunda, but on the interior the dome is hemispherical. The structure is hidden on the interior, and the saucer dome becomes a hemispherical dome by plastering in around the top of the drum and covering it with the coffering to form the hemisphere. Architecture as structure is similarly juxtaposed with architecture as enclosure, and architecture as form, or metaphysical structure; there is a disjunction in both cases between the two basic metaphysical roles that architecture is supposed to play. The disjunction between the architecture as structure and the architecture as formal edificium or catechism of ideas is what allows the architecture to function as art, what allows Lincoln Cathedral to be architecture in distinction from a bicycle shed. In the aisles of the nave of Lincoln Cathedral there are two lancet windows in each bay. The bays are divided by Purbeck shafts which support the vaulting of the aisles. Below the lancet windows is a continuous arcade of

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trefoil arches, five per bay. In the north aisle the ridge pole in the vault is continuous. Purbeck shafts are placed at the center of a trefoil arch in the arcade, contradicting the logic of compartmentalization; the subdivisions do not correspond directly with the larger components. There seems to be everywhere at Lincoln a desire to contradict the logic of Scholastic organization, while at the same time enacting it. The numerical and geometrical organization of the scaffolding of the material world is self-contradictory, as if to suggest that it is in fact scaffolding, as in Mannerist architecture, a reflection of an organization that is hidden from view, inaccessible to sensible reality, as in a Platonic distinction between the physical world and its underlying reality, which is manifest in the inaccessible. In the south aisle of the nave, the arcade is not actually continuous; the vaulting shafts are placed in front of blank spaces of wall which divide the groups of five arches. The ridge pole in the vault of the south aisle is not continuous either. The wall in the south aisle is also more elaborately articulated, with a stringcourse above the capitals, tooth ornament, foliaged bosses in the spandrels, and an additional vaulting shaft in each bay between the two lancet windows, on a corbel above the arcade. As everywhere in the cathedral, it appears that in the different building phases, the desire is never to just repeat the previous architecture, to create a building that represents a continuity in conception, but rather to continuously introduce experimentation, variation, and particularities and individualities subsumed under an overarching whole. This approach has been attributed to the unique individuality exhibited among the English in the early thirteenth century, in distinction to other European countries, and a desire to challenge authority, to question the status quo. This is certainly exhibited in the creation of the Magna Carta in 1215, and the actions taken by Robert Grosseteste during his bishopric at Lincoln against the clergy, the monastic orders, and the pope. Dalibor Vesely also points at the “growing individualism of cities,” which he equates with “the first signs of a new humanism, and the change in the nature of knowledge…”12 The Rose Windows The main source of light in the cathedral is the rose windows. At the north end of the great or west transept is the Dean’s Eye (Figure 5), and at the south end is the Bishop’s Eye (Figure 4). The windows are the best example of stained glass in the early thirteenth century in England, preceding the

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stained glass at Canterbury. Both windows in the transept are twenty-four feet in diameter. The Dean’s Eye retains its original tracery, while the tracery of the Bishop’s Eye is from the Decorated period in the fourteenth century, inserted around 1320 in honor of John of Dalderby. Both windows are described in the Metrical Life of Saint Hugh, and they would have been completed during the time of Grosseteste. Peter Kidson speculates that the windows were not part of the original design of the transept.13 The Dean’s Eye is too big for its position, resulting in an alteration in the vaulting. The Bishop’s Eye interrupts a buttress shaft between the lancet windows, intended for a springer rib for the vault; the buttress as built serves no purpose. The Dean’s Eye faces the deanery to the north, while the Bishop’s Eye faces the bishop’s palace to the south, next to the Galilee Porch, the ceremonial entrance to the cathedral for the bishop. As described in the Metrical Life of Saint Hugh, the Dean’s Eye protects the cathedral from the spirit of the Devil to the north, while the Bishop’s Eye invites the Holy Spirit from the south into the cathedral. The subject of the images in the glass of the Dean’s Eye is the Church on Earth, the Church Militant, paired with the Church in Heaven, the Church Triumphant, in sixteen circular openings surrounding a quatrefoil. Christ is seated in the center surrounded by the blessed in Heaven. Four compartments surrounding the central image, which are probably not in their original positions, forming the quatrefoil, show various subjects, including the relics of Saint Hugh. Subjects in the sixteen outer circles of the window include angels with the instruments of the Passions, Saint Peter conducting people to Heaven, the Resurrection, and bishops and archbishops. Below the window, five lancet windows can be seen through an arcade of seven lancet arches. Large lancet windows on either side of the Dean’s doorway, dating from the fourteenth century, contain images of angels playing musical instruments and geometrical patterns. The musical instruments of the angels are a reference to the musica cosmica in contrast to the musica mundana, that there corresponds to all music created by human beings a celestial music from above, in the same way that the geometrical patterns represent a celestial intelligence in relation to human intelligence. As light was seen at the time as the mediator between the spiritual and the physical, as in the writings of Grosseteste, in particular as it is perceived in color and geometry, the stained glass windows played a primary role in the function of the cathedral to mediate between the material world and the spiritual. In Grosseteste’s writings, in particular his De Luce and De Lineis,

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the original light, lux, the first or original corporeal substance, is diffused, reflected and rarefacted in the form of the species, or images that are manifest in color and geometry. The finite dimensions of the images of matter are the product of an infinite multiplication of the original infinitely simple substance. From Aristotle, Grosseteste argued that finite matter can only be a product of the infinite multiplication of the infinite. Light is made visible as lumen through the color and the geometry of the stained glass; the reflected light or lumen in turn leads the perceiver back to the origin of the light which is imperceptible. The material world is known through perception, and what is perceived is the species (eidos) or image of an object which is created by light as it appears in the eye. Light thus makes everything visible, and, analogously, illuminates all things in intelligence and makes them understandable. The cathedral, with the stained glass windows and the geometrical forms, becomes a catechism for this process, the understanding at the time of the interaction between human intellect, perception, and the unknowable. Form and Function The articulation of the windows has in common with every other signature element associated with Grosseteste’s period a geometrical basis not related to any structural exigency, but rather to a metaphysical model of the multiplication and rarefaction of matter from light as described in the De Luce and De lineis, angulis et figuris of Grosseteste. In the De Lineis, the generation of light into matter, and of matter into three dimensions, is described in geometrical terms. The species or eidos of matter is projected by light in straight and in bent lines (as in the Y-tracery), over convex surfaces (as in the piers at Lincoln), concave surfaces (the vaults), in acute or obtuse angles (as formed by the tiercerons and liernes), and reflected off of concave surfaces, so that it is diffused, refracted, and rarefacted, or multiplied, as in the arch tracery and syncopated arcades of the architecture, in what Panofsky would call the “principle of progressive divisibility” of the manifestatio of Scholasticism. The virtus or power of the species is amplified in shorter lines (as in the liernes), and projected in three dimensions in the form of cones (as in the conoid springer vaults in the nave, non-structural rib-cones in the chapels behind the west front, or the umbrella vault and springer vaults in the chapter house). The geometrical rarefaction can be seen in the reticulated patterns in the masonry, the syncopated vaulting of Saint Hugh’s Choir, the syncopated arcading in the aisles of the choir, the continuous ridge poles in the choir and

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nave, and the octagonal bundle shafts throughout the cathedral. All of these elements entail the application of geometry to the architecture, as a model of the structure of the physical world, in the form of structural architectural elements, which have no structural function. Lincoln represents the first overt intention of a disjunction between the form of the architecture and the structural function of the architecture in the history of architecture. This device appears to be intended to correspond to the Platonic idea that the visual reality as given by perception is false, and that the world can only be understood by recognizing the intelligibles, those things that can be thought and understood but not perceived. The real structure of reality lies beneath the surface, in the archetypes or intelligibles, in the Golden Ratio or Pythagorean Harmonies, for example. For Plato, in the Timaeus, the real structure could only be found in an Idea which was separate from human intelligence, the archetypes; for Aristotle, in the De anima, the real structure could be found in the intelligibles in human thought itself. Both of these treatises were available to scholars in England at the beginning of the thirteenth century, as they were to scholars in Florence and Rome in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries. The Timaeus was partly translated into Latin by Calcidius in the fourth century. And many other circulating manuscripts incorporated these ideas, in the form of Neoplatonism: the Liber de Causis, paraphrasing Proclus, and the Theology of Aristotle, paraphrasing Plotinus, for example. These ideas can be found throughout the writings of Grosseteste. It is possible to interpret Lincoln Cathedral in this way. The forms of the architecture can be read in a way very similar to Renaissance architecture; the architecture of thirteenth-century England seems to be a lot closer to the architecture of fifteenth-century Italy than previously considered, given the divisive categorization of Gothic and Renaissance architecture, notwithstanding the radical formal differences, and the nationalistic associations. Perhaps English Gothic architecture can be seen as a predecessor to Italian Renaissance architecture, in that they both depend, at the basis of the generation of their forms, on the same philosophical structures from classical philosophy, from Plato and Aristotle, as filtered through Catholic theology during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Perhaps Lincoln can be seen as a precursor to this phenomenon in architecture normally associated with the Renaissance. A disjunction between form and structure is usually taken to be an anathema in Gothic architecture, especially as it is interpreted by Gothic Revivalists and Structural Rational-

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ists like Viollet-le-Duc. While Lincoln can be seen as introducing many of the signature forms associated with English Gothic architecture, it is at the same time almost the opposite of Gothic in its principles of organization, as associated with the French cathedral. The fact that geometrical forms were introduced as architectural forms in a non-structural way for the first time in the history of architecture suggests that these forms were generated not in response to the structural or functional requirements of the architecture, but for the purpose of allowing the architecture to express an idea or ideas as a catechism or edificium of a structure of knowledge or a philosophical system, which, as is well-established, was a fundamental purpose for the design of the Gothic cathedral. The non-structural geometrical forms in Lincoln correspond to the geometries and structures developed by Grosseteste in his writings, to the agenda in England for a national identity, and to the great revival in learning and scholarship which took place at the turn of the century, in which Grosseteste played an important role. Lincoln Cathedral is the product of a culture of scholarship at the beginning of the thirteenth century where the Aristotelian concept of the intelligible in intellect, from the De anima, participates in and challenges at the same time the Platonic metaphysical concept of the Idea. According to Plato, in the Timaeus, the lineament of the cosmos, as it were, the underlying organization, is an archetype, exterior to human reason. According to Aristotle, in the De anima, the treatise on the soul, the archetype cannot exist exterior to human reason, but is a function of human reason, as an intelligible. This distinction and debate is present in both the writings of Grosseteste and the architecture of Lincoln Cathedral, as it is in the writings of Jacques Derrida and the architecture of Deconstruction in the twentieth century. Saint Hugh’s Choir Saint Hugh’s Choir consists of four bays, and is eighty-two feet wide between outer walls. There are two arches in each bay of the triforium, each divided into two sub-arches, with trefoils and quatrefoils in the tympanum above, corresponding to the trivium and quadrivium, heaven and earth. It is believed that the original triforium had a continuous row of lancet windows. There are three clerestory windows instead of two in three of the four bays, corresponding to the Trinity, with an arcade of Purbeck shafts in front of them, and five arches, which may contribute to an explanation of the asymmetrical vaulting. As Peter Kidson wrote, “The vaults were almost certainly

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altered for the sake of that extra window.”14 There are two clerestory windows in the westernmost bay, which has regular sexpartite vaulting, as in the transepts. The first bay to the east of the choir, which crosses the lesser or eastern transept, and connects Saint Hugh’s Choir to the Angel Choir, begun later around 1250, also has asymmetrical vaulting. A major debate among historians which is crucial to this research is whether the present form of the vault of Saint Hugh’s Choir was conceived prior to the collapse of the tower, or supporting walls, in 1237 or 1239, or whether it was invented after the collapse, during the bishopric of Grosseteste. J. H. Parker concluded that the original structure built during the bishopric of Saint Hugh had a timber roof and a flat wooden ceiling, supported by thin walls, including the outermost arcade in the aisles, with flat buttresses on the aisle walls. Peter Draper, in The Formation of English Gothic: Architecture and Identity, assumes that the flat buttresses must have been for a planned sexpartite vault, which was abandoned during the process of construction for the present asymmetrical vault. This would explain, he says, the alternating circular and hexagonal vaulting shafts, which would accommodate alternating patterns of ribs in a sexpartite vault, between the single transverse rib and the transverse rib and two diagonals, while the patterns of ribs from the springers are consistent in the asymmetrical vault. When the present vaulting (Figure 3) was added later, perhaps after the collapse, the walls needed to be shored to support the extra weight. Part of the shoring involved building a second arcade over the first to support the increased wall thickness above, but the builders did not want to conceal the original arcade, so the piers and arches of the second arcade were made to alternate with the piers and arches of the original arcade, resulting in the present syncopated double arcade (similar to Ely, Figure 24, or Beverley, Figure 30). The apexes of the arches of the first arcade are also visible through pierced openings in the second arcade. The first arcade is of limestone; the second overlapping arcade is built with Purbeck marble in the south aisle and Alwalton marble in the north aisle. The builders also added additional vaulting shafts to the wall to support the new vault, resulting in the present shafts one on top of the other. The bays of the arcading do not correspond to the bays of the vault as established by the vaulting shafts. Flying buttresses were added to the exterior existing buttresses, and transverse arches were built in the triforium chamber, a method of shoring which was repeated in the nave and the Angel Choir (Figure 20).

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Parker’s conclusion was supported by Francis Bond and W. Watkins in an article in the Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1910. They asserted that the vaulting of the choir and chapter house was executed between 1237 and 1255, during the bishopric of Grosseteste. Parker’s conclusion was contested by John Bilson, who believes that the present vault was the original vaulting for the structure. George Henry Cook, in Portrait of Lincoln Cathedral, also supposes that the original roof was timber, and was replaced by the current vaulting after the structural collapse. Carl Nordström supported this theory, so he could link the design of the vault to the optical theories of Robert Grosseteste, and Nordström’s argument convinced Paul Frankl to support the theory as well. In his article of 1953, “The Crazy Vaults of Lincoln Cathedral,” in Art Bulletin, Frankl concluded that the choir was vaulted in its present state before the fall of the crossing tower, and that the double arcades in the aisles were complete by 1192. But in his 1962 article in Art Bulletin, “Lincoln Cathedral,” Frankl wrote, “As late as 1950 G. H. Cook supported the old belief that Hugh’s Choir originally had a timber roof or a flat ceiling. This hypothesis is eliminated by Nordström’s proof that some bosses of the vault in its first stage were used again when the present vault was built after the collapse of the central tower in 1237 (or 1239).”15 Frankl supposed that the original vault could not have survived the collapse of the crossing tower, but that the present vault was built to the design of the original vault, by the architect of the nave vaulting, during the construction of the nave. The fact that there is a continuous plinth under the arcade would also suggest that the original ceiling was vaulted. Nordström had written in 1955, “I do not agree with his view,” referring to Frankl, “that the eccentric vaults are a part of the original design by Geoffrey de Noyers and built ca. 1210. It is my opinion that, although the choir was certainly originally vaulted, it was not until after the great disaster of 1237 or 1239 that the eccentric vaults were built,”16 that is, during the bishopric of Robert Grosseteste. Peter Kidson argues against the idea that the two arcades in the double arcade were built at different times, pointing to the continuous and uninterrupted shelf or plinth that supports both arcades.17 This theory is supported by Frankl. It is certainly possible that the shelf was built like that for only the first arcade; it makes no structural sense, but not much at Lincoln does. There would be no reason for the double arcade if the original ceiling were timber. Kidson does however consider that the present vaulting may not have been the original design. Pevsner romantically explains the double arcade,

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which he describes as “blank arcading in two planes set in a syncopated rhythm (‘contrapuntal’ may describe this better than ‘syncopated’), i.e., pointed blank arcading with detached limestone shafts close to the wall, and another row of arcading with Purbeck shafts and pointed-tre-foiled arches set so that the shafts are in front of the apexes behind, and the apexes in front of the rear shafts,”18 as a “most delightful invention” of Geoffrey de Noyers, in the architect’s interest in setting up vistas and overlapping elements for spatial and visual effects, a theory that would support the supposed interest in geometrical optics at the time. Peter Draper compares the contrapuntal arcading in the aisles of Saint Hugh’s Choir to an illustration in the De statu ecclesiae or De usu ecclesiastico of Gilbert, Bishop of Limerick, the first papal legate in Ireland, which can be found in Cambridge University Library. According to Paul Binski, in Becket’s Crown, the manuscript was probably produced at the priory of Durham Cathedral in the 1180s, as a program of reform for the Irish synod. In the illustration, tiers of arches are arranged in a complex pattern of arcading to illustrate the hierarchy of the Catholic Church. The arcades are offset so that the shaft of one arcade overlaps the arches of the arcade underneath, as in Saint Hugh’s Choir. The arches represent the people of the Church, which is seen as a macrocosm or organism as represented by the system of arcading. The arcading represents a diagram of the order of the Church, in what the text calls an imago generalis ecclesiae. The arcades are organized in a series of pyramids; the smallest units are at the bottom, and work up to the largest units at the top. The basic units are the parish, run by the priest, and monastery, run by the abbot. The units are divided into ranks and categories, including oratores (those who pray), aratores (those who plough), and bellatores (those who fight). The parishes and monasteries are governed by the diocese, which is governed by the archdiocese, the district of the archbishop, which is governed by the highest ranking bishop, primatus, of the Church. The Church is governed by the pope, who is governed by Christ. A secular hierarchy is established to correspond to the ecclesiastical hierarchy. The arcading of the illustration is set on a continuous plinth, as in Saint Hugh’s Choir, and the Gothic pointed arches are set on piers with bases and capitals. The continuous plinth represents the broad base of the Church and its open arms in embracing all people. The pointed arches in the upper level represent the more narrow and disciplined life (arcta via) of religious and ordained people. The intersection of the arches as they overlap represents the

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close relationships between those religious or ordained. The arcading is set inside a major arch, representing the macrocosm of the Church, the ecclesia generalis. The arcading set inside the major arch represents the ability of the Church to subsume variation, particularities and individualities under an overarching whole. Romanesque towers appear at the top of the arcading. The Romanesque towers contrast with the delicate membrification of the arcading, which reflects the emphasis on light, transparency, structural clarity, and progressive divisibility, the principle of the manifestatio, associated with Gothic architecture. The illumination is an edificium in the same way as the cathedral; it is a catechism of a structure of knowledge, an epistemology, communicated in visual and structural terms. The illustration is considered to be the earliest example of Gothic style illumination in English art. The analogy between scripture and building as edifice is found in the Moralia in Job of Gregory, and the Didascalicon of Hugh of Saint-Victor. The edifice of scripture has both a structure, or history, and a superstructure, or allegorical content, in the same way that architecture has both a structure and an allegorical or metaphysical content, the ideas associated with its forms. In the Metrical Life of Saint Hugh, Lincoln Cathedral is compared to a honeycomb, yielding sweet inner meaning, the allegory of divine communion. Hugh of Saint-Victor compared history, as the foundation and principle of sacred learning, to a honeycomb, from which the allegory is extracted as honey. The structure of the cathedral corresponds to the history of the Church, its foundation of learning, and the metaphysical role of the architecture in communicating ideas corresponds to the allegorical content of spiritual development. The image of the honeycomb can be compared to the tiered arcading of the illumination of Gilbert, and to the syncopated arcading of Saint Hugh’s Choir. In each case the reticulation, as an instrument of the progressive divisibility of the manifestatio in Scholasticism, contains the synthesis of reason and faith, the structure and the allegory, the material and spiritual, and logic and intellect, which is behind all the forms found in the cathedral. The reticulation of course also occurs in the masonry of the crossing tower and the west front, in the Y-tracery of the stained glass, and in the vaulting of Saint Hugh’s Choir, the nave, the Morning Chapel, the Consistory Chapel, and the chapter house at Lincoln. The syncopated arcading of Saint Hugh’s Choir has also been explained in relation to the optical theories of Robert Grosseteste. Because similar arcading occurred at Chichester Cathedral, around 1187, in the eastern triforium of the retrochoir, and in the Augustinian Priory at Guisborough,

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Draper is led to conclude that the theories of the relation between the arcading and optical theory are not only improbable, but “nonsense.” It is possible, though, that those instances may have been inspired by a cultural-wide interest in optics and perspective as well. The western bay of Saint Hugh’s Choir, with the sexpartite vaulting, was perhaps built later, due to the collapse of the supporting walls of the crossing tower, and the loss of the original piers there. The details of the western bay are considered to be more poorly designed than the rest of the bays in the choir, though more structurally sound, for example, columns without capitals, and eight-lobed pillars of Lincoln stone in the triforium, compared by Edmund Venables to “pounds of candles.” The trefoils and quatrefoils in the tympana of the west bay are crooked. The first piers of the arcade after the two westernmost bays perhaps remain from the original choir, as they have Purbeck shafts and concave sides. Pevsner considers these to have been designed by Geoffrey de Noyers, and to be his “most elegant” piers. They have square cores, chamfered angles, and Lincoln stone capitals. Above the piers the vaulting shafts of the choir rise from cone-shaped brackets. The vaulting of the choir, the present state resulting perhaps from the reconstruction after the collapse, is the subject of more attention and debate than any other part of the cathedral. It began as a variation of a normal quadripartite vault. In each bay, two bosses were placed on the ridge pole, perhaps because of the short width of the bays, dividing it into three sections, perhaps to accommodate the three clerestory windows, and making a symmetrical vault impossible, if it has diagonal ribs springing from the corners of the bays. The continuous ridge pole, the first of its kind in a Gothic cathedral, which Pevsner attributes to Geoffrey de Noyers, supposedly provides bracing for the bosses or keystones of the vaulting. The ridge pole is slightly arched between the bosses, in an attempt to stabilize the vault longitudinally. Between the bays, four ribs spring toward the ridge pole from corbels placed between the arches of the triforium; the corbels are supported by shafts which run down the wall to a corbel between the main arches of the aisles. The shafts alternate between circular and hexagonal, making no sense in relation to the vault. They originally ran down to the bottom of the main arches, but were moved up to make room for new timber choir stalls below for the canons, installed after 1350 by Treasurer Welbourn. Because there are only two bosses in each bay, there is only room for three ribs to connect the corbels and bosses, two on one side and one on the other of each bay. The asymmetrical vaulting follows from the even number

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of bosses in each bay. The cone-shaped clusters of ribs springing from the corbels are asymmetrical: two on one side of the rib separating the bays, one on the other. As the asymmetrical staggering is repeated on the other side, this causes the vault to be asymmetrical, with two ribs connecting at a boss with one rib on the other side, and one rib with two, on both sides of the ridge rib. This is called a triradial vault, with three ribs emanating from each of the two bosses in each bay. It is again, for Pevsner, an invention of Geoffrey de Noyers. The single rib connecting the corbel with the boss on each side is called a tierceron rib, or “third” rib, and it is the first appearance of such a type of rib in the history of architecture. It has no structural function in the vault; it is just placed on top of the severy, and could easily have not been placed there, structurally, though it can be seen how it might strengthen the vault, by increasing the mass of the skeleton and reducing the size of the cells between the ribs. But such potential structural function is minimal in relation to the presence of the rib. The third rib reinforces the triune grouping of elements in the vault, introduced by the three lancet windows in each bay of the clerestory. Pevsner calls the vault “the first rib-vault with purely decorative intentions”19: the first non-structural geometries in the history of architecture. The purpose of this research is to show that the intention is not for decoration, but for an architecture as edificium, a catechism of the structure of the cosmos through the use of non-structural architectural geometries. The central latitudinal line of the bay becomes a diagonal from one corner to the other, “open and shut…scissorwise,” as described by Pevsner; the resulting vaulting, as he says, is “overwhelmingly lopsided.” Which direction the diagonal goes across the bay appears to be arbitrary. The diagonal formed by the central severy runs east to west and north to south. It perhaps symbolically reinforces the spiritual force of the Holy Spirit moved through the church from the east, as illuminated by the Trinity in the form of the three lancet windows in the bays of the clerestory. The vaulting may have been designed as such to make each bay large enough to accommodate three clerestory windows, to allow for the symbolism of the Trinity, and to allow an adequate amount of light to filter into the choir from the clerestory windows, which is not the case in the transept. In the transept, the clerestory windows are enveloped by the sexpartite vaulting. The vaulting in the choir may also have been designed as such to decrease the area of the severies on either side of the latitudinal ribs that separate the bays, to give the vault greater strength, given the structural concerns follow-

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ing the collapse of the piers. The vault was further strengthened by arcaded screens, inserted between the piers which divide the choir from the aisles on both sides, built during Grosseteste’s bishopric. The effect of the vaulting is that the vault cannot be read as a series of distinct vaults or bays, as can any other vaulting system. As Pevsner puts it, the most significant result is that it “invalidates the bay division which to French architecture has been and was going to be for nearly two centuries the basic fact of Gothic composition.” As in every other part of Lincoln Cathedral, the architecture challenges the very logic by which it is composed, challenges its own architectural forms as a scaffolding or representation of the sensible world in relation to human intellect. The continuity of the vault is furthered by the regularity of the gauge of the members; the ridge pole, transverse ribs, diagonal ribs, and tiercerons are all the same size. The vault can also not be read as corresponding to the bay divisions of the side walls, even in alternation, as in the nave. The reading of the vault as a continuous surface is reinforced by the continuous ridge pole. The non-converging cells of the vault can be seen as a counterpart to the syncopated arcading in the aisles, and the triradials of the vault correspond to the Y-tracery in the windows, in the spirit of the architecture as composed of variations on a consistent theme, as described by Panofsky. It is possible that the triradial vaulting was inspired by triangular compartments in the vaulting of the ambulatory of Notre Dame in Paris. As with the vaulting of the nave, Pevsner compares the vaults of Saint Hugh’s Choir to palm fronds, but instead of being in a symmetrical mirrorimage on each side of the ridge pole, the fronds are turned over in a reverse mirror image. The organic is represented by the inorganic in the architecture, as natural forms are represented by mathematical and geometrical forms, depending on the correspondence between mathematical logic in human reason, and that logic perceived in nature. But in Saint Hugh’s Choir, the relation between mathematical reasoning and natural form, between the inorganic and organic, is disjointed, as the mirror image is reversed and the laws of physics, or in this case mathematics and geometry, are put to question in relation to nature. In the Commentary on the Posterior Analytics of Robert Grosseteste, reason or ratio is seen as a mirror reflecting the virtus intellectiva, the nous or Intellectual in thought, non-discursive reason, that part of reason in which the divine participates, or the organic, as it were. This can be found in the Enneads of Plotinus, I.1.8 and I.4.10. For Plotinus in Enneads I.1.8, intellect

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shines into matter and becomes present in it, as it does in reason. Light is the medium between spirit and matter in the cathedral. Bodies in matter become living beings, but intellect does not participate in matter or adapt to it in any way, nor is it affected by matter in any way, nor by the operations of reason; intellect is only present in matter in “images or likenesses of itself like one face caught by many mirrors.” If reason is operating well, in Enneads I.4.10, then the mirror reflection of intellect in it is clear. If the mirror in reason is “out of gear,” that which produces the reflection still exists, actively and unceasingly, as in active intellect, it is just not properly reflected in the lower part of the mind. The concept related to the image which is given to reason is a mirror image of the inaccessible concept in intellect or nous, and the source of the mirror image in reason is the inaccessible bridge between the image and concept in intellection. Perception of form in matter can only be a product of reason, as the understanding of the world is constructed through mathematics and geometry, which entails the perception of the image as it is imprinted in the imagination as it is a product of the intellection. Modern optical theory has established that the image of the actual object perceived, the eidos or imprint of Plotinus, or species of Grosseteste, is reversed in the process of perception, and that in order to perceive something, it must be constructed in an intellective process. David Layzer wrote, for example, in Cosmogenesis: the growth of order in the universe, in 1990: “Human visual perception is a cyclical process in which the brain constructs, tests, and modifies perceptual hypotheses. In order to have a percept, we must construct it.…According to the formula perception=construction, seeing the scene is the subjective experience that accompanies the construction of the cerebral representation,”20 or the imprint of Plotinus, wherein the actual object cannot be immediately perceived, or the Vorstellung of Hegel, the picture thinking, and the Vorstellungsrepräsentanz of Sigmund Freud, the representation of the representation, the mnemic residue of the imprint that is filtered into the thought process. Conscious thinking occurs in between intellection and sense perception, and it has access to neither matter without form nor the intelligible without the discursive process. According to Plotinus, human thought is suspended in a play of mirror reflections, as it diffuses and multiplies, as matter diffuses and multiplies from light, and thinking does not have access to what is behind the mirrors on any side of it. The vaulting of Saint Hugh’s Choir appears to stage the relation between reason and faith, between human thought

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and nature, and between mathematics and organic form, in the process of intellection, as caught in the play of mirror reflections. The architecture corresponds to the concepts formulated by Bishop Grosseteste in his writings, which represent the methods of thinking about the natural world at the time, in their synthesis of Aristotelian natural philosophy, and the importance of the senses, and Platonic and Neoplatonic concepts which correspond to Catholic theological concepts, in philosophies of intellect. As always, the sensible experience of the architecture of the cathedral is staged to lead the intellect to the intelligibles, the manifestations of the divine in the material world, and the bridging of reason and faith. If the latitudinal, transverse ribs of the vault of Saint Hugh’s Choir were taken out, the vaulting would read from below as a continuous folded surface along the ridge pole. Without the transverse rib, the ribs would form a series of diamonds which could be clearly read: a simple diamond as a parallelogram with the transverse rib as its center line, alternating with what would appear to be a distorted diamond, as if it were tilted at an angle away from the plane of the vault. The alternating diamonds, formed by the boundaries of the triradials, would appear as a series of folded cards. The effect of the distortion could be seen as a form of anamorphosis, a perverse variation of a normal point of view, in keeping with the asymmetry of the vault on either side of the ridge pole, and the distorting effect of mirror images in the relation between human reason and nous, higher intellect. Bishop Grosseteste is famous for his work in optics and perspective theory, and Folke Nordström suggested that there is a relation between the vaulting in Saint Hugh’s Choir and optical science, that the architectural forms result from an attempt to enact the optical relationships described by Grosseteste in his treatises. The role of mirror reflections and anamorphosis in the effect of the architecture would lend to that explanation, along with the overlapping and framing of vistas in other elements of the architecture, but the optical effects have to be seen in the larger context of how perception was understood in relation to intellection in the philosophies of the period, as influenced by Aristotle and the Arabs and Neoplatonists. Nordström just suggested the possibility briefly; he did not pursue it or attempt to justify it in any way, but it nevertheless became a very controversial suggestion. He was seen as being overly influenced by Panofsky and Gothic Architecture and Scholasticism, in attempting to explain architectural forms in relation to a vague, generally defined cultural zeitgeist, without establishing specific in-

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tentions on the part of a builder or patron, or specific ideas that they might have had about the architecture. Nordstöm’s theory would have more credibility if there was an attempt to back it up with evidence of a connection between Grosseteste and the building process, or an attempt to explain the optical theories in relation to architectural forms. The geometries used in the architecture certainly correspond in large part to the geometries described by Grosseteste in his treatises on light and optics, De Luce and De lineis, angulis et figuris. The geometries are described by Grosseteste for the purpose of explaining the functioning of natural phenomena, in particular the diffusion and rarefaction of light. Grosseteste’s description of the functioning of natural phenomena in geometrical terms is a virtual architectural catechism of itself, which corresponds to the architecture of the cathedral, which was built for the purpose of representing the current understanding of the functionings of the natural world in relation to intellect and faith, and the processes of intellection itself. Paul Frankl single-handedly revived interest in Lincoln Cathedral in the 1950s, mostly by focusing his attention on the vault of Saint Hugh’s Choir, which he called the “crazy vault.” Frankl described the vaulting as representing the intention to “separate the form from its original meaning, then to use the form as such in a different way, while at the same time giving it a new sense.” In other words, the structural geometries are used non-structurally, for the first time in history, for the purpose of expressing an idea not related to the metaphysical function of the architecture itself, thus allowing the architecture to function as art, and as the edificium of Scholastic thinking and the synthesis of reason and faith. Frankl invented a neologism, “akyrism,” from the Greek word “akyros,” meaning “improper,” to describe the approach to the design, as a conscious mannerist tendency. Fankl’s interpretation is the product of the popularity of the concept of mannerism in the 1950s, and the debates on the subject at the time. Frankl reasoned that now that the term “mannerism” has been established to describe the phase between High Renaissance and Early Baroque, and that mannerism can be understood as a distinct style or approach, sui generis, it can be applied to different periods, as “it has become possible to recognize related phenomena in other periods,”21 in particular, early thirteenth-century England. Thus Geoffrey de Noyers can be called a mannerist. For Frankl, mannerist works express the “willful character of their inventor,” and “a boldly personal use of the forms,” resulting in the improper forms, deviations from the accepted norm. The term “mannerism,” as it

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evolved to describe the period of the Late Renaissance, referred more to a cultural phenomenon: a more unstable political and economic situation, a more advanced and thus self-referential level of cultural production, and, most importantly, a reaction to the Renaissance itself, the revival of the standards of a culture in the far distant past, which was the product of increased secularization, urbanization, and political and economic power. It seems that if the term “mannerism” is applied to early thirteenth-century England, in reference to increased liberties taken by the artist or architect, there would have to be a similar cultural situation, and such liberties would have to be seen in all forms of cultural production, not just architecture, which is not the case. It was certainly a turbulent and unstable period politically and economically, which witnessed the process of the establishment of a new English nationalism in the wake of the Norman Conquest and the control of the Catholic Church. Such a period though does not usually produce a willful character in an artist or the boldly personal use of forms, as it is more important at the time to contribute to the national agenda. A “mannerist” period is usually a period in which a national agenda has already been accomplished, as in the Renaissance, and the necessity of conformity to the national agenda has been relaxed. An important characteristic of early thirteenth-century England was the revival of learning, following the arrival of the Franciscans and Dominicans, new translations, and new scholarship on the classical writers, in particular Aristotle, a revival of learning embodied in the figure of Robert Grosseteste. Such a period also does not suggest mannerism; it is closer to the model of the Renaissance itself, in its revival of classical learning and standards in education and artistic practices. There is no reason for a boldly personal use of forms in such a period, but there is a necessity of establishing national standards and a national identity, and of applying artistic inventiveness to such common goals. Frankl, and Pevsner in turn, base their interpretations on the supposition that one architect alone, Geoffrey de Noyers, is responsible for the invention of radically original forms, that he is working as an individual in isolation from the accepted norms and standards, and is given the freedom to do so by the fabric at Lincoln. That it is the case that Geoffrey worked alone as inventor of the forms is unlikely; it is even questionable that he was the architect; and that he would be given such creative license in such an environment is unlikely as well. The term “mannerism,” as it is used by Frankl, is misapplied here. It is not based on historical evidence, and it does not make sense in the historical and cultural context. There is not enough

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evidence, nor enough credible reasoning, to establish that the architectural forms are a product of a mannerism, personal “akyrism,” willful character, or in Pevsner’s terms, visionary genius or sense of play of an individual architect who was acting outside the cultural context or zeitgeist. The Transepts Across from the arcaded screens of Saint Hugh’s Choir in the north aisle is the double arcade. The double arcade also appears in the four semi-circular chapels attached to the east side of the eastern transept, two in the north bay and two in the south bay. The eastern transept (south: Figure 13, north: Figure 21) was built before the collapse of the tower, but the semi-circular chapels, though part of the original design, were probably not built until after the collapse. The vaulting of the eastern transept is the earliest surviving at Lincoln, and departs from the French model in that it is a sexpartite vault over a single bay rather than over two bays. This required an additional springer for the intermediate transverse rib. The springers rising from below the clerestory recalls Canterbury Cathedral. The triforium of the east transept is similar to that of Saint Hugh’s Choir, with two arches in each bay divided into two sub-arches, and trefoils and quatrefoils in the tympana, except in the northernmost bay, which is the earliest. The clerestory of the east transept only contains single lancet windows in each bay. The transept is not very well lit, as the clerestory windows are obscured by the curved web of the sexpartite vaulting condensed into one bay. The design of the vault of Saint Hugh’s Choir may have resulted in part from a desire to correct this problem. The pointed arches of the arcade in the lower walls of the transepts are similar to those in Saint Hugh’s Choir, as is the exterior buttressing, leading Peter Kidson to conjecture that the choir was originally intended to be vaulted with the sexpartite vault that appears in the transepts. The vaulting of the chapels of the transept is quadripartite. A chamber on the western side of the northern arm, called the Dean’s Chapel, contains a column with an octagonal pier, surrounded by four circular Purbeck shafts alternating with hexagonal, concave fluted stone shafts, with crockets running up the side of the pier in between them. The column is repeated in the same location on both sides of the north and south bays. These are referred to as “Trondheim Piers,” as it is believed that Lincoln masons worked at Trondheim Cathedral. One of the piers is without the crockets. Pevsner considers this to be the original, another invention of Geoffrey de Noyers, “the

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most enterprising and surprising of all Geoffrey’s piers,” and Pevsner considers the rest of the columns to be ruined by the “monstrously big crockets forming a vertical row.” The original pier is exactly like piers found at Canterbury, which was completed in 1184, six years prior to the start of Geoffrey de Noyer’s work at Lincoln. The number eight, a symbol of creation and the Holy Spirit, is repeated throughout the design of Lincoln Cathedral. Crockets, which are supposed to represent the flowering of the capital of a column, are found throughout up and down the sides of the columns. Frankl calls this “decorative” and “senseless.” The geometries of the column exceed its structural purpose, and correspond to the theme of an architecture designed to represent a philosophical outlook as well as a metaphysical shelter. Here the laws of nature, though only represented symbolically, by the column as a metaphor for the tree, connecting the earth with the vault of heaven, for example, are contradicted. Again, the very scaffolding of Scholastic philosophy is challenged once it has been set up, in a Gothic Deconstruction. Other columns in the eastern transepts display clustered marble piers and stone shafts, stiff-leaf foliage capitals, and the circular Gothic abacus at the top of the column, replacing the square Norman abacus, perhaps in deference to the circle as a symbol of the divine in the proto-Humanistic philosophy of the period. The columns have a cruciform core with hollowed-out, chamfered angles forming diagonal shafts, which is repeated in Saint Hugh’s Choir, except with only four detached shafts. Pevsner attributed this innovation to Geoffrey de Noyers, as the chamfering and the setting of one thing in front of another are among his leitmotifs, given his fascination, according to Pevsner, for creating a variety of visual experiences. These leitmotifs can even be found in the buttresses from the period, as Pevsner points out. The main, western transept, which contains the Dean’s Eye and the Bishop’s Eye, was more or less completed by the time of the collapse of the tower. Only the innermost bays had been completed by 1200, and the subsequent bays were built between 1200 and 1235. Bishop Hugh of Wells, bishop from 1209 to 1235, is believed to have contributed to the construction of the transepts and later the nave by donating all of the timber from his land at his death. The western transept is believed to have been begun by Geoffrey de Noyers, and continued by the “second master,” Michael, or Master Michael the Mason, referred to as magister operis, “master of the works of the Church of Lincoln,” and “master of the Fabric of the Church of Lincoln,” active from around 1210 to 1234. Michael held land in the parish of Saint Mi-

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chael on the Mount of Newhouse Abbey. He was succeeded by Gilbert de Burgo, who was active from about 1230 to 1235. The architect who completed the western transept is considered to be a different architect than that of Saint Hugh’s Choir, in its original form, and the architect of the nave still a third architect. The “third master,” Alexander, active from around 1240 to 1257, is also credited by John Harvey with the crossing tower, chapter house, Galilee Porch, and the upper part of the west front. Alexander was referred to as cementarius (mason), magister operis (master of the works), and magister fabricae (master of the fabric). The western transept features piers composed of eight stone shafts and eight marble shafts, reiterating the number eight as symbolic of creation. The bays of the transept are similar to the bays of Saint Hugh’s Choir. The architecture changes above the capitals of the piers, though, seeming to be the work of a different architect. The vaulting of the main transept is sexpartite, and is the same height as Saint Hugh’s Choir, seventy-four feet. Each bay is divided into six cells by a transverse and two diagonal ribs, a simpler, conventional variation of the vaulting of Saint Hugh’s Choir, and as a result, far more influential to subsequent architecture. The vaulting of Saint Hugh’s Choir was never repeated. The vaulting of the western transept was not built high enough, and the bay at the north end above the Dean’s Eye is higher than the others. The Galilee Porch, on the west side of the south main transept, was built during the episcopate of Grosseteste, between 1230 and 1240, or after 1240 according to Pevsner, as the ceremonial entrance for the bishop from the Bishop’s Palace to the south, also built during Grosseteste’s time. The Galilee Porch was also used for the readmission of excommunicated parishioners. A chamber above the porch was used as a court room, and is now a muniment room, storing legal documents. The chamber is filled with lancet windows and arcading along the walls. The porch is cruciform in plan with a quadripartite vault, and is filled with carved foliage, clustered shafts, and dogtooth ornament. The Chapter House The chapter house (Figure 15) is one of the earliest polygonal chapter houses in England, though not the first. It is sixty-two feet in diameter, and fortytwo feet high. According to the Metrical Life of Saint Hugh, the chapter house was planned just after 1185 and was finished before 1235, by Hugh of

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Wells, though the vaulting may not have been completed by then. Pevsner argues that details of the vaulting match details of the west front and Galilee Porch, and that it could not have been completed before 1235. The chapter house was probably conceived when the Roman wall was moved to make room for Saint Hugh’s Choir. The Metrical Life describes the chapter house as circular, though it is actually decagonal. There are two lancet windows in each of the ten bays, which were later filled with stained glass, designed by Clayton and Bell, illustrating the history of Lincoln Minster. Below the windows is a continuous arcade with pointed arches, Purbeck shafts, foliage capitals, and tooth ornament decoration. Below the arcade is a projecting stone seat. It is generally agreed that the vaulting was later than the rest of the chapter house, perhaps during the bishopric of Grosseteste, and the flying buttresses on the exterior were much later, built to shore the vaulting following the experimental use of the umbrella column. The exterior buttresses, which look like “colossal fingers,” according to George Cook, extended from the building, appear to be far in excess of what was necessary. They reiterate the decagonal organization of the building, the number ten always symbolizing the whole and perfection of creation, from Horus, the tenth Ennead in Egyptian cosmology, to the Pythagorean tetractys, to the architecture theory of Vitruvius and Alberti. In the interior vaulting, conoid clusters of springer ribs rise from corbels in each corner. The corbels are two-thirds up the shafts of the window frames, and there are squatted pointed arches separating the corbels from the frames. The corbels sit on clusters of Purbeck shafts rising from a cornice above the pointed arches in the arcade. The combination of circular and concave hexagonal marble shafts is similar to Saint Hugh’s Choir. The ribs rising from the corbels connect to bosses in a continuous ridge rib in the form of a decagon, then the ribs continue toward the center, curving down toward a central bundle column supporting an umbrella vault. The central column has precedents, but the cone of ribs it supports is an original form at Lincoln. The proliferation of conoid clusters of ribs in the chapter house and nave may be related to the emphasis placed on the form of the cone in explaining the phenomenon of light in Grosseteste’s optics, in particular the De Lineis. As in all parts of the cathedral, the architectural forms are in excess of the structural and functional requirements, in terms of cost, material, and articulation. There must have been a good reason to invest so much in excess, beyond the importance of the cathedral to the See of Lincoln, the largest in England, which included Oxford; the reason for the excess must be in addi-

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tion the necessity of representing the philosophical and epistemological bases of the culture, how it understood the architecture of the cosmos. The density of ribs in the vault of the chapter house exceeds even that of the nave, and the complex linear effects, the reticulation, is even more apparent. The central column was probably used in the building process to support the timber construction above the vault. The chapter house has a pyramid roof. There are twenty ribs in all on the ceiling. As in the ceiling of the tower, it is as if the ridge pole is wrapped around a center. The column in the center is surrounded by ten hexagonal fluted Purbeck shafts. The ratio of ten shafts at the center to twenty ribs on the periphery is a familiar one in architectural history, as, for example, at the tholos temple at Delphi in Greece, thought to be designed by Kallikrates, with the first use of the Corinthian capital. There are ten Corinthian columns on the interior of the tholos, rising from a bench, and twenty Doric columns on the periphery of the temple. The architects of Lincoln Cathedral appear to have had a very good knowledge of architectural history and architectural precedents. The architecture at Lincoln is an anomaly to the usual characterization of Gothic architecture as being indifferent to historical and cultural traditions, and being devised as the expression of a new nationalistic identity based on modern technology and modern philosophies. Lincoln Cathedral synthesizes both: references to history and the invention of new forms, and the expression of new philosophies.

4 The Geometries of Robert Grosseteste and the Architecture of Lincoln Cathedral

Robert Grosseteste was probably born in the county of Suffolk, at Stradbroke or Stow Langtoft, near Bury St. Edmunds, around 1170,1 or 1175. Grosseteste is the French version of the Latin “Grossum Caput” or the English “Great Head.”2 Robert Grosseteste is probably from a peasant background.3 He first studied at the Cathedral School of Lincoln, serving Bishop Hugh of Lincoln as clerk.4 In the 1190s Grosseteste was a clerk of the Bishop at Hereford. The Cathedral School of Hereford was a center for Arabic learning in the late twelfth century. Texts that might have been important there include the Theology of Aristotle, a paraphrase of the Enneads of Plotinus; the Fons Vitae of Avicebron, or Solomon Ibn Gabirol, translated by John Avendeath (John of Spain) and Domenicus Gundissalinus; the Metaphysica of Algazel; the Liber de Causis, translated by Gerard of Cremona, thought to be a work of Aristotle but composed mostly of extracts from the Elements of Theology of Proclus, as discovered later by Thomas Aquinas; translations by James of Venice of Aristotle, including the Posterior Analytics; the De Intellectu of Alkindi, translated by Gerard of Cremona; the Risala of Abu Nasr Alfarabi, known as De intellectu; and a number of works by Avicenna, or Ibn Sina, including De anima, Metaphysica (Shifa: De anima), and De Caelo. Through works such as these, Grosseteste became familiar with Aristotle, Arabic scientific treatises, and the Neoplatonism filtered through works such as the Theology of Aristotle, Fons Vitae or Liber de Causis. His most important writings can be seen as a mixture of these three sources. Grosseteste is sometimes credited with being the first Western scholar to incorporate Aristotle into his writings in a significant way. His commentaries on the Posterior Analytics, Physics and Metaphysics are the first in the West, and his writings are filled with citations from treatises by Aristotle such as De Caelo,

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Meteorologica, De Sensu, De Anima, De Generatione et Corruptione, and De Animalibus, all newly translated. Grosseteste is sometimes credited with writing the first scientific treatises in natural philosophy since Aristotle; and he is sometimes credited with writing the first scientific cosmology since the Timaeus of Plato, his De lineis, angulis et figuris. Whether or not he deserves credit for those things, his writing is extremely significant for its incorporation of Aristotle, the Arabic commentaries on Aristotle, and the influence of Plato and the Neoplatonists, though secondhand, all in combination with Christian theology, in particular Augustine, Gregory, and Boethius, as he owned copies of De Civitate Dei, Moralia in Job, and De Consolatione Philosophiae. Grosseteste studied law, medicine, and theology at Oxford from 1199 to 1208, and became a teacher at the university. After 1208 he was appointed Master of the Oxford Schools, or Chancellor, the first of the university. As Master of Arts, Grosseteste studied and taught the seven liberal arts, the trivium and the quadrivium, and worked within the discipline of Scholasticism, at Oxford, until about 1209.5 After 1209 he may have studied theology in Paris, until 1214, following the closing of the schools in England by King John. De Artibus Liberalibus, written before 1209, while Master of Arts at Oxford, is perhaps Grosseteste’s first work, and shows the influence of Augustine and Boethius. It is an investigation of astronomy and astrology, and expounds the musical harmony of the universe. De Generatione Sonorum was probably written after De Artibus, and is a study of language and phonetics. De Sphaera is one of Grosseteste’s earliest scientific treatises, written around 1215. The motions of the heavens are attributed to an anima mundi, world soul, on which Grosseteste would expand in later works. Between 1215 and 1220 Grosseteste wrote a series of astronomical treatises, including Computus I, Calendarium, Computus Correctorius, and Computus Minor. In these, emphasis is placed on the role of light from the sun in the movement and generation of sublunary phenomena, that is the four physical elements below the ninth celestial sphere, and solar light is given theological and symbolic significance, suggesting the treatment of light in the treatise On Light, or De luce seu de inchoatione formarum, written after 1225. In De Generatione Stellarum, from around 1220, when Grosseteste was around fifty years old, the heavenly bodies and the quintessence are given physical and spiritual substance beyond astronomy and astrology, showing the beginning of the influence of Aristotle, especially De Caelo. In De Impressionibus Elementorum, between 1220 and 1225, meteorological

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phenomena are explained in relation to the heat of the sun, in terms of light as a generating factor, and geometrical optics, leading towards the metaphysical theory of light in De Luce. After 1225 Grosseteste was lecturing in theology at Oxford. The treatise on light, De Luce, was probably written between 1225 and 1228, and was shortly followed by the Commentary on the Posterior Analytics (Commentarius in Libros Analyticorum Posteriorum) and the De Lineis (Libellus Lincolniensis de Phisicis Lineis Angulis et Figuris), Grosseteste’s most influential treatises, completed before 1233, two years before he became Bishop of Lincoln, and while he was lecturing to the Franciscans at Oxford. De Luce combines Greek, Arabic, and Christian theological sources in describing a metaphysics of light. In both De Luce and the Commentary, light is described as infinitely multiplied according to geometrical and mathematical principles. The Commentary is based on the translation of Aristotle from Greek to Latin made by James of Venice, and Grosseteste relied on a paraphrase by Themistius, translated by Gerard of Cremona. The treatises De Motu Corporali and De Motu Supercaelestium followed De Luce in around 1230, and involved an attempt to apply the metaphysics of light of De Luce to the natural world. De Iride, De Colore, and De Calore Solis, from just after 1230, were Grosseteste’s last treatises on natural philosophy. Grosseteste was ordained as a priest around 1225, which began a transition in his interests from natural philosophy to theology. By 1229 he was appointed Archdeacon of Leicester, after having been Archdeacon of Chester and Northamton; he remained Archdeacon of Leicester until 1232. By 1230, he was lecturing to the Franciscans outside the city walls at Oxford. Grosseteste was the first reader in theology to the Franciscans. True to the ideal of the Franciscans, he renounced most of his sources of income. Grosseteste became Bishop of Lincoln in 1235, which he remained until his death in 1253. As a result he is referred to as Lincolniensis. After he became Bishop of Lincoln, he continued relations with Oxford University, as Oxford was in the diocese of Lincoln and its schools were under its jurisdiction, Lincoln being the largest diocese in England. Grosseteste appointed John of Basingstoke as Archdeacon of Leicester. John, who had spent time in Athens and had brought back original Greek texts to England, is believed to have helped Grosseteste with translations from the Greek, which preoccupied him in his early years as Bishop, as suggested by Matthew Paris. Grosseteste is seen as the first prominent figure to promote the learning of Greek in scholarship in England. Knowledge of Greek allowed Grosseteste to focus

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his attention on translations of the writings of Pseudo-Dionysus after 1235, perhaps between 1240 and 1243, which he must have seen as a way that he could use his bishopric to benefit scholarship, by putting together teams of scholars and translators to produce scholarly works. Grosseteste translated the Celestial Hierarchy, Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, Divine Names, and Mystical Theology of Pseudo-Dionysus. As Bishop of Lincoln, Grosseteste openly criticized the financial policies of Pope Innocent IV, and other abuses stemming from the papal wars, though he was a defender of papal authority and active inspector of clerical institutions. His visitations at Lincoln caused friction with the clergy there. De Lineis was written in combination with De Natura Locorum, which applies the abstract geometries of De Lineis to natural phenomena, such as mountains, polar regions, the tropics, the equator, seasons, tides, vapors, night and day, planets and constellations. It shows the influence of Aristotle, and Avicenna and Averroes, among others, and is an attempt to explain the actions and formation of light and visible phenomena, in particular such actions as reflection, refraction, and rarefaction, through geometry, as they are perceived as an image or species, and are defined by the perception of them. The virtus of lux, or the power of celestial light, as it becomes rays of light in lumen, or reflected light, is applied to earthly phenomena as it is translated to geometry, perspective, and optics, in a new natural philosophy. In De Iride (On the Rainbow, or on the Rainbow and the Mirror), geometry is used to explain color and the range of colors. White corresponds to the densest light, for example, while black, at the other end of the spectrum, corresponds to the least dense composition of the lines of light. In De Impressionibus Elementorum, meteorological phenomena such as the warmth of air, the formation of clouds, and rain are explained in relation to the heat of the sun, from the virtus of the lines forming light. Grosseteste’s Hexaemeron, his commentary on the early chapters of Genesis, a late theological work from about 1237, continues to expand the metaphysics of light of De Luce and De Lineis. The geometry of light is applied to the growth of plants and animals. Grosseteste’s work is considered to have influenced successive generations of scholars, particularly at Oxford, and particularly the Franciscans, or Greyfriars, in its investigation of the natural world, use of empirical observation and mathematics and geometry, and the study of optics. Grosseteste left all of his manuscripts and notes to the Franciscan library at Oxford. There they were studied by Duns Scotus, who quoted from the Commentary on the Posterior Analytics, the Hexaemeron, and the translations of Pseudo-

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Dionysus, though Grosseteste cannot be seen as a source of Duns Scotus’ thinking. Grosseteste did influence the thinking of John Wycliffe though, who studied the works in the 1360s while he was lecturing on logic. Wycliffe incorporated Grosseteste’s abstraction of particulars into universals and his use of geometry as distinct from physical matter in explaining natural phenomena. Wycliffe included Grosseteste in his list of great thinkers of the past, including Pythagoras, Democritus, Plato, and Epicurus. Grosseteste’s influence can also be seen in Roger Bacon, John Peckham, Albertus Magnus, and Erasmus Witelo. According to Alistair Cameron Crombie, the writer who most benefited from the work of Grosseteste was Roger Bacon (1219–1292).6 Although Bacon probably did not hear Grosseteste’s lectures, or know him, as a Greyfriar he had access to his manuscripts. Bacon followed Grosseteste’s analytical methods in beginning with the Posterior Analytics of Aristotle, and in using mathematics as a means of deriving universals from particulars. The strongest influence of Grosseteste’s methods can be found in Bacon’s Opus Maius, Opus Minus, Opus Tertiam, De Multiplicatione Specierum, Communia Mathematica, and Communium Naturalium. In the spirit of Grosseteste, Bacon wrote, in the “De Scientia Experimentali” of the Opus Maius, “Having laid down the fundamental principles of the wisdom of the Latins so far as they are found in language, mathematics and optics, I now wish to unfold the principles of experimental science, since without experience nothing can be sufficiently known.”7 Experience came from both the exterior senses and interior illumination, combining a natural philosophy with a philosophy of intellect. The particulars of the observations through the senses led to the universals in the explanations in mathematics and geometry. Mathematics was seen by Bacon as the basis of all science, and prior to all other sciences. This was true for Bacon because there must be an absolute identity between human knowledge and nature, as in Renaissance Humanism later. Bacon cites the Physics of Averroes as his authority for this. Besides Averroes, Bacon’s main sources, in optics, were Aristotle, Euclid, Ptolemy, Alhazen, Alkindi, Avicenna, and Grosseteste. Bacon attempted to explain the operation of the eye, based on treatises by Alhazen and Avicenna. As Grosseteste did, Bacon combined an extramission theory of vision with an intromission theory, that is, vision was the product of both an act of perception on the part of the perceiver, and the light emanating from the object to the eye. The core idea in the theory of vi-

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sion of Grosseteste and Bacon is the species or image which an object forms in the eye of the perceiver, and how that species is formed. In the Opus Maius, Bacon described vision as a “multiplication of species,” following the theory of Grosseteste. Vision “perceives what is visible by its own force multiplied to the object,”8 by the projection of the species apprehensibilis, the visual form produced in the oculus mentis, the mind’s eye, onto the object, constructing it in the process of intellection, and allowing for the passage of the form of the object, the species sensibilis, to the eye. The species sensibilis is not complete independent of the process of vision, and must interact with the species apprehensibilis in extramission to be perceived. The species apprehensibilis travels from the eye, as the species sensibilis travels to the eye, in a pyramid or cone of vision, following Grosseteste, and the Opticae of Alhazen, or Ibn al-Haytham, from the eleventh century. The multiplication of the species takes place along the cone of vision, with the apex of the cone in the eye, as it does in the optical theory of Leon Battista Alberti in the Renaissance. The species of Bacon travels in straight lines, as for Grosseteste. The optical theory of John Peckham, Archbishop of Canterbury in the thirteenth century, shows the influence of Grosseteste and Bacon, along with Alhazen and Witelo. He summarized the theories of these writers in his Perspectiva Communis, in which he understood light as having a mathematical basis, and vision as consisting of a “multiplication of species.” The division of the Perspectiva Communis into de luce et viso, de radio reflexo, and de radio refracto, repeats the division by Grosseteste in De lineis, angulis et figuris. Witelo’s treatise on optics, Perspectiva, shows the influence of Grosseteste and Bacon, and Alhazen, as well, in combining experiential observation with abstract geometry, the modus operandi of the Franciscan School at Oxford. In the Prologue to Witelo’s Perspectiva, dedicated to William of Moerbeke, of the Papal Court at Viterbo, in around 1270, knowledge is the product of both observation through the senses and interior illumination, as with Grosseteste. Light is the medium for the connection between sensible experience and illumination, or intellectual knowledge, as for Grosseteste. Light is the first sensible form and the cause of all sensible things, as in Grosseteste’s De Luce. The species, or form of things perceived by the eye, can be explained through geometry, because geometry is that which connects the sensible world to the intellect, or to the intelligible, in the terms of Aristotle or Plotinus. Light is strongest along straight lines, and forms a cone (pyramis

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radialis and pyramis illuminationis) in emanation, similar to Grosseteste’s theory in De lineis, angulis et figuris. The most important treatise of Grosseteste which contains explanations of geometries which can be found in the architecture of Lincoln Cathedral is the De lineis, angulis et figuris (Libellus Lincolniensis de Phisicis Lineis Angulis et Figuris), translated as On Lines, Angles and Figures, or the Refraction and Reflection of Rays. The treatise was written at Oxford, within two years of Grosseteste’s appointment as Bishop of Lincoln. Oddly, the treatise is perhaps the least known and least translated of Grosseteste’s writings, while it is the most important for understanding his geometrical optics. An analysis and discussion of this treatise can shed great light on the importance of geometry to the philosophy of Grosseteste, in the period that sees the beginnings of modern natural philosophy and scientific investigation. The primary role that geometry plays in this particular treatise is the most important key to formulating an interpretation and understanding of the generation of architectural forms in the cathedral, based in the geometries, as they are related to philosophical concepts. Such an analysis can perhaps provide an important level of understanding of the forms of English Gothic architecture, as they are introduced at Lincoln. An English translation of the treatise can be found in a dissertation by Bruce Stansfield Eastwood, The Geometrical Optics of Robert Grosseteste, written at the University of Wisconsin in 1964. The treatise can also be found in its original Latin in the British Library: Libellus Linconiensis de Phisicis Lineis Angulis et Figuris per quas omnes Acciones Naturales Complentur (Nurenburge, 1503). This analysis will be based on Eastwood’s translation in combination with an original translation of the Latin text. Grosseteste begins the treatise by stating that lines, angles and figures are essential for a knowledge of natural philosophy, based on the Posterior Analytics of Aristotle. The importance of geometry and mathematics in the study of optics was emphasized in the Physics of Aristotle, and in the writings of Euclid. Contemporary with Grosseteste, Batholomew the Englishman wrote, in De proprietatibus rerum, that “all things are seen according to angles, insofar as lines of sight are joined.”9 According to Grosseteste, geometry is applicable to phenomena throughout the universe, in motions (both straight and circular), causes, effects, the actions of material things, and the operations of the senses in relation to material things, in particular visual perception. It is important to form an understanding of the role that geometry plays in natural objects and motions themselves, in how those objects and motions are per-

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ceived by the senses, and in the relation between visual perception and the other senses. The straight and circular motions of objects were treated previously by Grosseteste in the treatises De Sphaera, De Motu Corporali et Luce, and De Motu Supercaelestium. In De Lineis, Grosseteste intends to formulate a theory of universal motions as they might be applied to particular actions. This is the only way that particular occurrences in nature can be understood. Grosseteste intends to establish a set of archetypal principles or concepts in order to understand natural phenomena. It is only in perception, Grosseteste suggests, that natural phenomena can be understood, as the archetype in the Platonic sense, or the intelligible in the Aristotelian sense. A multiplicity of sense perceptions are gathered together to form a coherent whole in intellection, and it is only in the intellection that the sense perceptions and the objects and motions can be understood. The geometries which are the basis for the understanding of the natural world and the perception of it are the product of intellection, the product of an a priori abstraction of natural phenomena, a translation of particulars into universals which are pre-established to understand the particulars, through the process of perception. This relation between intellection and natural phenomena can be found in the Enneads of Plotinus from the third century, which is, like the philosophy of Grosseteste, a synthesis of Platonic and Aristotelian models. For Plotinus, perception itself does not form a coherent whole out of the multiplicity of phenomena which are given to the senses; the whole of perceptual experience requires the intermediation of the intellective process, the dialectic of particulars and universals, as it does for Grosseteste. As Grosseteste says, “Both universal action and action in the material world, in drawing into the contingency of matter, can illustrate how natural causes and effects can be known through lines, angles and figures.”10 Such a dialectic is the only way to understand the forces in nature, in the multiplication of their power or virtue (virtus), to form a totality of force in action or stability, as it exists both in nature itself and in human perception. The forces of action and stability are seen as having an underlying diagrammatic structure of lines, angles and figures, acting as vectors and nodal points, in a dynamic flux, much like contemporary Topology Theory, in an epigenetic landscape. These forces of action exist both in natural phenomena and in perception itself. In order to exist, or be comprehensible, the underlying diagrammatic structures of natural phenomena must mirror the underlying diagrammatic structures of perception and intellection. In that way, natural phenomena can

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only be understood as a mirror reflection of intellect itself, in the structure of its universals and intelligibles. Grosseteste’s approach thus reflects the Platonic concept that objects that are perceived do not exist outside the intellection of them; the concept in the De anima of Aristotle that intelligibles underlie the immediate perception of objects; and the concept in the Enneads of Plotinus that perception has immediate access to neither the objects themselves nor the intelligibles in intellect on which it is based. The diagrammatic substructure of both natural phenomena and perception suggests an architecture of reality, a constructed scaffolding for the understanding of the perceived world. Grosseteste’s philosophy is based upon an architectural scaffolding; it is a visual catechism of the structure of reality, and is easily translated into architectural terms, and into architectural forms themselves, as at Lincoln Cathedral. In De Lineis, the power or virtue (virtus) of the natural object, which the natural agent extends from itself continuously into a passive object, is defined as the species, which is an imitation or likeness (similitudo) of the natural object, which is projected the same way both into matter and into the senses.11 When it is projected in matter it is a universal action, and impassible, like an intelligible in the universal intellect of Aristotle. When it is projected into the senses, it is a “spiritual and more noble operation.” When the sun dries mud and melts ice, in Grosseteste’s example, it has a material effect in matter, while the same virtus of the sun can have a different effect on a different passive agent, namely, it can have an incorporeal, spiritual effect in the human mind. The virtus can have an effect in the sensible world, which is manifest in the species sensibilis, as Grosseteste explains in his Commentary on the Posterior Analytics, and it can have an effect in the intelligible world, the more noble world, which is manifest in the species apprehensibilis. The projection of the species or likeness of the object forms the basis of reason and deliberation in intellect, and it directs that which occurs in perception and the other senses, according to a “steady operation of diversification.” The species of Grosseteste can be taken as the classical eidos, form or image. The species, or eidos, incorporeal virtus or similitudo of matter, is transmitted by light in perception, and is reflected and doubled, and diversified, according to lines and angles, into the passive agent of perception, corresponding to the passive intellect of Aristotle’s De anima and its commentators, which, of itself, is only potentiality, and requires the entelechy, the actualization, to participate in the active or universal intellect as a creative force. In De Luce, light is the species of bodies, and species is more spiritual

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and simple in higher bodies, and more corporeal and multiplied in lower bodies. Bodies differ in species depending on to what extent they are the product of multiplication. The highest and simplest body is composed of form, matter, composition, and the composite. The simplest form is the most unified form, as represented by the point. Matter in contrast is a duality, because it is dense, and at the same time it is susceptible to and receptive of the impressions of the species; matter is thus represented by a line, the instrument which connects the point, the simplest and most unified species, to corporeal mass in the form of surface and volume. Composition is triune, or “has a trinity in itself,”12 because it contains the imprinted or informed matter, materialized species, and the composition itself, which is “a third constituent distinct from matter and form.” The composition is the spirit, as in the Holy Spirit, which connects the body, the matter, as in the body of Christ, with the species, or light, the most unified and simplest form, corresponding to God. In geometry, composition is represented by the surface, in the trinity of matter, light, and composition. The fourth element, the composite, is a quaternary, which is the body, or in geometry the volume. As in the Timaeus of Plato, the composition of the material world proceeds from point to line to surface to solid. According to Grosseteste, “For the unity of the form, the duality of the matter, the trinity of the composition and the quaternity of the composite when they are added make a total of ten.” This is the Pythagorean tetractys, the most basic numerical organization of archetypal matter in classical philosophy, from which are derived the Pythagorean Harmonies, the music of the cosmos. Ten is thus the “perfect number in the universe” for Grosseteste, as it was for Vitruvius and would be for Leon Battista Alberti in architecture theory. At Lincoln Cathedral, the number ten can be found in the decagonal plan of the chapter house. The proportions in the four numbers that add up to the sum of ten, the four numbers that define the creation of matter in point, line, surface, and volume, being the numbers one, two, three, and four, are “the only ones that produce harmony in musical melody, in bodily movements, and in rhythmic measures,” according to Grosseteste. As in Classical and Renaissance architecture, these proportions played an important role in the design of the Gothic cathedral, as the cathedral was seen as a microcosm of the cosmos, a catechism of the creation of the material world, and an instrument in producing the musical harmonies of the cosmos, in correspondence with earthly musical harmonies. In medieval society, musical harmonies were seen as

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having the potential to cure illnesses, through the ordering and tempering of spirits, as the balance of the body was connected to the balance of the stars and planets, as the body was seen as a microcosm of the cosmos. In the De Generatione Sonorum of Grosseteste, numbers in both music and the soul are progressores et occursores; when a numerus in progressione in music is perceived, as a species sensibilis, the intellect matches it with an abstract numerus in progressione as species apprehensibilis. When the numerical progression is matched in intellect with the mnemic residue of a previous imprint of the progression in sense experience, the body experiences pleasure. The cathedral, in ordering and tempering the balance of the soul, played a role in the health, both mental and physical, of the population. The cathedral is composed of the archetypal forms of the intelligible universe, from Pythagoras, Plato and Aristotle, which correspond to the proportions and balance of the body. The Pythagorean triangle was often used, as it was formed by the master mason’s square. Ten is the number of the bodies of the spheres of the world for Grosseteste, because the four elements, the four sublunary spheres, should only be seen as one sphere, that which participates in “earthly corruptible nature,” in relation to the nine celestial spheres. The human body is composed of the four elements, in Grosseteste’s Hexaemeron, as the body receives its perfection from the archetypal form of corporeity, and contains the same proportions and harmonies as the body of the cosmos. In that way as well, the human being is a microcosm of the cosmos. Grosseteste’s species recalls the imprint in perception of Plotinus in Enneads I.1.7, IV.7.6, and V.3.2. For Plotinus, the light of reason forms principles, as for Grosseteste, and it is in the principle that sense perception is formed. As Grosseteste says in De Lineis, “This nature [universal action] is subject to diverse actions insofar as it tends to act upon wordly matter, and other knowledge can be brought forth to aid in the apprehension of prior causes,” 13 which are the intelligibles, the lines, angles and figures which underlie the virtus and the species of natural phenomena. As in Plotinus, sense perception projects form and idea onto matter, rather than the reverse. Perception is not capable of an “immediate grasping of sensible objects” in Enneads I.1.7; it grasps rather the “impressions printed upon the Animate [the principles in reason, the apprehension of prior causes] by sensation.”14 The insensate matter of objects is inaccessible to reason in perception, as it is in darkness and is not illuminated by the light of reason, as the species apprehensibilis is not illuminated by the lux or the lumen.

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The species or imprint which is perceived is an incorporeal intelligible. Perception in reason for Plotinus is of “Ideal Forms,” intelligibles prior to their association with forms in matter, as for Grosseteste. Discursive reason, the lower intellect, in Enneads V.3.2, involves the observing, judging, combining and distinguishing of the species of the Ideal Form in the intellectual, the higher intellect; the Ideal Form appears as a representation imprinted in sense perception, as the species apprehensibilis. In the Commentary on the Posterior Analytics of Grosseteste, there are two kinds of species, which correspond to the two kinds of light as defined by Grosseteste. Species apprehensibilis is the species or similitudo which does not participate in matter, and is entirely separate from matter as an intelligible, like lux, the incorporeal, spiritual light. Species sensibilis is the species that participates in matter, that is connected to the material form or object in nature, but at the same time it is independent of it. The species sensibilis corresponds to the lumen, the light which participates in matter as a reflected and refracted, rarefacted and diversified form of the incorporeal lux, while at the same time the lumen is independent of matter, and is a manifestation of the lux. It is the species sensibilis which participates in the “steady operation of diversification,” directing that which occurs in perception, and forming the basis of reason, while perception and reason themselves are formed of the species apprehensibilis. The species apprehensibilis creates a virtus or similitudo in understanding, as does the imprint in perception in Enneads V.3.2. This is also described by Grosseteste in the Hexaemeron, and the commentaries on the Celestial Hierarchy and Mystical Theology of Pseudo-Dionysus, written by Grosseteste. In the Hexaemeron of Grosseteste, light is the instrument by which the species apprehended by the particular sense, the species sensibilis, corresponds to the species apprehended in the common sense, the sensus communis, which is the species apprehensibilis. The bodily is unified with the nonbodily in the species of the sensible form, species sensibilis, generated in the senses, and the inclination of intellect to connect the corporeal form with the intelligible form, in the combination of the intromission and extramission of light in vision. The eye perceives a certain color in vision only because it can identify the color from a previous visual experience, and can match the mnemic residue, the memory trace, of the species in the virtus intellectiva with the species sensibilis of the color as it is perceived. Perception is learned from previous experience, as George Berkeley would establish. For Grosseteste in the Hexaemeron, “the apprehension of sight does not distin-

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guish between the begotten species and the begetting color” (VIII, IV, 7),15 that is, the perceiver is not aware in the act of perception of the mechanisms which make perception possible, the matching of the previously perceived species sensibilis, as it has become a species apprehensibilis in the virtus intellectiva, through the mnemic process, memory, with the species sensibilis being perceived, as Berkeley would also explain. The connecting of the species apprehensibilis with the species sensibilis in intellect is what Grosseteste calls imagination, phantasia. In the De Lineis of Grosseteste, the virtus from the natural agent is more active and more unified if it is along a shorter line, because it is closer to the recipient, the passive agent, and it is less active along a longer line, because of the greater distance from the recipient. A light is brighter if it is closer to the eye, for example. Shorter lines contain a more condensed virtus; in architecture they are more structurally sound, and exert greater force on an adjoining member. In the vaulting at Lincoln Cathedral, the ribs are divided into the long longitudinal ridge pole, the transverse ribs which cross the vault, the tierceron ribs which connect the ridge pole to the springer but do not provide structural support for the vault, and the lierne ribs, the shortest of the ribs which connect the transverse or tierceron ribs, do not reach the springers of the vault on the sides, and provide no structural support. The hierarchy of ribs in the vault corresponds to the hierarchy of lines described by Grosseteste, with different degrees of virtus, and different concentrations of species. The virtus in De Lineis proceeds immediately from the natural agent along either a straight line or a bent line. The action of the virtus is greater along a straight line, as was established by Aristotle in Book V of the Physics, where a straight line is the shortest path between two points, and in Book V of the Metaphysics, where the straight line is more unified than the bent line. Nature always takes the shorter of two possible paths, according to Grosseteste, because the virtus is greater. The straight and bent lines, the latter formed by the lierne ribs, are also present in the vaulting of the cathedral, and in the tracery of the stained glass. The evenness of the straight line is preferable to the unevenness of the bent line, because no angle is formed, according to Grosseteste, as was established by Aristotle in the Metaphysics and Boethius in the Arithmetic. Movement or action along straight lines can be either in parallel lines or in lines at different angles; the virtus is greater if the action is along parallel lines because then the virtus is received uniformly by the receiving body or passive agent. If the virtus passes from a point to a plane, it is strongest if the

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line of its action is at a right angle to the plane, because that is the shortest distance. If the line of action falls upon a concave object, it is at an acute angle (to the line of tangency at the point where it hits), and if it falls upon a sphere, or a convex object, it is at an obtuse angle (to the line of tangency at the point where it hits), and thus the virtus is less. This was established by Aristotle in the Physics, Euclid in the Elements and Catoptrics, and Alkindi in De aspectibus. If a line is bent (as when light is refracted), then it will have more than one virtus, because the virtus is complete along the straight line. The bent line occurs when either the receiving passive body is too dense to allow the passage of the virtus, and the line of action is reflected back, at an angle equal to the angle of incidence, or the receiving body is rarefied enough to allow the passage of the line of action, but alters its direction. These properties can be applied to both lines in matter and lines in perception, that is, to the species sensibilis and the species apprehensibilis. Aristotle compared the activities of the intellect to a straight line and a bent line, according to Themistius in his commentary on Aristotle’s De anima in the fourth century. While Plato in the Timaeus compared the activities of the intellect to circular motion and rectilinear motion, in the contrast between the celestial spheres and the sublunary spheres, and between the virtus intellectiva, the intelligibles, and ratio, or discursive reason, in Aristotle the bent line corresponds to intellect when it becomes engaged in matter and becomes doubled, or embodied, in the manifestation of the virtus intellectiva as the ratio, and the manifestation of the species apprehensibilis as the species sensibilis. For Themistius, “just as if the same line were both straight and bent you would describe it as the same, yet in two different states, so too would you [describe] the intellect both when it grasps the body as compounded, and when it grasps just the form itself and the structure” (De Anima 429b16–18).16 When the intellect thinks about a compound, it becomes compounded, as a bent line, and when it thinks about a form, it becomes uncompounded, as a straight line, in the more complete virtus intellectiva. In De Lineis, the virtus is weaker along the reflected or incident line, as, for example, light is weaker when it is reflected. In the De anima of Aristotle, both light and sound are weaker when they are reflected. Light is strongest in reflection when it is reflected from smooth surfaces like mirrors, and weakest when it is reflected from rough surfaces, as then the species is more dissipated, less concentrated. In the De anima of Averroes, or Ibn Rushd, from the twelfth century, the species is more concentrated when reflected from a polished body or flat surface because of the evenness and uni-

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formity of the surface. The species is broken up when reflected from a rough surface. In De Lineis, the virtus is greater in a reflection of light from a concave surface, because then the rays of light converge at a point, forming a cone of light. Lines emanating from a concave surface and converging at a point, in the form of a cone, can be seen in the vaulting at Lincoln Cathedral: the ribs of the vault begin at the ridge pole and converge at the top of the springer shaft, forming a convex surface in a cone which is formed by the severies between the ribs, or the surface of the vault which the ribs define. The corbel at the top of the springer shaft can be seen as a point of convergence, a nodal point, at which the virtus is greatest and the species the most concentrated, as it is intended in the architecture, as the corbel is the most important visual point in the divisions of the bays longitudinally in elevation and vaulting, and the most important visual point in connecting the vaulting to the elevations. The corbel is the point at which the vault springs from its supporting structure, but it is clear immediately when looking at the architecture that the corbel and the springer shaft below it do not actually support the ribs forming the vault, or the vault itself. The springer shaft just runs down the wall to the spandrels between the arches, and stops at another corbel. Any relation that the forms of the architecture have to the structure of the architecture is entirely visual, it is pure species, a species apprehensibilis, and the structural logic of the vault depends on vision alone, so there is a necessity of concentrating the virtus at the point at the end of the cone, where the lines converge from a surface, which is the corbel at the bottom of the ribs. The structural logic which is understood in the cathedral is in the geometrical relationships enacted based on the principles of natural philosophy as described by Grosseteste in De Lineis, and not by the actual structure of the building, which is inaccessible to the visual experience of the architecture. In De Lineis, the refracted line of light has more virtus than the reflected line of light, as it was established that the refracted line has more than one virtus. The opposite direction which the reflected line takes weakens its virtus. The more perpendicular the refracted line is to the line of incidence, the stronger its virtus. A fourth kind of line, along with the incidental, refracted and reflected, is the accidental line, which projects a virtus which does not come immediately from the agent, but from the three other kinds of lines. The light of the accidental line would be the lumen, the secondary, reflected, corporeal light, in relation to the lux, the originary light. Accidental light “passes from a ray descending through a window to all corners of a house.”

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It is the light which is diffused through space, in lines of very little virtus, the weakest of all, because it originates from a refracted line, and passes along a secondary reflected or refracted line. In the cathedral, the accidental light is the light which fills the space after rays of light have come through the stained glass windows. It is a secondary light and not a spiritual light, as it does not emanate directly from the lux. The spiritual light is the light which passes directly through the stained glass windows, in the incidental, reflected and refracted lines as they interact with the colors of the glass and the patterns of the tracery. The lux is the intermediary between the spiritual and the material, between soul and body, between the infinitely simple and the geometrical. The patterns of the tracery, at Lincoln the Y-tracery or intersecting arch tracery in the stained glass windows, reiterate the actions and geometries of the spiritual rays of light, and transform the species sensibilis formed by the light into the species apprehensibilis, the geometries and mathematical relations which form the intelligibles of the structure of the cathedral and the natural world, which are accessible to intellect through sensible perception, of the light and geometries, and which allow the observer in the cathedral to communicate with the divine origin of the physical world, to bridge the gap between reason and faith, through the intelligibles in intellect as they are represented in the species of the light and geometry. Such a communication requires the activity of nous, the higher form of intellect, that part of intellect which is unknown to itself, but which is made known for Grosseteste through the sensible experience of the perception of the species in relation to the intelligibles. A similar relation between the species sensibilis and the species apprehensibilis can be seen in marginalia symbols drawn by Grosseteste in manuscripts which he studied at Oxford, to aid in his memory. In a margin of a manuscript of the De Civitate Dei of Saint Augustine, Grosseteste drew a symbol representing imagination which has a horizontal axis with three sections reflected on top and bottom, as if imagination involves the mirror reflection in reason or ratio of the species apprehensibilis in virtus intellectiva, which he described in the Commentary on the Posterior Analytics. Grosseteste’s symbol for imagination is similar to his symbol for eternity, reflecting the participation of imagination, as a kind of picture thinking, in eternal, archetypal forms. The symbols illustrate the relation between an observed object as species sensibilis, the imprinting of the species on the senses, in particular in ocular vision, and the processing of the species in intellection and imagination, in relation to the species apprehensibilis, which is both de-

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rived from the species sensibilis and formed a priori in the virtus intellectiva. In his Hexaemeron, Grosseteste described imagination as a process which combines the sense object, and the imprint of the species of the sense object in the senses, in intellection. The aspectus mentis is the ability of the mind to grasp ideas through the perception of visual forms, the ability of the oculus mentis to “see” concepts which are related to the species sensibilis, in that the species sensibilis is always already a product of the species apprehensibilis in intellection in perception. Grosseteste explained, “the species begotten in the fantasy [imagination] of the common sense,” the sensus communis, “begets of itself a species that is like it in the memory,” as a trace or mnemic residue. Then “the species that can be apprehended by the reason, intellect or understanding” (VIII, IV, 10), the species apprehensibilis, projects its likeness (similitudo) in the virtus intellectiva in the process of perception, and the mind connects the begotten likeness with the form perceived, the species sensibilis. In the De anima (3.7.431b2), Aristotle wrote that the human intellect thinks the forms in the images, that the species sensibilis is given by the species apprehensibilis, which is formed in the imagination or phantasia and is presented to discursive reason in the process of perception. According to Avicenna, or Ibn Sina, in the Shifa: De anima (235), also known as the Metaphysica, in the eleventh century, the image or species is formed in the sensus communis, as for Grosseteste, and is then received by the imaginative faculty, the phantasia, which combines the images in different configurations. Discursive reason then receives an “abstraction” of the species from the phantasia, a representation of the species apprehensibilis which corresponds to the species sensibilis. The species apprehensibilis of Grosseteste is a similitudo of the species sensiblis, as a mnemic residue, and is thus a representation of the species sensibilis, which is itself a representation of the object to which its form corresponds. The representation of the representation in the mnemic residue is what Sigmund Freud would call the Vorstellungsrepräsentanz in picture thinking, imagination, and dream formation. For Grosseteste in the Hexaemeron (VIII, IX, 11), the virtus of the retentive memory must be proportionate to the virtus intellectiva in order for the species apprehensibilis to be formed. Memory is not always active (VIII, IX, 12), but when it is active it produces a similitudo of intellection, as the ratio, the lower intellect, or discursive reason (as in the conscious process of memory) mirrors the virtus intellectiva, the higher intellect, or nous (as in the unconscious process of

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memory), as Grosseteste described in the Commentary on the Posterior Analytics. This theory of vision is very similar to that of Plotinus. In the Enneads of Plotinus, while perception grasps the “impressions printed upon the Animate by sensation” (I.1.7), the species apprehensibilis, through the mnemic residue, “nothing will prevent a perception from being a mental image for that which is going to remember it, and the memory and the retention of the object from belonging to the image-making power” (IV.3.29), or the imagination (phantasia) of Grosseteste. In the representation in the mnemic residue, the species apprehensibilis, “what was seen is present in this when the perception is no longer there. If then the image of what is absent is already present in this, it is already remembering, even if the presence is only for a short time.” Through memory, “an image accompanies every intellectual act,” as described in Enneads IV.3.30. Through the species apprehensibilis, “the intellectual act is without parts and has not, so to speak, come out into the open, but remains unobserved within…” The species apprehensibilis functions as a kind of hieroglyph, like Grosseteste’s symbols, communicating the elements of intellect which cannot be communicated by words, and are not accessible to discursive reason in language. The function of language, or the extent to which language can function, is as the mirror reflection of the virtus intellectiva in ratio, discursive reason, in the facilitation of memory, in that, as Plotinus says, “the verbal expression unfolds its content and brings it out of the intellectual act into the imagemaking power, and so shows the intellectual act as if in a mirror, and this is how there is apprehension and persistence and memory of it.” The mechanism of perception mediates between the sensible world of objects in nature and the inaccessible intellectual, or nous, in a dialectical process between the subject and the world. There must be an “affection which lies between the sensible and the intelligible” as Plotinus puts it, “a proportional mean somehow linking the two extremes to each other” (IV.6.1), the species sensibilis and the species apprehensibilis. In the perception of an object, “we look there where it is and direct our gaze where the visible object is situated in a straight line from us…” The object which is being perceived is already apprehended by the perceiving subject in relation to the perceiving mechanism, the construction of intellect involving the mnemic residue and the species apprehensibilis, through the use of geometry, as vision is understood in relation to geometry and mathematics, as the underlying structure, as for Grosseteste.

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In his Commentary on the Posterior Analytics, Grosseteste defined solertia, a term from the Posterior Analytics of Aristotle, as translated into Latin by James of Venice, as the penetrating power of the mind’s eye, which is able to see beyond the surface of an image, such as a form, pattern, or symbol. If the eye sees color, for example, the mind’s eye sees the structure of which the color is an effect, as described in geometrical terms by Grosseteste in De Iride. Solertia is the ability to understand, in perception, the archetypal and intelligible forms that define perception itself, and define the process of intellection of the perceiving subject. The marginalia symbols of Grosseteste, like the patterns in the tracery of the stained glass windows at Lincoln Cathedral, are devices for the perceiving subjects to understand themselves, in relation to their virtus intellectiva, and divine intellect. Grosseteste’s symbol for De beata vita, the beatific life, is two interlocking circles, representing the interlocking of man and God, ratio and the virtus intellectiva. This symbol can be found in Grosseteste’s copy of the De Consolatione Philosophiae of Boethius in the library of Trinity College, Oxford. Among the other symbols in the margins of Grosseteste’s copy of De Civitate Dei, are an upside down V or triangle without a base, representing the wisdom of God, as the apex or point of origin is above, and emanates and spreads downward, in the same way that light is described in De Lineis and De Luce as diffusing from a singular unified point in the form of a cone. The pyramids in Egypt were symbolic of the same relation between matter, represented by the square base of the pyramid, and the origin of matter in the light of the sun, the lumen solare, as the rays of light define the edges of the pyramid, and the lux spiritualis defines the gilded apex. The pyramid is a hieroglyph, like Grosseteste’s symbols, communicating an idea which is not present in the species sensibilis. Plotinus described hieroglyphs as “manifesting the non-discursiveness of the intelligible world.” Hieroglyphs are able to communicate an idea without engaging discursive reason or ratio, by communicating directly with the oculus mentis in the virtus intellectiva. An upside down V in a box in Grosseteste’s symbols represents emanation, as in the emanation of the wisdom of God, or light in the pyramid, and a V in a box represents ascent. The creation of the world is represented in Grosseteste’s symbols by a horizontal line with areas above and below enclosed by semicircles at the ends of the line. The symbol suggests the symbolic representation of the creation of the world in Egyptian and Greek mythology: the figures of Osiris and Isis, or Ouranos and Gaia, god of the sky and goddess of the earth, lying

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prone. There is a symbol in the marginalia of Grosseteste for sleep and dreams, indicating the importance of the imagination for Grosseteste in intellection and faith; there are also symbols for reason and faith. The explanations of the symbols are from a key to them in a manuscript in the Bibliothèque Municipale in Lyons, in a table entitled “Tabula Magistri Roberti Lincolniensis episcopi.” The symbols and explanations were published by Richard William Southern in Robert Grosseteste: The Growth of an English Mind in Medieval Europe. A circle within a circle in the manuscript in Lyons represents a microcosm within a macrocosm, man within the cosmos, the centrality of the human being in the order of creation. The symbol appears in the margin of Grosseteste’s copy of the Moralia in Job of Gregory, and is identified as the “quod omnia propter hominem,” in that everything in the universe exists for the good of mankind. This is expressed by Grosseteste in his Hexaemeron, that the rotation of the celestial spheres and everything else in the universe were ordained for the good of mankind. While “God is all in all, the life of living things, the form of all finely formed things, the species of all species,” the human being is “in all things God’s closest imitative likeness [similitudo imitatoria]. Therefore Man, as the image of God, is in some sense everything.”17 In an anticipation of Renaissance Humanism, the proportions and harmonies of the human body, as in the composition of the four elements, and the human soul, are related to the proportions and harmonies of the cosmos and the divine mind, and the architecture of the cathedral reinforces that relation by simulating those proportions and harmonies to stimulate the relation between the human mind and the divine mind. In the Commentary on the Posterior Analytics, Grosseteste describes ratio, or reason, as a mirror which reflects the virtus intellectiva, the intellective power, which is how Grosseteste conceives of nous. The cosmic active intellect, from Aristotle, makes forms intelligible to the human, potential intellect, in the virtus intellectiva, or nous, and the intellectus intellect ininhabitu, habitu, or dianoia, discursive thinking or logic, as light makes forms visible through geometry. Reason in intellect, which is that part of intellect which participates in sensible perception, perceives the species of the virtus intellectiva, as it is reflected, just like the light is reflected from its original source, and refracted and rarefied as it passes through the stained glass window, the structure of which can be seen as a catechism for the process of intellection. The species is the intelligible formed by nous. The reception of the virtus intellectiva as a mirror reflection by ratio, in Grosseteste’s terms, is described by

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Plotinus in Enneads I.1.8 and I.4.10. The architecture of the cathedral can be seen as an edificium of this process. After finishing his discussion of lines and angles in the De Lineis, Grosseteste turns to a discussion of figures. There are two essential threedimensional geometries; the first is the sphere, because virtus is projected from every agent spherically. Virtus is necessarily projected spherically because it is projected everywhere, and the sphere is the geometry which encompasses all of space. The virtus is projected from the agent as lumen, corporeal light, from the lux of the spirit, the first corporeal light which is also incorporeal, in a process of autodiffusion, as described in Grosseteste’s treatise on light, De Luce. The means of the translation of the lux to the lumen is the species, as described in De Luce. According to Averroes, in his commentary on Aristotle’s De anima, a sense organ can feel an agent from a range of positions and distances. For Grosseteste, this requires the activity of the species, and the projection of the virtus in all directions, thus to the form of the sphere, and from all directions, thus to the sense organ. In De Luce, light is the first corporeal form (prima forma corporeitatis), and it “diffuses itself in every direction in such a way that a point of light will produce instantaneously a sphere of light of any size whatsoever.”18 Light is form, or species, not matter, and it introduces dimension into matter. Matter itself lacks dimension; it has no definition without the illumination of intellect applied to it. The only way that a dimensionless form can introduce dimension into matter is if it multiplies and diffuses itself instantaneously, and multiplies its own infinite simplicity infinitely, thus producing finite quantity. Matter only has dimension through the participation of light, which is the most basic form of corporeity, and is corporeity itself. Light is the closest form in matter to the forms that exist apart from matter, the archetypes and intelligibles; it has “greater similarity than all bodies to the forms that exist apart from matter, namely, the intelligibles.” Light represents the presence of what is not material, and for that reason light played a core role in the design of the Gothic cathedral from the beginning, when the Abbot Suger was inspired by the writings of PseudoDionysus at the Abbey Church of St. Denis north of Paris at the beginning of the twelfth century. Grosseteste’s treatises, De Lineis and De Luce, are important elaborations of the light metaphysics which played such a core role in the architecture. Beginning at St. Denis, the objective was to allow as much light as possible into the cathedral, to eliminate the heavy, opaque walls of the Romanesque cathedral. Light was allowed through the cathedral by the

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rarefaction of the structural materials: the piers became thinner and the arched openings became larger, allowing for an increased transparency and more complex visual experience in the cathedral, which corresponds to the light theory of Grosseteste, in the rarefaction and multiplication of light, and to Grosseteste’s theory of vision, in the relation between the eye of the perceiver and the light from the object perceived. As light multiplies itself infinitely and instantaneously in De Luce from a simple point, it produces the finite quantity of matter, and it “extends matter into finite dimensions that are smaller and larger according to certain proportions that they have to one another, namely, numerical and non-numerical.”19 Light is responsible for the diversification of matter, and the progressive divisions and subdivisions of it. This corresponds to the “principle of progressive divisibility” defined by Erwin Panofsky as a core principle of Gothic Scholasticism, in Gothic Architecture and Scholasticism. In the writing of the time, articles of faith were elucidated and clarified through a series of similitudines in a manifestatio, a literary or visual representation, such as the architecture. The articulations and subdivisions of the medieval text, made possible by the light of intellect, the lux spiritualis, could be compared to the articulations and subdivisions of the architecture, made possible by the instantaneous autodiffusion of the first corporeal form. As the summa would be divided into partes, then membra, quaestiones or distinctiones, then into articuli, the architecture would be divided into arches and sub-arches, pillars into shafts, vaults into tierceron ribs. The emphasis on the structure of the manifestatio, according to Panofsky, on exposition and clarification, sometimes led scholars to introduce elements unnecessary to the argument, as geometrical forms were introduced in the architecture which were unnecessary to the structure, but were necessary to the architecture as a catechism of the Scholastic model, in the clarification and elucidation of faith in reason. As in the Scholastic treatise, the different parts of the cathedral are designed to stage a series of visual relationships based on connections created by the variations in theme, as all matter is connected while it is being rarefied by light, as Grosseteste describes in De Luce. This is what Panofsky calls the “principle of progressive divisibility,” and it can be seen in the vaults, triforia, piers, shafts, window tracery, arcades and mouldings of the architecture. Every detail of the geometry of the cathedral participates in the same logical system, to express the idea that the natural world can be understood by reason, in mathematics and geometry, as in De Lineis and De Luce, and

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that scientific philosophy can by synthesized with religious faith, at the very beginning, in the figure of Grosseteste, of the Great Synthesis. The articulated details of the architecture, as the manifestatio of the principle of progressive divisibility, are the product of the diffusion and rarefaction of light into the physical world, as it transforms from lux, the spiritual light, to lumen, the corporeal light. The rose windows at Lincoln, particularly the Dean’s Eye and the Bishop’s Eye, and the multiplicity of the forms bound together in a single comprehensive system, stage the Scholastic understanding of the operations of the cosmos. The all-encompassing interrelationships of all the membrification of the Gothic cathedral constitute what Panofsky calls a “postulate of mutual inferability,” creating a variety of visual transitions and interpenetrations, spatial juxtapositions and overlappings, which correspond to the multiplication, diversification, and rarefaction of matter in light, as described in De Luce. In De Luce, as light extends matter in all directions equally into the form of a sphere through infinite multiplication, the further out the parts of matter are, the closer to the surface of the sphere, the more extended and rarefied they are. There is a hierarchy of rarefaction in matter, as there is a hierarchy of rarefaction in the architectural forms in the cathedral. This can be seen in particular in the vaulting systems and the tracery in the stained glass, for example the Dean’s Eye, where the density at the center gives way to thinner and less dense membrification toward the outer edges. In the vaulting, the density of the cluster of ribs at the corbel gives way to more spread out membrification toward the ridge pole at the center of the vault. In each case the membrification can be seen to be rarefied toward a circumference, as matter is rarefied toward the sphere of the cosmos by the autodiffusion of lux. The second figure in De Lineis required for a natural action is the pyramid or cone. The apex of the cone is the point of the receiver at which the species of the virtus is received, as condensed from the agent, such as the corbel in the elevation of the architecture, in the catechism of light and vision, or the eye of the perceiver in vision. The point in the eye of the perceiver is the source of the extramission of light, which also forms a cone with the lines of the rays of light entering the sensible world. The first, dimensionless point is pure light, the lux spiritualis. The virtus is full and the effect is complete, and the passive object can be affected in passive vision, only when all lines converge on one point, the eye of the perceiver. In the De proprietatibus of Bartholomew, the apex of the cone is in the eye.

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For Grosseteste, an infinite number of cones or pyramids of light can leave the surface of an agent, and the lines of light can converge in an infinite number of apices; there are as many apices as there are pyramids. As virtus is stronger in a shorter line, so virtus is stronger in a shorter cone or pyramid. With a shorter cone, the recipient is more completely joined with the agent, and can be more altered by the virtus. The apex of the shorter cone will be more active, but the apex of the longer cone will be more acute, and the virtus in the lines will be more concentrated in the longer cone by the time it reaches the apex. The lines of the longer cone are also closer to being perpendicular to the surface of the agent, which would give them more virtus. So Grosseteste is inconclusive ultimately as to which cone of vision, the shorter or longer, contains the most virtus. It is conceivable that artists and builders in early thirteenth-century England applied models in optics and perception to artistic production, though there is no documentation of such an application. Folke Nordström, in an article in Art Bulletin, Volume Thirty-Eight, entitled “Peterborough, Lincoln, and the Science of Robert Grosseteste: A Study in Thirteenth-Century Architecture and Iconography,” suggested that there is a relation between the vaulting of Saint Hugh’s Choir in Lincoln Cathedral and the optical theories of Robert Grosseteste in his natural philosophy, as in the De Lineis. Along with the geometries of the architecture, the conoid springer vaults and umbrella vault, and the lierne and tirceron ribs, there is also the role of mirror reflections and anamorphosis in the effect of the architecture, in the symmetrical and asymmetrical syncopated vaulting and arcading, which would lend to that explanation, along with the overlapping and framing of vistas in other elements of the architecture. Grosseteste’s model of vision is seen as an allegorical model of the transformation of the species sensibilis to the intelligible, the species apprehensibilis, through the medium of light and geometry in perception, while the species sensibilis in ratio, reason, is given by the species apprehensibilis in virtus intellectiva, intellect. In the De Iride (On the Rainbow, or on the Rainbow and the Mirror), Grosseteste defines the visible species as “an assimilating substance of the nature of the sun, lighting and radiating, the radiation of which, conjoined with the radiation of a wholly outwardly illuminating body, completes perception.”20 The visible species is the species of light as defined in De Lineis, but it emanates from the perceiver, or from the perceived field of vision, rather than the surface of the agent. Perception is thus both passive and active, and requires the participation of the viewer in the illumination of ob-

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jects. The species which is produced by the act of perception itself is the incorporeal, inner light of Plotinus, and the light of the virtus intellectiva. It is the lux spiritualis of the species apprehensibilis, which emanates into the prima forma substantialis. Just as the intellection of the species requires the participation of the intelligible from the virtus intellectiva, as in the active intellect of Aristotle, in the species sensibilis, so the perception of the species requires the participation of the lux spiritualis from the virtus intellectiva in the visible species. Avicenna described vision as the meeting of an external light with light from the eye. Bartholomew, in De proprietatibus rerum, described vision using the model of intersecting cones or pyramids, with one cone extended from the surface of the agent to the viewer as apex, and the other cone extended from the viewer to the object as apex. Leon Battista Alberti also described the intersection of both cones; the cone extended from the viewer would correspond to a perspectivally constructed space. Thus, for Grosseteste in De Iride, “sight occurs through reception from within.” Visual perception is passive, because what is seen is the species of an object, an eidos or form or visual impression, as it is imprinted in the oculus interior, the mind’s eye. Visual perception is active because the species of the object must always already be an intelligible, the product of the virtus intellectiva, in the emanation of the lux spiritualis to form the visible species. In the same way, for Plotinus, in Enneads I.1.7, “the faculty of perception in the Soul cannot act by the immediate grasping of sensible objects, but only by the discerning of impressions printed upon the Animate [or intellect] by sensation: these perceptions are already Intelligibles…” As impressions are printed upon the intellect by sensation, the passive part of vision, they are discerned by reason, which is the active part of vision. The sensual impressions in perception are copies and derivatives of intelligible forms; the species sensibilis conforms to the species apprehensibilis. In the De Iride of Grosseteste, the science of optics, or perspectiva, is defined as being based on geometrical figures, which are in turn based on the operations of light. Light is the instrument by which the species apprehensibilis of archetypal or intelligible knowledge in the virtus intellectiva is known as the species sensibilis of ratio or discursive reason and sensation. Archetypal forms of knowledge are the principia essendi, existing ante rem, as intelligibles and universals, while the knowledge in reason given by the species is the principia conoscendi, existing in re, in particulars. The eternal forms of the principia essendi are only known to human reason when they

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are projected as principia conoscendi, when they are shone by divine illumination, by the lux spiritualis, in the oculus mentis. The lux spiritualis has the same relation to the interior eye, ad oculum interiorem, and the intelligible form, the species apprehensibilis, as the corporeal sun has to the bodily eye, ad oculum corporalem, and to visible forms, the species sensibilis. In the De anima, Aristotle compared the active intellect, what can be taken as the virtus intellectiva or nous, the cosmic intellect, to light itself, in relation to the potential intellect, what can be taken as ratio or discursive reason, as “in a certain fashion, light makes potential colors actual…” (3.5.430a10–25).21 Aristotle contrasted the active or productive intellect, the nous poietikos, with the potential or passive intellect, the nous pathetikos. The active intellect illuminates what is intelligible in the sensible world, as the light of the stained glass window illuminates the interior of the cathedral. More precisely, the active intellect illuminates the species apprehensibilis, what is intelligible in the species, in the species sensibilis as formed by the imagination or phantasia, from the imprint in sense perception, which is then given to discursive reason. The word phantasia comes from the word for light, phôs (3.3.429a2–3). Phantasia is composed of afterimages of sensations, traces in the oculus mentis. For Aristotle, phantasia is not part of intellect; it merely supplies intellect with the species sensibilis, which the intellect illuminates, as light makes potential colors actual, to form the species apprehensibilis in actual intellect. It is impossible to think without mental images, so the phantasia, though not part of it, is necessary for the functioning of intellect. In the Commentary on the Posterior Analytics of Grosseteste, the lux spiritualis “floods over intelligible objects (res intelligibiles),” like the light through the stained glass window in the cathedral, “and over the mind’s eye (oculus mentis),” and “stands to the interior eye (oculus interior) and to intelligible objects as the corporeal sun stands to the bodily eye and to visible corporeal objects” (I.17),22 following Aristotle, Themistius, Alfarabi, Avicenna, and Averroes. The lumen spiritualis, the light produced by the lux spiritualis, allows the mental sight, the visus mentalis, to apprehend the intelligibles in the virtus intellectiva, as the light of the sun, the lumen solare, makes vision possible. The lumen spiritualis is the “first visible” in interior sight, visus interior, as the colored body is the first thing receptive of the light of the sun (I.19). The colored glass in the stained glass window corresponds to the lumen spiritualis in the oculus mentis.

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The more receptive the intelligible object, the species apprehensibilis, is to the lux spiritualis, the more visible it is to the oculus mentis. The object which is most similar to the light, the least material, is the most receptive of it. The power of the mind, the acies mentis, is a spiritual light, an irradiatio spiritualis, which operates in the virtus intellectiva to illuminate the species apprehensibilis, and the virtus is strongest when the object is the least material and conforms most easily to the immaterial species. The architecture of the cathedral presents a hierarchy of materiality in forms, like the hierarchy of the celestial spheres, following the “principle of divisibility,” in the multiplication and division of the architectural forms, culminating in the pure lux spiritualis which enters through the stained glass window. Each of the stained glass windows at Lincoln, in particular the Dean’s Eye and the Bishop’s Eye, is the oculus mentis of the body of the cathedral. The colored glass is the lumen spiritualis, and the geometry of the tracery is the species apprehensibilis, the intelligibles of the architecture, and the structure of the cosmos, visible to the oculus mentis. The sight of the mind, the visus interior, is turned toward darkness and idleness when deflected from the lumen spiritualis, and is occupied with “corruptible bodily things” (I.14), but when it perceives a trace or vestigium of the lux spiritualis, it seeks it out, as the visitor to the cathedral seeks out the stained glass window, and then the visus interior is able to perceive the lumen spiritualis within. The analogy of spiritual light to corporeal light was applied by Grosseteste to elements of the operations of the Church. In De Libero Arbitrio (On Free Will), the analogy is applied to the Trinity, as the lux spiritualis is the mediation between the intelligible and material in the same way that the Holy Spirit is the mediation between the Celestial Father and the Body of Christ. In the architecture of Lincoln Cathedral, the Trinity is present especially in Saint Hugh’s Choir, in the grouping of three lancet windows per clerestory bay, and in the triradial vaults in the ceiling, where three ribs emanate from each boss along the ridge pole, causing the asymmetrical syncopation. In the choir the lux spiritualis shines through the triune lancet windows and mediates between the spiritual and physical, as in the Trinity, and shines the species apprehensibilis, represented by the forms of the glass windows, onto the oculus mentis, the mind’s eye of the observer, in the form of the species sensibilis, represented by the triradial ribs in the vaulting, as they take the form of corporeal geometry. The transition from the windows in the clerestory to the vaulting of the ceiling represents the transition from the species apprehensibilis to the species sensibilis; it represents the formation of

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matter through light, where matter becomes denser and more substantial as the lines of the rays of light become more multiple and the virtus becomes stronger, in the process of condensation and rarefaction; and it represents the formation of the material world from the point to line to surface in the twodimensional pattern of the lancet windows, and the line to surface to solid in the vaulting pattern, concave surface, and volume of the vault. The architecture is an edificium of the processes of creation and perception as described by Grosseteste, and it is a talisman for the intellection of the observer; the perception of the catechism of the architecture inspires the viewer to engage the virtus intellectiva, to understand the relation between reason and intellection, the material world and the spiritual world, and the body and the soul. In De Libero Arbitrio, the light shining through the stained glass window of the cathedral is seen as the operation of divine grace through free will. In his Epistolae, Grosseteste compared his relationship as Bishop to the clergy of the cathedral, and the relationship between the Pope and his prelates, including Grosseteste, to a mirror reflecting light into dark places. The Bishop illuminates the minds of the clergy by reflecting the species apprehensibilis by the lux spiritualis into the oculus mentis of the clergy, so that the species apprehensibilis can become the species sensibilis, as a tangible rule of operation, in the correct operations of the Church, and the Bishop can assert his authority. The imprint described by Plotinus in “recollections” in Enneads V.3.2 is the trace of the species which remains in the mind as a mnemic residue, and it is that trace which is the most basic tool of discursive reason or logic. “The reasoning power in soul makes its judgment, derived from the mental images present to it which come from sense-perception, but combining and dividing them…” The trace in the oculus mentis is illuminated by the incorporeal inner light, a lux spiritualis, the visible species of Grosseteste. In Enneads IV.7.6, sense perceptions, the species in vision, merge together in the intellect like “lines coming together from the circumference of the circle,” with the lux spiritualis at the center, creating unity from multiplicity, through the instrument of reason. The unity and totality of the physical world is projected onto it by reason; the visible world is perceived as unified and total because it is preconceived as such by intellect. For Grosseteste in De Iride, because they are intelligibles, mathematics and physics are “concerned with those things which are prior to natural phenomena,” that is, effects and causes. This position, which is Neoplatonic, and is found in Plotinus, was continued by the scientific philosophers in the next

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generation at Oxford after Grosseteste, including Roger Bacon, and plays an integral role in the development of natural and scientific philosophies. The causes of mathematics and geometry are formal causes, that is, initiated by the form or species. In De Iride, vision, or sight, “is from a part of perception above nature and is active.”23 Vision is a product of nous, or virtus intellectiva, as has been seen in Plotinus. Sight “occurs through reception from within.” Vision itself is seen as a cause, as it is in Plotinus; vision itself defines the natural world as it is perceived and experienced. The mathematical structure of the universe is realized as the geometrical structure of the universe, thus as a corporeal body, in the same way that the tetractys was transformed by Plato into the progression from point to line to surface to body. According to Grosseteste in De Luce, “bodies are composed of surfaces, and surfaces of lines, and lines of points,”24 referring to Aristotle in De Caelo et Mundo, and Plato in the Timaeus. A unified body is perceptible as a combination of numerical figures,25 according to Cusanus in the De coniecturis, as numbers are perceptible as a solid composition. The progression from the simplest unity is seen as a progression from the simplest point, to line, to surface, and to body. Unity is projected into line, surface and body. The unity of the line is found in the surface and the body.26 This process of transference from numerical ratios to geometrical figures to material reality, the process of creation, can be applied to the writings of Grosseteste, and to the architecture of Lincoln Cathedral. The process is present in Grosseteste’s model of light and vision, where the origin of light is a point, the virtus of the light travels along a line, the lines of light emanate to the surface of the circumference of a sphere, and the emanation of the light forms the volume of a cone. Conversely, the lines of light converge at the apex of the cone in the eye of the viewer, the point which is also the origin of the extramission of rays of light, which also form lines and define the surface of an agent, forming the species which defines the corporeal volume or body. In the architecture of the cathedral, the architect begins with points from which he constructs lines, from which he constructs a geometric surface, from which is projected or telescoped a three-dimensional structure. This can be seen for example in the vault of the nave, where the point of the corbel at the top of the springer shaft in elevation is the source of the lines of the ribs of the vault, which form a convex surface in combination with the severies of the vault, which forms a cone in the direction of the ridge rib of the vault, which can be seen as defining the surface of the agent. The cone of ribs as a cone of lines of light is reflected on the other side of the ridge rib; the ridge

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rib is thus a reflective surface, where the intromission and extramission of light converge in the process of vision. The cone of the lines of light can also be seen in the umbrella vault in the chapter house of the cathedral, which converge at a point on the top of the shaft in the center, and which spread to the ribbed vault as the surface of the agent. In the vaulting of Saint Hugh’s Choir, the ribs as lines of light do not emanate from the point of the corbel in symmetry and proportion, and the ribs are not reflected by the ridge pole, that is, the vaulting is not symmetrical on either side of the ridge pole. Here the intromission does not correspond to the extramission, as it were; there is an evident disjunction between the material world as perceived and the process of vision as understood. Such a deliberate disjunction may be intended to represent the mystical gap between discursive reason and an understanding of the archetypes or intelligibles, the inaccessibility of the virtus intellectiva to the ratio, of intellect to itself. In the De Luce, Grosseteste gives examples of both rational and irrational proportions in geometry and nature. The irrational proportion, as in the vault, is a necessary component of the geometrical structure of nature, in relation to the intelligible mathematical structure, as the rational coexists with the irrational in the same way that the Same coexists with the Other in the Timaeus of Plato. In Timaeus 36, Plato described the construction of the soul in mathematical and geometrical terms. Sections of the soul are marked off by the Demiurge according to numerical proportions. God is seen as a mathematician or architect, in the same way that Grosseteste describes God in his Commentary on the Physics. According to Grosseteste, God is the Mensurator primus et certissimus who “created all things in number, weight, and measure,”27 in reference to Wisdom 11:21, and the modus, species et ordo created by the divine mind in the writings of Saint Augustine, in De Civitate Dei, De Musica, and De Trinitate. A line in geometry is measured according to a knowledge of infinity, an infinite number of points, by the Mensurator primus, according to Grosseteste, while the line appears to the human mind as finite and measurable, subject to mathematics. In the same way, human intelligence can only grasp time as finite and measurable, while intelligible time is infinite. The line and all geometrical figures are extended from the simplest unit, the point, as are the rays of lux in autodiffusion, and the extension is made possible by the infinite multiplication of the infinite by the Mensurator primus to produce finite material extension, as the rays of lumen in light are the product of the infinite

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multiplication of the infinite, which can only exist as an intelligible, in the mathematical operations of the Mensurator primus, inaccessible to human reason, though the finite species or representation of the infinite is accessible. As a natural philosopher, Grosseteste himself can be seen as a geometer or mathematician, or architect, in his application of geometry and mathematics to the explanation of natural phenomena, and to the genesis of the cosmos, as influenced by the Timaeus of Plato. Grosseteste’s philosophical systems have an architectonic structure that is easily applied to architecture itself, in particular in the many correspondences between the geometrical forms in Grosseteste’s writings and the geometrical forms in the Gothic cathedral, especially Lincoln Cathedral, where Grosseteste was Bishop. The series of proportions in the Timaeus constitutes the series of squares and cubes, even and odd numbers, which form the Platonic Lambda, as a numerical construction of the coincidence of opposites in the process of creation. Once the numerical divisions of the soul are made by the Demiurge, “He then took the whole fabric and cut it down the middle into two strips, which he placed crosswise at their middle points to form a shape like the letter X; he then bent the ends around in a circle and fastened them to each other opposite the point at which the strips crossed, to make two circles, one inner and one outer” (36).28 The circles are defined as the Same and the Other, or Different, revolving in opposite directions on an inclined axis from each other. While the circle of the Same is left whole and undivided, the circle of the Different is divided six times to make seven circles, which correspond to the orbits of the planets, or the motions of the material world, in turbulence and containing the irrational. The circle of the Same, in its regular and constant motion, rational and harmonious, is the part of the soul which corresponds to the archê, or archetypal form, of intelligible reality. The soul is interwoven throughout the universe, “from the center to the outermost heaven.” The body of the heavens is visible, in the seven circles of the Different, but the soul is invisible, in the motion of the Same, and “endowed with reason and harmony, being the best creation of the best of intelligible and eternal things.” The point to line to surface to solid is also enacted in the syncopated arcading in the aisles of Saint Hugh’s Choir in Lincoln Cathedral. The lines of the archivolts emanate from the capitals of the columns, forming the surface area of the arches. The placing of one arcade in front of another, with the piers and spandrels of the back arcade visible in between the piers and spandrels of the front arcade, in a syncopated rhythm, allows the double arcade to

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form a volume, formed by the surfaces of the arcades, in a coincidence of opposites, a coincidentia oppositorum, a dialectical process which reveals the intelligible design, which can be applied to the vaulting as well. According to Grosseteste in De Luce, the nine celestial spheres are formed by lumen as generated by the lux, which forms increasingly dense matter corresponding to the spheres, as the light becomes less spiritual and simple. The light reflected from each sphere forms the next more complex sphere, and each sphere is formed in a process of condensation and rarefaction. The mass lying beneath the celestial spheres forms the four elements. Below the lunar sphere, the lumen is not powerful enough to rarefy the mass, and it remains imperfect and unstable. In the first element, the light is sufficiently rarefied to produce fire, which then produces air, then water and earth, by a combination of rarefaction and condensation. The celestial spheres are sufficiently rarefied to be in perfect circular motion, representing the perfection of the intelligibles, as in the Same of Plato, in reason and harmony. In contrast to the circular motion of the celestial spheres, the natural motion of the sublunary elements is rectilinear, in the diffusion of light along straight lines, and the condensation of matter. The motion of the sublunary spheres contradicts that of the celestial spheres, in a coincidentia oppositorum, as the movement of the Different contradicts the movement of the Same in the Timaeus, though they are both circular. In the architecture of Lincoln Cathedral, the rectilinear geometries of the elevation are contrasted with the curvilinear geometries of the vault, in the nave, transepts, and Saint Hugh’s Choir. The elevations are of the earthly, material world, the sublunary spheres, and the vault is of the celestial world, in the nine circular spheres, so the geometries correspond to the representational role of the architecture as a microcosm of the structure of the cosmos. The hierarchy of the architecture represents the contrast between the sensible world and the intelligible world, and between the physical world and the spiritual world, body and soul. The hierarchy corresponds to the trivium and quadrivium of Scholasticism: curvilinear forms represent the higher arts of the triune spirit, grammar, rhetoric, and logic, which involve the virtus intellectiva, while rectilinear forms represent the lower arts of the material world, mathematics, geometry, music and astronomy, which involve only ratio or discursive reason, as in the Divided Line of Plato. The contrast between the rectilinear forms in elevation and the curvilinear forms in the vaulting corresponds to the contrast in Byzantine and Renaissance architecture between the rectilinear plan and the spherical dome,

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which is designed to signify the same distinction between the sensible and intelligible, material and spiritual, in accommodation of the ascension of the soul. The “squaring of the circle” in Byzantine and Renaissance architecture represents the relation between ratio or discursive reason and the virtus intellectiva, the intellectual which knows the intelligibles. As described in the De circuli quadratura of Nicolas Cusanus, rectilinear, polygonal geometries correspond to human intelligence in ratio, as rectilinear geometries correspond to the sublunary world, while the circle corresponds to the archetypal intelligence in the virtus intellectiva, as circular motion corresponds to the perfection of the celestial world. When the polygonal figure is inscribed in the circle, its sides are multiplied and the figure becomes more multiplied as it approaches the perfection and infinity of the circle, in the process of the complicato or folding, but the polygonal figure, multiplied to infinity, can never reach the circle, as discursive reason can never participate in the virtus intellectiva, but the virtus intellectiva can participate in discursive reason in the unfolding of the polygonal figure, the explicato, or explanation. Themistius described the perfection of discursive reason towards the virtus intellectiva, or the entelechy of material intellect towards active intellect, as the complicato of the tupos in phantasia, the folding of the imprint of the perceived object in the imagination. The centralized Renaissance church or chapel, as described by Leon Battista Alberti in De re aedificatoria, was intended to be a model of this relationship. The process is more explicitly described in the squinch dome of the Byzantine church, where an octagon, symbolic of the Holy Spirit, intervenes between the square plan of the material world or the Body of Christ, and the circular cornice of the spherical dome of the Celestial Father. The octagon illustrates the complicato of discursive reason towards the intellectual, a theme which was well-known in Byzantium, in the writings of the Greek commentators on Aristotle, such as Alexander of Aphrodisias in the second century or Themistius in the fourth century, in the distinction between the active, cosmic intellect and the passive, material intellect, from the third book of Aristotle’s De anima. The theme was well-known to scholars in thirteenth-century England through translations of Arabic commentaries on Aristotle’s De anima. Octagonal piers and bundle columns can be found throughout Lincoln Cathedral, mediating between the rectilinear elevation and the curvilinear vault, reason and nous, material and intelligible. The dialectic of light as sensible and intelligible is described in different terms by Plato in the Republic. The archetypal intellect, the Good, is seen as

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“producing in the visible region light and the source of light,” being the source of light but not partaking of light itself, and “being in the intelligible region itself controlling source of truth and intelligence” (517).29 This leads to what Plato called “the hymn of the dialectic,” between the light of reason and the light of the visible, which is its imitation, in aspiring towards its essence, which is the Good, as in the simile of the cave, where the “realm revealed by sight corresponds to the prison,” and “the ascent into the upper world and the sight of the objects there” can be connected to “the upward progress of the mind into the intelligible region.” In the hymn of the dialectic, the intellectual can be represented in terms of vision, “by the progress of sight from shadows” (532) to beings, stars, and ultimately the sun. The exercise of the dialectic is carried out by reason without the aid of the senses, and culminates in pure thought, noesis, the “summit of the intellectual realm,” which is represented in the visual realm by the sun, or in the cathedral, the light of the stained glass rose window, in relation to the geometries of the tracery, which also stages the contrast between the circular and rectilinear geometries. The material world is on one side of the window and the celestial world is on the other, and it is in the autodiffusion of the lux that the rectilinear geometries of the material world emerge from the circular geometries of the celestial world, in the virtus of the line of light. As Plotinus says in Enneads I.3.5, “Dialectic puts together for itself, combining and dividing, until it has reached perfect intellection.” For Plotinus, dialectic, the coincidentia oppositorum, transcends mathematical exercise and practical knowledge, and can be a means by which the sensible can ascend to the intelligible, and discursive reason can ascend to the intellectual. The potential for dialectic to transcend sensible knowledge and enter into the world of the intelligible was suggested by Plato in a passage in Republic 511: dialectic “treats assumptions not as principles, but as assumptions in the true sense, that is, as starting points and steps in the ascent to something which involves no assumption and is the first principle of everything.” Then, “when it has grasped that principle it can again descend, by keeping to the consequences that follow from it, to a conclusion.” The dialectic engages only the form, the species, as it is formed in perception as intellection, and nothing in the sensible world. The architectural forms in Saint Hugh’s Choir in Lincoln Cathedral, the asymmetrical, syncopated vaulting and the syncopated double arcading, invite the viewer to engage in the process of dialectic in the coincidentia oppositorum, where the species is engaged toward an understanding

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of the virtus intellectiva and the intelligible, through the process of perception and intellection. In the Elements of Geometry of Euclid, a line is length without breadth. The limit of a line is a point; lines are the limits of a surface; and a figure is that which is contained by boundaries, in point to line to surface to solid. Aristotle, in De anima, defined the line as a “moving point.”30 The line “owes its being to the point,” but goes “beyond the undividedness of the point,” according to Proclus in the Commentary on the First Book of Euclid’s Elements (97). The line is the dyad to the point as monad, in the Pythagorean tetractys, while the surface is the triad and the solid is the tetrad. In De Caelo, Aristotle defined the line as a magnitude which is divisible in one way. A line is a continuum, “which is divisible into parts always capable of subdivision” (268). A surface is divisible in two ways, thus it is two-dimensional, and a body is divisible in three ways, thus it is three-dimensional. The point exists in the line, according to Proclus, and it is through the line that the point participates in sensible objects, in the same way that the archetype or intelligible participates in the physical world, as in Grosseteste’s model of vision, in the transformation of the lux spiritualis to the lumen, or the virtus intellectiva to the species. Because the point participates in the line, it can both exist separately from material objects and flow into them, as lux and the virtus intellectiva both participate in the physical world and are inaccessible to it, like the One of Plotinus. The line itself is one-dimensional, so it has the quality of the monad, or indivisible, but in that it connects two points it is dyadic, and divisible. It is like discursive reason, having the quality of participating in both the virtus intellectiva and the sensible world. The line “produces transformation into length, that is, into divisible extendedness in one dimension together with participation in duality” (99). The line in turn participates in the point, as the dyad participates in the monad, as the sensible participates in the One. In its participation in both the particular and universal, the line is “at once unlimited [material] and limited [intelligible]—in its own forthgoing unlimited, but limited by virtue of its participation in its limitlike cause” (101), as the point flows through it. As the point “goes forth from that region, this very first of all ideas expands itself, moves, and flows towards infinity and, imitating the infinite dyad is mastered by its own principle, unified by it, and constrained on all sides.” Thus the line in discursive reason is the product of the principle of sufficient reason, being self-sufficient in movement, as in the Timaeus, “the Creator conceived that a being which was self-sufficient would be far

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more excellent than one which lacked anything” (33). In the line can be found the virtus, in Grosseteste’s terms, thus the line is that which connects the physical and the intelligible, or spiritual, like the line of light which enters the cathedral through the stained glass window. In vision, the point is extended to the boundaries of objects by the extrinsic lines from the eye, as Proclus explained, “in likenesses the points that constitute the extremity and the beginning of a line are said to bound it” (102), as in the extramission theory of Grosseteste. It is through the line that the intelligible form of the thing, the species apprehensibilis, becomes the thing itself in vision, the species sensibilis, as the species of number, in the same way that the intelligible of the virtus intellectiva becomes the sensible object of sense perception in reason, as understood through the dialectic, or the dianoetic process of Proclus, the combination of dialectical and discursive reason. Thus, as Proclus described, “This affords a remarkable illustration of the principle that the forms existing in themselves are causally prior to the things that participate in them but, in giving themselves to their participants, take on an existence after their kind, becoming plural and divisible as their subjects are, and enjoying their diversity” (103). The models of light and vision of Grosseteste, and the architectural forms of the corbels, ribs, severies, and vaults in Lincoln Cathedral, in their enactment of the role of the point and line, surface and solid, are allegorical models, catechisms or cosmologies, of the transformation of archetypal forms in the intellect to sensible forms in the material world.

5 Early English

The next sections will examine the role that the original vocabulary elements introduced at Lincoln Cathedral played in the development of English Gothic architecture throughout the Middle Ages. The architectural development is organized chronologically, and according to the periods established by Thomas Rickman in the Attempt to Discriminate the Style of Architecture in England. The periods are Early English (1180–1250), which includes of course Lincoln Cathedral; Early Decorated (1250–90); Decorated or Curvilinear (1290–1380); and Perpendicular (1380–1540). The names given to the periods by Rickman are certainly not exhaustive or even completely accurate in relation to the architecture of the periods, but for better or worse they suffice to provide the simplest and most accepted way of naming the periods. At Wells Cathedral (Cathedral Church of St. Andrew in Somerset, begun by Bishop Reginald Fitz Jocelin, or Lombardus, in 1176), the nave, choir, transepts, and west front are roughly contemporary with the major building period of Lincoln Cathedral, between 1176 and 1240. The rest of the cathedral dates from the second building period, between 1285 and 1345. The style of the early parts of Wells is completely different from Lincoln; the two cathedrals represent two styles of English Gothic architecture, two simultaneous divergences from the French style at Canterbury, which have no relation to each other. While the nave and transepts at Lincoln, for example, can be characterized by the variety of materials, bundles of Purbeck shafts, multiple archivolts, and spacious pointed arcades; overlapping structural vocabulary elements such as corbels, responds, shafts and springer vaults which articulate a false structure; small triforia and clerestories articulated by Purbeck shafts and corbels of different materials; and skeletal vaulting articulated with the ridge pole and lierne and tierceron ribs, much of which can be seen as a development from or deviation from the articulation at Canterbury Cathedral, Wells Cathedral presents much the opposite: a unity of material throughout, few overlapping elements, the appearance of a simple and ra-

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tional structural system; unadorned spandrels; a homogeneous and unarticulated triforium, with a band of pointed arches; a taller and more luminous, but unarticulated clerestory; and a simple and elegant tierceron vaulting system. Huge piers are ribbed with delicate shafts, and capitals are carved with elaborate stiff-leaf foliage. Wells is the first English Gothic cathedral in which pointed arches are used exclusively, contributing to its homogeneity. Lincoln and Wells can probably be considered the two greatest English Gothic cathedrals, appearing simultaneously, but widely divergent in approach, the first and most definitive statements of the English Gothic, from which all subsequent medieval churches and cathedrals are derived. Both are masterpieces in their respective approaches; both engross the spectator or inhabitant in a way that no other cathedrals do. Although polar opposites, both cathedrals embody a national spirit and identity, in distinction from the French Gothic, Wells in the cohesiveness of its homogeneity, Lincoln in the cohesiveness of its diversity. The construction of the nave at Wells (Figure 22) is dated to roughly 1205 to 1230, thus preceding the nave at Lincoln. It was begun by Adam Lock in around 1205, who is also credited with the transepts and north porch, and who died in 1229. Between 1220 and 1229, Lock completed the western bays of the nave and the lower part of the west front; he is thus credited with initiating the design of the west front. The nave was completed by Thomas Norreys, who also completed the west front. The tierceron vault of the nave was restored and decorated in 1844 and 1985. The ten bays of the nave were constructed from east to west, and were preceded by the choir and transepts, which represent the earliest architectural intentions in the cathedral, initiated by Bishop Reginald Fitz Jocelin a few years prior to the start of the building activity of Bishop Hugh of Avalon and Geoffrey de Noyers at Lincoln. Only the piers and arches survive from the original late-twelfthcentury choir at Wells. The piers are completely different in conception from those at Lincoln and Canterbury. They are massive Greek crosses with twenty-four attached shafts divided into eight trefoil groupings around the pier. The arches are equally as well articulated, with roll mouldings. The excessive articulation at Wells reinforces the homogeneity, in contrast to Lincoln and Canterbury. The uninterrupted homogeneity of the nave triforium is reinforced by the placing of the corbels at the base of the responds just below the clerestory, so that the verticality of the responds does not interrupt the horizontality of the triforium. A precedent for such a placement can be found in the Romanesque

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chapter house at Bristol Cathedral (Figure 23), or St. Augustine’s, where the bases of the responds for the vault are raised above the lower blind arcade, to not get in the way of the seating. Above the lower blind arcade in the Bristol chapter house is a second arcade, more articulated, with spiral-grooved columns with square capitals and bases, intersecting arches with mouldings, and diamond diapering patterns on the wall above. These details would appear at Lincoln and Ely in the next century. The west front of Wells was built around 1230 by Thomas Norreys, under Bishop Jocelyn (1206–42), and thus precedes or is roughly contemporary with the west front at Lincoln. The decoration of 300 sculptural figures at Wells was designed by Thomas Norreys, and surviving figures were restored by Benjamin Ferrey in the 1870s. The figures were originally painted, so the facade would have appeared as a giant reredos. By 1238 the façade was complete to the base of the central gable, and by 1250 the gable was completed. The southwest tower was constructed later between 1384 and 1394; the northwest tower between 1430 and 1436. The west front of Wells is again more homogeneous than the west front of Lincoln, in part because it is the product of a single building campaign, while the west front of Lincoln is a collage of several different periods. The west front of Wells is dominated by six vertical pier buttresses, which unify it horizontally, series of horizontal arcades which unify it vertically, and the massive east and west towers. The west front of Lincoln, on the other hand, consists of the original Norman portals of Bishop Remigius in the center, and horizontal rows of arcades from the thirteenth century spanning outwards. The height of the arcades prevents the horizontal registers from dominating. The towers of Lincoln are at the center rather than on the wings, giving the overall front a vertical emphasis, in contrast to the overall horizontal emphasis at Wells. The true characters of the cathedrals, the genius of the internal articulations, cannot be ascertained from the west fronts, though the fronts reveal the basic contrast between the homogeneity of Wells and the diversity of Lincoln. The west tower and front of Ely Cathedral (Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity, Cambridgeshire, East Anglia; Benedictine abbey founded by St. Etheldreda in 673; cathedral begun by Abbot Simeon 1082–94) can be dated to the same period, around 1200, and the Galilee Porch to around 1215. The west front of Ely shows similarities to the west front of Lincoln: similar arcading, intersecting and overlapping arcading showing Islamic influence, and diapering, giving the walls an additional texture. At Ely the articulation includes quatrefoils and doubled piers. The façade of the Galilee Porch is

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even more sophisticated, with thinner piers and cusped pointed arches in blind arcades drawn further out from the wall, and a traceried portal. The arcade in the Galilee Porch (Figure 24), built by Bishop Eustace around 1215, is a syncopated double arcade, with trilobe arches on slender shafts in front, alternating with piers attached to the wall in back. The piers have foliate capitals, the archivolts are articulated with a kind of zigzag moulding, there are foils in the spandrels, and there is another row of slender piers rising from the cornice above. The same motif, the double syncopated arcade, can be found at Lincoln, in the choir aisles. The arches in front at Lincoln are also trilobe, on slender piers with foliate capitals, but there are sculptural figures in the spandrels, and there is no space between the two syncopated arcades. The archivolts in the back arcade are articulated with the zigzag moulding. If the syncopated arcade is an invention of the architects at Lincoln, preceding the syncopated arcade in the Galilee Porch at Ely, then again it must be assumed that the original designer at Lincoln is Geoffrey de Noyers, whether or not the double arcade was reconstructed after the collapse of the crossing tower. The Galilee Porch at Ely culminates in an elaborate portal into the church, with multiple Purbeck piers, foliate capitals, multiple articulated archivolts, and cusped pointed arches, summing up all of the motifs on the façade, but with an opulence that is out of character in the Early English style, and more reminiscent of the French Gothic cathedral. The similarities in detailing between Ely and Lincoln continue throughout the thirteenth century, especially in the retrochoir at Ely and the nave and Angel Choir at Lincoln; masons probably went back and forth frequently between the two cathedrals. The retrochoir at Hereford Cathedral (Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Ethelbert in Herefordshire, begun by Bishop Reynelm in 1107) dates from the last decade of the twelfth century. The vaulting (Figure 25) bears a resemblance to vaulting at Lincoln, particularly in the Consistory Chapel of Lincoln Cathedral (Figure 18), behind the southwest tower of the west front, which dates from slightly later, around 1230. The vault of the Consistory Chapel was designed by either Michael the Mason or Gilbert de Burgo, under Bishop Hugh of Wells. It consists of four quadripartite rib vaults in four bays, with bundles of Purbeck shafts acting as piers, between the chapel and nave aisle, to support what could be called an umbrella vault, though the ribs conform to the bays and are asymmetrically placed, as opposed to the circular organization of ribs in an umbrella vault. The piers are dark-colored in contrast to the white plaster which covers the severies, and

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because the ribs form part of the quadripartite vaults in the bays, pointed and diagonal rib vaults as originated at Durham, there is a disjointed relation between the ribs and the piers, a segmental geometry, as opposed to a homogeneous geometrical continuity. The same can be said of the vault of the retrochoir at Hereford: ribs spring from a shaft, in this case a solid octagonal pier, to form quadripartite vaults in bays, dark stone ribs in contrast to the white plaster on the severies, though the brickwork of the severies is somewhat visible under the white plaster, suggesting what the vault might have originally looked like, with the brick courses perpendicular to the ribs. The umbrella-like vault in the retrochoir at Hereford is symmetrical, split between the parallel bays of the vaulting, as in the Consistory Chapel at Lincoln, but the division between the bays is further articulated at Lincoln with a bundle of ribs dividing the bays along the surface of the vault and springing from the shaft, making the Lincoln shaft much more crowded. The vaulting in the choir aisles at Lichfield Cathedral (Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Chad in Staffordshire) dates from right around 1200, contemporary with the completion of the original Saint Hugh’s Choir at Lincoln, believed to have been designed by Geoffrey de Noyers, and his nave bays in the main transept. The eastern transepts and choir aisle vaults at Lincoln were begun slightly earlier, around 1192, by Geoffrey de Noyers. The vaulting of the choir aisles at Lincoln (Figure 26) consists of a simple quadripartite vault, with white plaster on the severies, ribs supported by bundles of Purbeck shafts, and a fifth rib inserted in the outer half of the vault, reminiscent of the first bays east of the main transept in the retrochoir aisle vaults at Canterbury Cathedral (Figure 10), where Geoffrey de Noyers was probably an assistant to William the Englishman. At Lichfield the choir aisle vaults (reconstructed) are again simple quadripartite vaults supported by bundle piers, but with much heavier ribs, exposed brickwork in the severies, and more of a homogeneity of materials. There is a ridge pole in one of the choir aisle vaults at Lichfield. If the choir aisle vaults at Lichfield date from around 1200, and the ridge pole was invented at Lincoln, then it must have been included in Geoffrey de Noyers’ original design in the last decade of the twelfth century, which was then reconstructed following the collapse of the crossing tower of Lincoln in 1237 or 1239. The original choir arcade at Lichfield dates from around 1200 as well, but its appearance now is determined by a reconstruction by William Ramsey in the early fourteenth century, under Bishop Walter Langton, Treasurer

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of England, which shows the influence of the Angel Choir at Lincoln. Original Norman elements include zigzag moulding in an arch from the north choir aisle into the north transept, and a trumpet-scallop capital in the wall arcading of the aisle. Details from the later period include pointed and cusped arcading, and shafted piers, recalling Wells nave. In the south transept of Lichfield, from around 1220, a pair of tiercerons appears in each of the four panels of each bay of the vault, divided by the transverse ridge ribs, which extend to the window heads. This system can also be seen in the nave of Lincoln and the presbytery of Ely around the same time. The system is repeated in the nave of Lichfield toward the end of the thirteenth century, and at Hereford, but with the elimination of the transverse ribs between the bays. Winchester Cathedral (Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity, St. Peter, St. Paul and St. Swithun, in Hampshire) was begun by Bishop William Walkelin (1070–98). It is built mostly out of stone transported from the Isle of Wight. Thousands of wooden piles had to be driven into the ground on a marshy site in order to support the original foundation of the cathedral, the longest cathedral in Europe. The crypt, transepts and crossing survive from the original Norman church. The tower was built between 1108 and 1120, following the collapse of the original tower after William Rufus, or William II, King of England 1087–1100, was buried beneath it. The tower was believed to collapse because of the hatred that the English people had for the ruthless and immoral ruler, third son of William the Conqueror. The Norman nave survives but was rebuilt in the Perpendicular style; the original elevations were probably similar to the transepts. The arcading of the Lady Chapel of Winchester dates from 1205 to 1235, under Bishop de Lucy (1189–1204) and Peter des Roches (1204–38), as does the arcading and vaulting of the retrochoir. The arcading in the Lady Chapel consists of trilobe arches on top of piers of bundled shafts, with foils in the spandrels above, all similar to Lincoln and Ely. The retrochoir (Figure 27) displays a blind arcade along the wall with trilobe arches on slender piers (pilasters) with simple round capitals, and foils in the spandrels. The piers of the main arcade are surrounded by eight Purbeck shafts, four main and four subsidiary, with shaft rings and a variety of capitals with crockets and stiffleaf foliage. The vaulting is quadripartite, with thin ribs and long horizontal bricks in the severies, and bundled ribs springing from corbels and dark responds, as at Lincoln. An arcade with tall slender piers is set in front of the lancet windows in the outer wall, recalling the openwork articulation of the

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east transepts at Lincoln (Figure 28), perhaps designed by Geoffrey de Noyers, which in turn recalls the openwork articulation of William the Englishman in the aisles of the retrochoir at Canterbury (Figure 29), where an arcade on tall slender Purbeck piers is set in front of stained glass lancet windows. Purbeck responds are set between the Purbeck shafts of the arcade, and support the ribs of the quadripartite vault, the transverse ribs articulated with zigzag moulding. The architecture of the northwest transept (Figure 30) of Beverley Minster (Parish Church of St. John and St. Martin in eastern Yorkshire, in the York diocese) was begun in around 1220, and the transepts were completed in around 1260, along with the choir. The elevations of the transepts at Beverley, which are contemporary with the outer bays of the main transept at Lincoln, including the Dean’s Eye to the north and the Bishop’s Eye to the south, contain many vocabulary elements which are found at Lincoln. The triforium consists of a syncopated double arcade, from Lincoln, with trilobe or trefoil arches on piers of clustered Purbeck shafts, or colonnettes, and foils in the spandrels, resulting in a stimulating visual experience. Purbeck shafts also carry a blind arcade of pointed arches along the wall behind. The clerestory includes an openwork arcade set inside the window wall, with tall slender shafts. Responds of Purbeck shafts run from the arcade below, just below the cornice, to mid-clerestory level, supporting the ribs of a quadripartite vault. The arcade at floor level is composed of wide pointed arches articulated with multiple archivolts, and in certain places blind arcading is set into the wall, with bundled shafts, eight shafts surrounding circular piers, Purbeck alternating with local stone, zigzag moulding, and squeezed pointed arches, borrowing the vocabulary of Lincoln. Beverley displays all of the diversification and excess articulation of the architecture of Lincoln, corresponding to the membrification and subdivisions of the Scholastic composition, and the hierarchies of geometrical complexity in relation to the simplicity of the light in the stained glass windows. The materials at Beverley are more diverse than at Wells, especially with the Purbeck shafts, but Beverley has a similar kind of homogeneity as Wells, because the material differentiation is consistent throughout the cathedral. Beverley is better-lit than either Wells or Lincoln, and the quality of the detailing is better than either. In some ways Beverley seems to be what Lincoln aspires to be, but is prevented from being by the differentiations between building periods. Given the changes that occurred at Lincoln, there is an amazing constant throughout the different stages of building, but the differ-

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ences are notable in comparison to Beverley. Beverley can be seen to be a purification of the intentions at Lincoln, a crystallization of the inventive vocabulary elements into a homogeneous system. This is partly due to the Cistercian identity of Beverley; the architect had worked previously at Fountains Abbey. During the second decade of the thirteenth century, while the great transept at Lincoln was being completed, after the completion of the original choir and east transepts, much work was under way, besides at Beverley, at Chester, York, Worcester, and Salisbury. The vaulting in the chapter house of Chester Cathedral (Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary in Cheshire, made a cathedral in 1541 by Henry VIII) looks like the vaulting in the great transept and nave at Lincoln: dark ribs against white severies, a ridge pole, multiple tiercerons per bay, and, as in the nave at Lincoln, short tiercerons, or what can be called liernes, replace the transverse ribs between the bays, as can be found in the great transept at Lincoln. The lierne ribs between bays at Chester extend from the ridge pole and connect to shorter tiercerons at the periphery of the conoid sections formed by the pairs of full-length tiercerons in each bay, as in the nave at Lincoln. The vaulting in the chapter house at Chester seems to be wrapped up in the development of the vaulting patterns occurring at Lincoln in the early thirteenth century. The vaulting in the chapter house vestibule at Chester is closer to the vaulting in the east transepts at Lincoln, but cruder, and more reminiscent of the early pointed diagonal rib vaults at Durham, in the nave from the early twelfth century, and even more so, the vaulting in the nave aisle at Peterborough Cathedral, a quadripartite vault with huge ribs, constructed around 1118, less than twenty years after the first pointed rib vaults at Durham. The vestibule vaults at Chester consist of massive bundled brick ribs, a pointed transverse rib (as in the Durham nave; the transverse ribs in the Durham choir aisle, from the late eleventh century, the first rib vault in architecture, are round-arched, as are the transverse ribs in the nave aisle at Peterborough, Figure 31). The exposed bricks in the severies in the chapter house vestibule at Chester are unevenly laid, making the vaults appear more Romanesque than Gothic. The vault in the east walk of the cloister at Chester (Figure 32) is also a quadripartite vault with massive ribs and round transverse arches, and with a ridge pole added. The severies are stonework rather than brick, and a variety of shades in the stones, mostly red sandstone, gives the vault an added visual texture and richness. The city of York was previously Eboracum, the capital of Roman Brit-

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ain. At York Paulinus converted Edwin of Northumbria to Christianity in 627. The current Gothic minster replaced a Norman church which grew out of a wooden oratory built by Edwin. The elevations of the south transept (Figure 33) at York Minster (Cathedral Church of St. Peter in Yorkshire, begun in the eleventh century by Archbishop Thomas of Bayeux), which were begun around 1220 by Archbishop Walter de Gray (1215–55), and completed about forty years later, are radically different from the work at Chester, with lighter stone and finer detailing, and closer to the work at Beverley, in its Cistercian austerity, and with a shared affinity with Lincoln Cathedral, especially in the structural articulation and the use of Purbeck marble. The ribs of the vault (the present vault is a wooden reconstruction of the thirteenth-century original which was never built, Figure 34) rise from fullheight Purbeck responds, with foliate corbels at the base of the spandrel in the gallery (with a passageway behind, rather than a triforium). The north and south transepts at York are almost fifty feet wide and 110 feet high. The gallery at York is composed of an elaborate composition of Purbeck and stone shafts supporting four pointed arches per bay, with the two pairs set inside a larger pair of pointed arches, which are set inside a long round arch with zigzag moulding, with quatrefoils in the minor spandrels and a cinquefoil in the major spandrel, and the passageway behind. The Purbeck responds and shafts, and the juxtaposition of dark and light stone, magnesian limestone, is similar to the elevations at Beverley. In the clerestory, an arcade with Purbeck shafts with gilded foliate capitals is set to the inside of the windows, as in the clerestories in the retrochoir at Winchester, the east transepts at Lincoln, and the retrochoir aisles at Canterbury. At York the sum is an elaborate, articulated openwork composition, displaying all of the diversification and membrification associated with the Scholasticism of the Middle Ages, the mingling of light and material, and the hierarchy of rarefaction of materials as the geometrical substructure of matter in the cosmos is unfolded from the lux spiritualis, the originary light, as described by Robert Grosseteste in his cosmologies De Lineis and De Luce. The light is especially present in the lancet windows of the north transept, called the Five Sisters, which are each fifty-five feet high and only five feet wide, with original grisaille glass from the thirteenth century. Worcester Cathedral (Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary in Worcestershire) has a picturesque setting on the Severn River against the backdrop of the Malvern Hills. It was begun as a Benedictine abbey in 1084 by St. Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester, replacing a monastery

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church established by St. Oswald, who became bishop in 961. Wulfstan became bishop in 1062, just before the Norman Conquest, and he was the only Anglo-Saxon bishop to continue his see under William the Conqueror. He believed that the Conquest was deserved punishment for the sins of the English, as some Italians would view the Sack of Rome in 1527, which brought the Renaissance to an end and introduced the beginning of the Counter Reformation. The only remains of Wulfstan’s building are portions of the transepts and a crypt for the shrine of St. Oswald. The chapter house at Worcester, built around 1120, would be seen as a precedent for the Gothic centralized chapter houses in England beginning at Lincoln. The chapter house at Worcester is round, with a central column. Blind arcading runs around the lower wall, with intersecting round arches and contrasting dark and light stone, suggesting the influence of Islamic architecture. The canonization of Wulfstan in 1203 led to an increase in pilgrimages, donations, and building. The east end of the cathedral was rebuilt beginning in 1224, in part to accommodate the shrine of St. Wulfstan. The east end of the cathedral is among the earliest architecture in the Gothic style in England. It consists of a choir, eastern transepts, retrochoir and Lady Chapel. The plan with eastern transepts follows the model of Canterbury, Lincoln and Wells, and was later adopted at Beverley, Southwell and Salisbury. The elevations of the three-bay retrochoir (Figure 35) at Worcester belong to the same stylistic grouping as the contemporary work at Lincoln, Beverley, and York transepts in the 1220s. At Worcester, the lower arcade is composed of large pointed arched openings with multiple archivolts which reach up to the cornice, as at Lincoln, Beverley and York. There are also full-height Purbeck responds with foliate capitals, as in the one-bay Lady Chapel (the responds in the Lady Chapel go to the ground, while the responds in the retrochoir go to the arcade), Purbeck shafts in the triforium and clerestory, paired pointed arches set within larger pointed arches in the triforium, a syncopated double arcade and bundles of Purbeck piers in the triforium (combining the motifs at Beverley and York, both borrowing from Lincoln), and Purbeck shafts set in front of the clerestory windows, creating an openwork articulated three-dimensional elevation in the tradition of Canterbury, Lincoln, and Winchester. The same contrast of dark Purbeck and light stone, red sandstone, can be found at Worcester, adding to the membrification and diversification; the detailing of the masonry is not quite as exact as at Beverley or York, but the effect is very similar. The elevations in the retrochoir at Worcester were begun in 1224 by Alexander the Mason under

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Bishop William de Blois. According to John Harvey, it is likely that the architect is the same Alexander the Mason who was the architect of the nave at Lincoln Cathedral. In the aisles of the retrochoir, detached Purbeck shafts are set in front of the windows, under ribbed vaults with small bosses. The piers in the retrochoir have eight Purbeck shafts and eight smaller shafts with crocket capitals. In the triforium, the central spandrel (or tympanum) under each of the paired arches in each bay is filled with sculptural decoration similar to that in the choir aisles at Lincoln. The syncopation of a double arcade is created by a blind arcade which runs along the wall behind the inside arcade, recreating the effect in the choir aisles at Lincoln. The vaulting in the four-bay choir at Worcester (Figure 36), from around 1224, features the familiar quadripartite vault combined with round-arched transverse arches and a ridge pole, as in the Chester cloister, though now it has a much different appearance as a result of paintings on the severies designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott in 1871, including painted-on extra transverse ribs in each bay. The vault in the retrochoir is a tierceron vault (or a quadripartite vault with transverse ribs), as derived from Lincoln, with three pairs of tiercerons per bay and a ridge pole, the ribs springing from the fullheight Purbeck responds which go down to the bottom of the spandrels in the arcade. The vault has the same decoration by Sir George Gilbert Scott. The elevations of the choir, which were completed by Bishop Thomas de Cantilupe, are the same as the retrochoir, with the syncopated double arcade, though the bays are wider and the arches are not so steep, with bundles of Purbeck shafts and wide pointed arches with multiple archivolts reaching to the cornice, as at Lincoln, and Purbeck shafts rising from corbels at the bottom of the spandrels. The arch mouldings, the most elaborate of any English Gothic church, contain a hollow, where a roll could be found in the retrochoir. The effect of the elevations in the choir and retrochoir at Worcester is of a musical polyphonic harmony, filled with spatial intricacies and ambiguities, in a playfulness like that ascribed by Nikolaus Pevsner to Geoffrey de Noyers at Lincoln. The musical harmony is reiterated by sculptures of musical angels in the south triforium of the choir, which anticipate the musical angels in the Angel Choir at Lincoln, and create the musica celeste, the celestial music which corresponds to the earthly music which can be perceived by the senses, both aurally and visually. Thomas de Cantilupe (1218–82) was Bishop of Hereford, as well as Chancellor of Oxford University in 1261 and Chancellor of England in 1264. His friend Simon de Montfort (1208–65)

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was a leader of the opposition to Henry III, and in 1264 called the first directly elected parliament in history. The elevations in the nave (Figure 37) of Salisbury Cathedral (Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Wiltshire, begun in 1220) present some variations on the themes present at Lincoln, Beverley, York, and Worchester in the 1220s. The architect of the nave at Salisbury was Elias of Dereham, called designator; the master mason Nicholas of Ely, called magister cementarius; they worked for Bishop Richard Poore. The masons had access to detailed information about the construction of both Lincoln and Wells, which were both under way. The plan of the cathedral, with two sets of transepts, was based on the plan of Lincoln, though the apsidal east end of Lincoln was replaced by a rectangular ambulatory and rectangular chapels. The nave was complete by 1258, under the direction of Nicholas de Eboraco (1247–60), magister operis, and consecrated by Bishop Giles de Bridport. The cathedral is 473 feet long, and the nave vault is eighty-four feet high, about the same as Lincoln. Bundle piers with Purbeck shafts interspersed support pointed arches in the arcade, not too wide, rising to the cornice. The Purbeck stone was brought to the building site on barges on the Avon River. The piers are “quatrefoils” of Chilmark stone with unpolished grey Purbeck shafts with dark polished Purbeck capitals, with no shaft rings, as influenced by the piers of Westminster Abbey. As at Winchester, the site was marshy, so the piers stand on sleeper walls laid horizontally on the ground; the floor of the nave is lower than ground level. Salisbury is the only English Gothic cathedral which was not a continuation of a previous Norman building. The gallery above the arcade in the nave, with windows behind it, is very squat in relation to the compositions further north; the Purbeck responds only rise the height of the spandrels in the gallery, which is only a couple of feet. The emphasis in the proportions is on horizontality, as at Wells. In the elevations at Salisbury, the three levels of arcade, gallery and clerestory are autonomous horizontal bands with no vertical divisions. In the gallery, pairs of arches are set in pairs of arches which are set in a major arch per bay, as at York (or at Lincoln and Worcester without the major arch). The openings have trefoil heads and are enclosed by Purbeck shafts. The tympana have quatrefoils and octofoils with cusping. The responds begin at the base of the spandrels of the gallery, and have foliate capitals at the cornice below the springer ribs. The sub-arches are pushed back below the main arches, which adds to the horizontal emphasis of the gallery. While the bays of the gallery correspond to the bays of the arcade below, the proportion of the arches in

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the gallery, being flat and low, differentiates it from the arcade, along with the profusion of Purbeck shafts, and makes it appear autonomous. In the clerestory of the nave, which is ten bays long, Purbeck shafts are set in front of the windows, the openwork motif initially derived from the retrochoir at Winchester. The slender, detached Purbeck shafts are set in contrast to the grey Chilmark stone, an oolithic limestone from nearby quarries, though only in horizontal bands, so the contrast is not as effective as at Lincoln, Beverley, or Worcester (or the York transept). Further contrast is achieved with the grey unpolished Purbeck shafts, not as shiny and dark as the polished ones. The grouping of three lancet windows per bay in the clerestory, and the two lancet windows per bay in the aisles, is based on Lincoln. The Salisbury nave elevation is a cross between the articulated openwork compositions of the north, in particular at Lincoln, and the homogeneous, horizontal composition of the elevations in the nave of Wells Cathedral. The architecture is considered to be the purest and most unified of the Early English style, being the product of one building campaign on a virgin site, with the influence of Lincoln and Canterbury in the use of Purbeck marble. The purity in part comes from a lack of ornament, with moulded rather than foliate capitals, a simple quadripartite vault, and simple lancet windows. The detached Purbeck shafts around the cores of the piers, and the moulded arches in the elevation, comparable to Lincoln, are the only real structural elaboration, allowing the light through the windows and the material of the construction to play a prominent role in the visual effect. A precedent for the purity of the design may be the Corona, or Becket’s Crown, at Canterbury Cathedral, with its restrained use of Purbeck responds and shafts, contrasting with the grey stone and simple arches. The simplicity of the ribs in the vault, which can be seen as the geometrical manifestation of the lumen spiritualis, the reflected and refracted light in the physical world, which emanates from the lux spiritualis, the spiritual light which illuminates the windows, as described by Robert Grosseteste in the treatises On Light, or De Luce, and On Lines, Angles and Figures, or De Lineis, written at the beginning of the thirteenth century, are seen in contrast to the material proliferation in the multiplicity of forms and geometries in the piers and moulded arches below, as if they are the product of a hierarchical emanation of materiality from the simplest and purest light of God to the multiple and variegated world of nature. Such a hierarchy of emanation, and the hypostases of being, in Neoplatonic terms, can be seen in Renaissance and Baroque art and architecture, in the contrast between the mysterious and

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ineffable, and the chaotic multiplicity of the material world (perhaps the earliest example being the ceiling of Parma Cathedral, painted by Antonio Correggio in 1526). It cannot be denied that the philosophical and theological understanding of the world which underlies the forms of English Gothic architecture is very similar to that which underlies much of Renaissance and Baroque art and architecture, though the forms are very different. Historically the differences between Gothic and Renaissance forms have been emphasized, for example by Giorgio Vasari, who found Gothic forms to be “barbaric” and unacceptable, but the similarity of the underlying theoretical bases should also be explored. The east end of Salisbury Cathedral, including the three bays of the choir, three bays of the retrochoir, and Lady Chapel, dates from 1220 to 1225. The height of the retrochoir and Lady Chapel is lower than the choir, and the design was influenced by the east end of Winchester Cathedral, built by Bishops de Lucy and des Roches, beginning in 1204–05, and probably completed by 1220. While the Lady Chapel of Winchester is dominated by the piers of bundled shafts supporting arches in the arcade, in the Lady Chapel at Salisbury, complete by 1225 and dedicated to the Trinity, single Purbeck columns (seemingly too thin for their structural role) support the arcade which separates the nave and aisles. Clustered piers can be found in the retrochoir (complete by 1225) and choir (complete by 1247) at Salisbury, along with detached wall shafts set in front of windows, recalling the articulation at Winchester, where piers are set in front of the wall in the manner of the east transepts of Lincoln and the retrochoir aisles of Canterbury. At Salisbury, detached Purbeck shafts, whether single columns or bundle columns, support simple quadripartite vaults with thin ribs and transverse arches. The piers in the choir combine unpolished grey Purbeck shafts with detached polished black Purbeck shafts, in a variation on Canterbury and Lincoln, but without the foliate capitals, just bell capitals with plain mouldings. The irregular shape of the western bays of the retrochoir aisles, deformed to connect to the choir, recalls the deformed bays of the retrochoir aisles at Canterbury. The east transepts of Salisbury, completed by 1247, present variations on the architecture of the east end of the cathedral. The transepts are now separated from the choir by strainer arches inserted in the fourteenth century, the mouldings of which form a saltire cross, like the one at Wells. The strainer arches stand on piers of the Chilmark stone with attached shafts in the thirteenth-century style. The piers are octagonal with eight shafts, or with two

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polished and two unpolished shafts. The work is attributed to William Joy, around 1320; William Joy also designed the scissor arches with the saltire cross at Wells, after 1338. The gallery and the clerestory of Salisbury are the same as the choir, with more foliate ornament. The north and south walls of the east transept, and of the main transept, have elaborate groupings of stained glass lancet windows, perhaps functioning similarly to the Dean’s Eye and Bishop’s Eye in the north and south walls of the main transept at Lincoln Cathedral, acting as the “eyes” of the body of the cathedral, allowing the good spirits from the south to enter and protecting the cathedral from the bad spirits from the north. Three tall lancets in the arcade level of the east transepts at Salisbury are superseded by three pairs of lancets in the main transepts, with quatrefoils above in the gallery level, and four lancets in the clerestory level. The windows of the transepts sit behind detached Purbeck shafts, as in the east transept at Lincoln. The architectural ensemble, combining light, color, geometry, mathematics, and spatial articulation, must be seen as a catechism of the underlying structure of the cosmos, as conceived in the mind of the cosmic intellect or demiurge, and as intended to facilitate the intellectual ascension of the worshipper, from the material intellect or discursive reason, nous pathetikos or virtus cogitativa, dependent on the sensible world, to the active intellect, nous poietikos or virtus intellectiva, which is not entirely dependent on the sensible world, which can understand the intelligibles and archetypes represented in the architecture, and in which the divine intelligence or intelligentia participates, through the lux spiritualis illuminating the mind. The main transepts of Salisbury, also completed by 1247, were separated from the crossing by strainer arches inserted in the fifteenth century, around 1420, in the Perpendicular style. The piers of the arcade consist of just four thick grey shafts without the thin polished Purbeck shafts. The Purbeck shafts in the clerestory have shaft rings, as in the eastern transepts, and the central pairs of lancets in the clerestory level of the north and south walls have an octofoiled circle in the tympanum above. In the architecture of the screen façade of the west front of Salisbury Cathedral (Figure 38), completed by 1256 and designed on the model of Lincoln and Wells, certain motifs are repeated from the interior architecture, as at Lincoln and Wells. In particular, paired lancets are placed under paired arches with quatrefoiled circles in the tympana. The motif is also repeated on the façade to provide places for statues, which replace the lancet windows. Ornamental motifs on the screen facade can be seen as variations of motifs

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on the interior, such as the bands of quatrefoiled diamonds. In the 1230s, contemporary with the construction of the nave elevations and vault at Lincoln, and the Consistory Chapel and Morning Chapel Vaults, work on the Southwell choir, Ely presbytery and Ely choir vaults was underway. The elevations of the presbytery at Ely are considered to be the “missing link” between the Lincoln nave and Lincoln Angel Choir, the bridge in the development between the two. The choir (Figure 39) of nearby Southwell Minster (Cathedral and Parish Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Nottinghamshire, begun as a Norman church in 1108 by Archbishop Thomas II of York; it was a cathedral from 1884 to 1927) was begun in 1234 by Archbishop Walter de Gray, Archbishop of York. The elevation differs from the previous examples in that there is no triforium or gallery; it is divided in half by a tall arcade with pointed arches of multiple archivolts supported by bundled piers, with the arches reaching the cornice, as at Lincoln, or Beverley, York or Worcester, and a tall clerestory level, with tall, slender piers set in front of compartmental windows, in an openwork composition recalling Winchester retrochoir aisles and Lincoln east transepts. In the arcade, piers consist of four major and four minor filleted or banded shafts, with deep hollows between them, as in Saint Hugh’s Choir at Lincoln. In the clerestory, there are two tall lancet windows in each bay, underneath clerestory windows with wall passages in front of them, and with openings from a gallery between them. Unlike the previous examples there is no Purbeck marble to create a polychromatic effect, though there are stiff-leaf capitals and dogtooth moulding to provide some ornamental articulation. The Southwell choir recalls the homogeneity of Wells, but with the northern structural articulation and membrification; it combines the northern Cistercian austerity with elements from Lincoln. Short responds, from corbels at the bottom of the spandrels in the arcade to corbels just a couple feet above the cornice, support three tierceron ribs per bay in the vault, or two tierceron ribs and a transverse rib, meeting at a continuous ridge pole, based on the innovations at Lincoln. The bays are divided by the deep recesses which accommodate the tall clerestory windows; the severies are painted white. The lack of a triforium notwithstanding, the basic vocabulary of the Southwell choir is from Lincoln, in the classic Early English style. The elevations of the presbytery at Ely Cathedral were executed between 1234 and 1252 under Bishop Hugh of Northwold (1229–54), a friend of Robert Grosseteste. The presbytery was built to provide space for altars and

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the shrine of St. Etheldreda, daughter of the king of East Anglia; it was dedicated in 1252, in the presence of King Henry III. It combines Barnack stone and polished Purbeck stone, and, perhaps designed to suggest more precious materials, has a richness comparable to Lincoln. The east end of Ely is considered to be the most lavish of English Gothic architecture. The elevations consist of the familiar formula of bundled Purbeck shafts supporting pointed arches with multiple archivolts reaching to the cornice of the arcade, as can be found in Lincoln nave, with a gallery and an openwork clerestory, and responds beginning at the bottom of the spandrels of the arcade and running up to the cornice at the top of the gallery, as opposed to just below it, as in the nave at Lincoln. The piers consist of a circular core with eight detached Purbeck shafts tied together by a band of shaft rings. The Purbeck capitals feature elaborate sculpted stiff-leaf decoration. Some of the mouldings of the arches are dogtooth, unlike Lincoln. The spandrels are decorated with relief trefoils, as they would be in the Angel Choir at Lincoln. The Ely presbytery is seen as a more elaborate version of Lincoln nave. In the gallery of Lincoln nave (Figure 9) there are two sets of three small arches per bay supported by bundles of Purbeck shafts and inscribed into two flat pointed arches, with quatrefoils in the tympanum below and trefoils in the central spandrel above. There are three lancets windows per bay in the clerestory (the grouping of three is reiterated everywhere at Lincoln, corresponding to the Trinity, and the formation of the material world through geometry and mathematics from the originary light, lux spiritualis), with pointed arches set in front of them supported by bundled Purbeck shafts with foliate capitals. In the Angel Choir at Lincoln (Figure 20), the gallery and clerestory have more of an affinity with the presbytery at Ely. The spandrels of the arcade at Lincoln are decorated with relief trefoils, and the Purbeck shafts have foliate corbels at each end (though they do not rise to the cornice of the gallery). The gallery is again composed of two pairs of arches inscribed into two arches, but they are very different than the Lincoln nave. Here the almost rounded arches are supported by single Purbeck shafts in the center, and bundled Purbeck shafts on the sides, all with gilded foliate capitals, and have trefoil cusping, with an openwork tympanum with quatrefoil cusping, and foliate patterns in the spandrels. The archivolts at the top of the two main arches have a prominent zigzag moulding. A similar treatment can be found in the clerestory: set in front of the windows, there are four arches supported by single Purbeck shafts, with trefoil cusping, and openwork tympana above

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with cusped quatrefoils. The elevations at Ely presbytery are not quite as far along, as the tympana in the gallery are solid, not openwork bar tracery as in the Angel Choir, without the elaborate cusping; there are only one major arch and two minor arches per bay, corresponding to Lincoln nave; and there are three arches per bay in the clerestory, with no openwork cusping. The two arches in each bay of the Ely presbytery have cusped trefoiled heads, and the tympana and spandrels above contain sunk quatrefoils. The shafts in the gallery are not Purbeck shafts, but they have crocketing in vertical bands, the most elaborate of any English cathedral, and the same kind of crocketing that can be found in Lincoln choir. There is more foliate sculpture than in the nave at Lincoln, though there are no sculpted figures, and more geometric ornament in the foiled openwork patterns. The clerestory does not contain any bar tracery, but instead groups of stepped lancet openings in the wall with Purbeck shafts, as in Lincoln choir, decorated with shaft rings and dogtooth, and with foiled and cusped arches. Thus the Ely presbytery elevation is the “link” between the Lincoln nave begun in the 1230s by Master Alexander, or Alexander the Mason, and the Lincoln Angel Choir, built between 1256 and 1280 by Simon Thirsk, and possibly Richard of Stowe. The vaulting in the choir and presbytery at Ely represents a development on the vaulting at Lincoln. The presbytery vault (Figure 40), completed by 1252, is a copy of the vault in the Lincoln nave. It consists of a continuous ridge pole, five pairs of tiercerons per bay, with short pairs of transverse tiercerons, or liernes, between bays, connecting with shorter tiercerons in the recesses in front of the clerestory windows, all the same as at Lincoln. As at Lincoln, the severies are white, and the ribs spring from corbels where they are bundled together in a squared-off conoid springer vault at the center of the vault bays, but between the elevation bays, so that the bays of the elevations and vault are offset, confounding the structural relation between them, in contrast to the French approach. Most of the bosses of the Ely presbytery vault are stiff-leaf, but there is a boss with a Coronation of the Virgin above the altar and a boss with a figure of St. Etheldreda above her shrine. The vaulting in the Angel Choir at Lincoln is a more simplified version of the nave vaulting at Lincoln. It is composed of the five pairs of tiercerons per bay, but without the transverse liernes or their connecting shorter tiercerons. The severies in the Angel Choir are of exposed brick courses set perpendicular to the severies, adding additional surface texture to the already rich textural composition of the Angel Choir.

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The choir vault at Ely (Figure 41), completed later in the 1320s, presents something much different than can be found at Lincoln, a “lierne star” vault pattern. There are nine pairs of tiercerons springing from each corbel at the center of the bays, forming a truer conoid vault, but only three pairs of the tiercerons reach the ridge pole. The first two tiercerons on either side of the clerestory windows only reach a full transverse rib connecting the peaks of the arches of the clerestory windows on either side, and the two pairs of tiercerons on either side of the central transverse tiercerons in each bay are cut off by liernes forming zigzag patterns along the ridge pole. More liernes zigzag towards the transverse ribs, forming star patterns around the major bosses at the intersections of the ridge pole and the transverse ribs. All of the intersections of ribs are covered by gilded bosses, and the ridge pole and transverse ribs are differentiated by being painted with green and red stripes. Such an elaborate patterned vault is unlike anything seen at Lincoln or in the Early English style, and announces the “Decorated” style at Ely. The increased emphasis on surface pattern constitutes a trend in the development of English Gothic architecture, as described by Paul Frankl and Jean Bony, among others, which puts more emphasis on “texture” than “structure,” or structural articulation. The purity of the Early English style is given by its emphasis on structural articulation, even while much of that articulation involves a contradiction of structure, in visual terms, rather than an affirmation of it. The increased emphasis on texture or pattern can be seen as an elaboration of the structurally contradictory forms of Early English articulation, all of which must be seen to serve the purposes of creating an architectural catechism, a model of the structure and organization of the physical world, in which the architecture expresses an idea, or is composed of a form, which is other than or even contradictory to its primary function as support and shelter. In that way the architecture can constitute an art form. In the 1240s, contemporary with work at Lincoln on the west front and towers, and the rebuilding of Saint Hugh’s Choir, with the “crazy vault,” and the vaulting of the choir aisles, interesting vaulting appeared at Wells south cloister walk, Salisbury cloister, Gloucester nave, and Westminster Abbey east and west cloister walks. The vault of Saint Hugh’s Choir at Lincoln (Figure 3), perhaps rebuilt by Alexander the Mason after the collapse of the crossing tower in 1237 or 1239, to replace what might have been a wooden vault designed by Geoffrey de Noyers, is the most unique vault in Gothic architecture, in fact the only asymmetrical vault. It is a tierceron vault predicting Lincoln nave or Angel Choir, with four pairs of tiercerons per bay,

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springing from corbels between the clerestory bays, below the cornice line of the gallery (the articulation of which is similar to Ely presbytery; the clerestory consists of Purbeck shafts set in front of three lancet windows per bay). But the tiercerons are offset on either side of the ridge pole, so that the first tierceron of each bay meets the second tierceron on the opposite side, forming two “triradial” ribs set between the transverse ribs of each bay corresponding to the bays of the elevation. The triradial ribs are composed of one rib on one side meeting two ribs on the other side, forming an asymmetrical vault. The result is that more light is allowed to enter through the clerestory windows, and the triune grouping of the lancet windows in each clerestory bay is reiterated mathematically and geometrically by the triradial ribs, as if to illustrate the relation between light, mathematics and geometry in a cosmological understanding of the sensible world in relation to the spiritual. Purbeck responds and shafts in the gallery and clerestory create the same polychromatic effect as in the east transepts, and the work at Beverley, York and Worchester. The vaulting of the aisles of Saint Hugh’s Choir is quadripartite, with pointed transverse ribs, ribs springing from bundles of Purbeck shafts, and a fifth rib inserted in each bay towards the outside to emulate the composition of William the Englishman at Canterbury. The south cloister walk at Wells Cathedral (Figure 42) was originally vaulted between 1240 and 1260, and rebuilt in the fifteenth century by Bishop Bekynton, presumably on the original model, except for the window tracery filling in the arcade, with its Perpendicular motifs. The vault is a lierne star vault, a simpler version than that introduced at Ely presbytery, with seven pairs of tiercerons per bay, rising from conoid springers on top of corbels and responds halfway up the windows, and meeting at the continuous ridge pole. The outer pair of tiercerons in each bay meet a transverse ridge rib, and connect to diagonal liernes which form the outer sides of octagons centered around the intersections of the ridge pole and the transverse ribs. So each bay, corresponding to the window bays, is defined by a large octagon of liernes at the center, with tiercerons intersecting it. The effect, accentuated by thick stone ribs and white severies, is somewhere between the (false) structural articulation of the tierceron vaults at Lincoln and the surface texture of the lierne vault at Ely presbytery. The vault in the Wells cloister has an almost zoomorphic form, as its geometry, not fully structure or pattern, suggests the organic. The vault in Salisbury cloister (Figure 43), built between 1240 and 1270

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by Bishop Walter de la Wyle, is a simple Early English quadripartite rib vault with pointed transverse ribs but no ridge pole, as in the Lincoln choir aisle, the vaulting of the nave aisles at Wells in the 1230s, or going back to the vaulting of Durham nave. The Salisbury cloister vault rises from bundles of Purbeck shafts set between traceried and foiled arcade tympana. The broad white severies and the thick stone ribs accentuate the austerity of the structural articulation. Gloucester Cathedral (Cathedral Church of the Holy and Indivisible Trinity in Gloucestershire, which began as a Benedictine abbey founded by Abbot Serlo in 1089 and was made a cathedral by Henry VIII in 1540) was extensively rebuilt in the Early English style between around 1220 and 1239, during the reign of King Henry III (1216–72). The rebuilding was carried out during the abbacies of Henry Blunt (1205–24), Thomas Bredon (1224–28), and Henry Foliot (1228–43). The cathedral was rededicated in 1239. The vault in the nave (Figure 14), completed in 1242, along with a screen in the north transept, is the only part of the Early English rebuilding to survive. It is a simple pointed arch and rib vault, or tierceron vault on the model of Lincoln, with three pairs of tiercerons per bay and a ridge pole. The ridge pole is narrower and higher (the apex of the vault rises) in the eastern bays. The springer ribs of the vault rise from bundles of three short Purbeck shafts with foliate capitals, set into a small Romanesque triforium (with no wall passage), similar to Tewkesbury Abbey. The Gloucester triforium sits on top of an arcade with enormous cylindrical piers supporting round arches with zigzag moulding, all reminiscent of Durham. The Purbeck shafts form part of a respond system which continues down to mid-spandrel of the arcade, where sculpted faces as corbels pop out. The use of the Purbeck shafts follows the influence of Canterbury and Lincoln as a unique and defining element of the Early English style, creating a rich polyphonic and polychromatic texture in extensive multiplication and membrification, creating an architecture both rich in sensual experience and complete as a catechism of Scholastic knowledge and natural philosophy. In between the Purbeck shafts in each bay of the triforium are pairs of arches with chevron mouldings, with a second pair of arches inset into each, set on piers with scallop capitals. The small triforium, functioning as a kind of decorative band, is set between a high arcade and a high clerestory, as is found more often in France. In the last two bays of the nave before the crossing, the ribs go straight down to the cornice of the arcade, at the base of the triforium, dispensing with a Purbeck respond at the arcade level. As the work

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proceeded from east to west, it is possible that these bays were finished by monks without the assistance of the original masons. As explained in the chronicle of the abbey, the Historia, “In the year of our Lord 1242 the new vault was completed in the nave of the church not with the help of craftsmen as at first but by the ardent devotion of the monks who were in that place” (Welander, 119). The monks stilted the vault from a lower position, resulting in the lowering of the springer ribs. The vault appears to be too low, as it was perhaps built under an existing Norman roof, which would explain the disappearance of the original clerestory. The Romanesque elevation of Gloucester nave (Figure 44) dates from 1090 to 1121, under Abbots Peter (1104–13) and William (1113–30). The design follows the design at Tewkesbury Abbey (Figure 45), and is dominated by the cylindrical piers of pale cream Cotswold stone, six feet in diameter and thirty-two feet high. Seven of the piers are placed in each arcade, twelve and a half feet apart. The piers have round convex capitals similar to Tewkesbury. Little remains of the Norman clerestory, as the Early English vault springs from the line of the triforium. The foundation stone for Westminster Abbey (Collegiate Church of St. Peter in Middlesex, begun as a Benedictine abbey) was laid on 6 July 1245 for Henry III. It was a coronation church beginning in 1066, and it was a cathedral from 1540 to 1550. Because the construction of the abbey was paid for by the king, unlike any other English Gothic church or cathedral, the detailing is more elaborate, and the cost per bay more expensive. The architecture of Westminster Abbey was designed to represent the divine justification of the rule of the king as the high vicar of the kingdom as anointed by God. Henry III was motivated to rebuild the coronation church as a symbol of a divinely ordained rule in response to positions such as that of Robert Grosseteste, who wrote to the king that the anointment of a king “by no means places the royal dignity above or on a level with the Priestly” (Wilson et al., 25); Grosseteste later apologized. Grosseteste, whose influence as the leading intellectual in England must have contributed to the architectural forms of Lincoln Cathedral, when he went from being Chancellor of Oxford University to Bishop of Lincoln, in turn contributed to the generation of an alternate direction in English Gothic architecture at Westminster Abbey. The architecture of Westminster Abbey also announced the Plantagenet family of England as rival to the Capetians of France (987–1328, founded by Hugh Capet), or Henry III as a rival to his brother-in-law Louis IX. The abbey consciously combined elements of the three symbolic churches of the

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dynasty in France: Reims (the coronation church), St. Denis (burial ground of French kings and sacristy for coronation regalia), and Sainte Chapelle (the royal chapel containing the relics of the Crown of Thorns and the True Cross, glorifying the Crown of France), thus the necessity that Westminster Abbey be the most French of English Gothic great churches, for the purpose of combining all these functions and more. In 1246 Henry III decided to be buried in Westminster Abbey, and in 1247 he obtained the relic of the Precious Blood of Christ for the abbey. The vault of the east cloister walk (Figure 46) was built between 1245 and 1255 by Henry of Reyns for Henry III. The architect was known as Master Henry during his lifetime, and Henry of Reyns after his death in 1253. It is not certain whether he was French, the Reyns corresponding to Reims, or whether he was English, from Rayne in Essex. The architecture of Westminster Abbey displays both a knowledge of the architecture of Reims Cathedral, and a willful deviation from it. The east cloister walk vault is a narrow quadripartite vault with pointed transverse ribs and no ridge pole. The severies are filled with large bricks running from rib to rib. The tympana of the arcade wall are filled with quatrefoils in relief, while the tympana of the arcade windows towards the cloister are filled with three tracery circles containing cinquefoils. In the north bays, the windows contain encircled trefoils. The west cloister walk (Figure 47) from the same period has a more elaborate tierceron vault. The two vaults represent the two dominant types of vaults of the period. Henry of Reyns was believed to be a French architect (or he may have been an English architect who worked in France), but the vaulting of the cloister is on the English model. The west walk vault contains five pairs of tiercerons per bay, which meet at a ridge pole, and an extra pair of tiercerons on the outside of each bay which meet transverse liernes from the ridge pole, on the Lincoln model. The ribs spring from conoid springers on corbels on top of responds, as at Lincoln. Brick courses are placed perpendicular to the ribs in the severies. The bricks and the segments of the ribs are of the same cream-colored stone. The construction of the cloisters was continued after the death of Henry of Reyns by John of Gloucester and Robert of Beverley. The choir of Westminster Abbey was also begun around 1245 for Henry III, to provide a setting for the shrine of Edward the Confessor, whose body was put in its resting place on 13 October 1269. As at Lincoln, the choir of Westminster Abbey contains tall thin bundle column responds, flat severies between the windows, a ridge rib and transverse ribs. The choir, along with

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the transepts and chapter house at Westminster Abbey, was complete by 1255, except for the vaulting; by then there was no more record of Henry of Reyns. The work was taken over by John of Gloucester, and the vaulting was completed by 1259. John of Gloucester died the following year, 1260, and work was taken over by Robert of Beverley, who followed John of Gloucester in continuing the conception of Henry of Reyns, but with increased amounts of ornamentation. Henry III would die in 1272, by which time only the five eastern bays of the nave were somewhat complete, though covered by a temporary roof. The openwork tracery of foiled circles introduced in the architecture came to be called geometrical tracery, marking the beginnings of the Geometrical style. The openwork bar tracery was introduced from France, especially Reims Cathedral, from 1210 to 1220, and replaced the plate tracery with pierced openings in solid walls that had been seen at Winchester, Salisbury, Wells, and York. Unlike Lincoln and Wells, Westminster Abbey is for the most part French in style, but with many English features. French characteristics, due to the French background and interests of Henry III, and the Plantagenet desire to compete with the Capetians of France, include a polygonal apse with an ambulatory and radiating chapels, the bar tracery, and the verticality of the proportions; the nave of the abbey, built in the late fourteenth century, is 103 feet high, as compared to the eighty-two foot high nave of Lincoln, for example. The height of Westminster Abbey is unique in England, mostly because such a height would be impractical for the Gothic construction being carried out as extension of Norman churches. French ornamental devices include windows in triangular frames with convex edges, or “spherical triangles,” containing eight-foiled circles, as in the west front of Amiens Cathedral, and tracery with trefoils and quatrefoils, as at Sainte Chapelle in Paris. The triforium screen of Westminster Abbey consists of two pairs of lancet openings per bay with trefoiled heads, and bar tracery above with a cinquefoil in a circle, derived from the detailing of Sainte Chapelle. The north and south walls of the transepts contain four levels of openwork arcading: pointed arches with diapering in the spandrels on the first level; trefoiled arches on the second and third levels; and three pairs of trefoiled arches with bar tracery with foiled circles above in the fourth level. The rose windows above, with glazed spandrels, derive from Sainte Chapelle and the north transept of Notre Dame in Paris. Diapering in the spandrels of the arcade and triforium could show the influence of either France, at Sainte Chapelle or at Notre Dame in Paris, in the floral diapering

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patterns, or Lincoln Cathedral, in the spandrels above the crossing arches, the upper nave elevations, and the west front. The original diapering at Westminster Abbey would have been brightly painted and gilded, especially the shrine of Edward the Confessor, to emulate the role of the French churches in representing the royalty. The choir vault has the Lincoln ridge rib, and the vaulting and elevations of the nave certainly show the influence of Lincoln. Beyond the general French features, the detailing of the abbey is English, so English that it does not correspond to Henry III’s desire to emulate the French style, but rather could be the result of the waning of the power of the Plantagenets, the growth of Parliament, the less absolutist ideology of Edward I, and the English background of the architect, Henry of Reyns. The thinness of the responds alone owes more to Lincoln Cathedral than any French cathedral, and represents a fundamental difference between English Gothic and French Gothic architecture, that is the importance of the structural logic of the vocabulary elements, which is often contradicted in England. The thickness of the moulded arches in the arcade of the choir leaves no room for a respond to run down to the top of the bundle piers below. The thickness and elaborate membrification of all of the elements of the elevation are English rather than French. The thinness of the transverse ridge ribs in the vault, in comparison to the thickness of the tiercerons in the conoid springers (all based on Lincoln) and the continuous longitudinal ridge rib, give the vault a horizontal emphasis which is English rather than French, not to mention the alternation between clerestory bays and vault bays, as at Lincoln, which defies the structural logic of the French cathedral. The bundle piers recall those at Salisbury, the gallery design follows those at Canterbury and Lincoln, and the narrow lancet windows in the clerestory follow those at Lincoln and Salisbury. The chapter house at Westminster Abbey was complete enough by 1250 for it to be praised by Matthew Paris in that year. It was the first part of the abbey to be completed. It is the earliest surviving centralized octagonal chapter house in England, based on the model at Lincoln, though the chapter house at Lincoln is decagonal. The lower walls in the chapter house at Westminster Abbey have blind arcading with trefoil arches, typical of the early thirteenth century, but the upper walls are mostly glass, unlike anything in England at the time, and influenced by French architecture at Amiens, St. Denis and Sainte Chapelle, for example. The octagonal plan allows the windows to be completely unobstructed by the tierceron ribs of the springer

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vaults in between, allowing the tracery of the windows to stand out, and for as much light as possible to enter into the room. As a result the vault appears as a canopy suspended above the windows, supported by the central umbrella column, creating a halo of light, similar to the effect of the trompe l’oeil interior of the Baptistery of the Orthodox in Ravenna, to cite a Byzantine precedent. As in Saint Hugh’s Choir at Lincoln, where the asymmetrical vault can be seen as resulting from the necessity of allowing as much light as possible into the choir, the architect goes to great lengths to lighten an otherwise densely articulated architecture. While in the chapter house at Lincoln the windows are somewhat tucked under the surface of the vault, as in the typical vaulting of a nave in the period, the window heads at Westminster are on the same plane as the surface of the vault, unique for the thirteenth century, and contributing to the canopy-like effect. The paired lancet windows in each bay of the Lincoln chapter house are still relatively unobstructed, because the springing ribs between them are close to perpendicular, while the ribs at Westminster can be more spread out. The lower walls of the Westminster chapter house also have Purbeck shafts and diapering in the spandrels, as at Lincoln, and some stiff-leaf foliate capitals. The central column is a compound pier with eight shafts, supporting a vault (which was rebuilt by Sir George Gilbert Scott) based on the Lincoln chapter house vault. Six of the eight sides of the octagon at Westminster have four-light windows in the upper walls, forty feet tall and twenty feet wide. The four lights are surmounted by two quatrefoils, with a six-foiled circle above in bar tracery, in elaborate geometrical patterns, similar to windows in chapels at Notre Dame in Paris. The tracery at Westminster Abbey ushers in the Decorated period of English Gothic architecture, while the influences of Lincoln Cathedral continue to develop.

6 Decorated

The geometrical articulations at Lincoln Cathedral and the French-inspired tracery at Westminster Abbey usher in the next period of English Gothic architecture, the Early Decorated or Geometric period from 1250 to 1290. Geometrical articulations included the tiercerons and ridge ribs of the vaulting, diapering patterns, developed membrification of piers and arcades, and foliate and figural sculpture, all contributing to a focus on surface patterns and textures, developing on Anglo-Saxon and Norman decorative traditions, in combination with French influences. The Decorated style was as nationalistic as the Early English style, with the element of fashion in architecture, in the self-referential and self-conscious surface ornament. By 1290 the Geometric Decorated gave way to the Curvilinear Decorated, with the introduction of the ogee curve and lierne vaulting. As described by Nikolaus Pevsner in the introduction to Buildings of England: North Somerset and Bristol, and repeated in The Cathedrals of England: Midland, Eastern and Northern England, the Decorated style involved a different conception of space as well, involving disquieting and unexpected “interpenetrations,” which were complex, intricate, and even perverse, in place of the clarity, harmony, and regularity of the thirteenth century. The changes were comparable to the changes from High Renaissance to Mannerism in the sixteenth century, where ideal forms were replaced by deliberate contradictions and distortions of the canons or rules. The perversion of forms can also be compared to the forms of the Baroque, as in the York chapter house, for example, and later at Bristol and Wells, in their expressiveness and spatial dynamism. As in the Mannerist and Baroque periods, the architecture reflects a culture of instability and flux, turmoil and struggle. For Pevsner, the changes in England at the turn of the century would have consequences for artistic developments across Europe, laying the foundation for the expressive freedom and expansive vocabulary of Renaissance art and architecture.

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The Chapel of the Nine Altars at Durham Cathedral was begun in 1242, but it belongs to the early Decorated style. The east end of the cathedral was extended to accommodate the shrine of St. Cuthbert, and it was not completed until the 1280s. The architecture of the chapel is based on the architecture of Salisbury Cathedral in the Early English style, as the chapel was initiated by Bishop Poore of Salisbury, and the extension into the eastern transepts was modeled on Fountains Abbey. The lower level of the chapel features a blind arcade of dark Frosterley marble with foliate capitals supporting trefoil arches, with recessed quatrefoils in the spandrels above. The blind arcade is just a screen wall placed in front of tall stone piers with arched openings between and recessed lancet stained glass windows, with a clerestory level above, presenting a variation on the expected division of the elevation according to the arcade, gallery, and clerestory levels. The arches of the openings, pointed arches with dogtooth moulding, are supported (visually) by tall thin Frosterley shafts at the ends of the piers. The tips of the arches reach the cornice of the clerestory level. The quadripartite vault is supported by large bundles of the dark marble shafts, alternating with the grey stone, with foliate capitals just above the clerestory cornice. Following the completion of the Chapel of the Nine Altars, the vault of the choir at Durham was rebuilt. In the vault of the Chapel of the Nine Altars, eight ribs converge at the center of the vault to form a large ring, the segments of which can be seen as liernes along an imaginary ridge pole. The mouldings of the ring contain carved figures of the Four Evangelists, representing the emanation of the spirit of God, the center of the ring, in the form of the logos, or the word of God, into the material world, here represented by the geometrical progression from point to line to surface to solid in the architecture, corresponding to the formation of matter. The material world is formed by the geometries and their mathematical proportions, emanating from the originary spirit, as was described by Robert Grosseteste in his treatises about fifty years earlier. A similar intention can be found in Italian Renaissance architecture, in Filippo Brunelleschi’s Pazzi Chapel in Florence, where the twelve ribs of the cupola extend from an oculus towards the bottom cornice, and images of the Four Evangelists, representing the emanation of matter from spirit in geometrical and mathematical terms, and the formation of the logos. The carvings at Durham anticipate the carvings in the bosses in the Angel Choir at Lincoln, between 1256 and 1280. Below the vault at Durham, the nine altars correspond to the nine Celes-

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tial Hierarchies, the three divisions of the three elements of the Trinity which mediate between God and the mind of man: the Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones of the highest level of the celestial Father; the Dominations, Virtues, and Powers of the level of the Son; and the Principalities, Archangels, and Angels of the third level of the Spirit. The levels of the Celestial Hierarchies in the nine altars reiterate the mediation between God and the mind of man which is illustrated by the geometry and mathematics of the vault, in the edificium of the relation between spirit and matter, and between nous poietikos and nous hylikos in human intelligence, as the participation of divine intelligence, or intelligentia, actualizes the formation of the visible and intelligible world, as in the active intellect of classical philosophy. Reticulated patterns appear in the spandrels of the crossing at Lincoln, and in the upper nave elevations and west front, around 1250. The diagonal diapering fills the spandrels above the broad pointed arches with multiple archivolts in the crossing at Lincoln, with a series of quatrefoil shafts above in a blind arcade. The shafts alternate Purbeck and Lincoln stone piers, and support narrow pointed arches with multiple archivolts. The diagonal diapering appears above the main pointed arch of the central portal of the west front, with a window below filled with later Perpendicular tracery, and above a cinquefoil set in a circle, all set in below the main pointed arch of the façade. It is possible that the diapering can be related to the interest in geometries of the Bishop of Lincoln, Robert Grosseteste, as an explanation of the natural world in relation to divine intelligence. Around 1250 the choir of Old St. Paul’s in London was begun, which would be influential in the development of Curvilinear and Decorated motifs. St. Paul’s was built to rival Westminster Abbey, but was destroyed in the Great Fire in 1666, leading to the construction of the new cathedral by Christopher Wren. St. Paul’s featured a great bar tracery window with a rose window placed on lancets. Between 1250 and 1255, diapering appeared in the spandrels of the triforium of the north transept at Hereford Cathedral (Figure 48), built under Bishop Aquablanca (Peter of Aigueblanche, or Peter of Savoy, 1240–68), a close friend and advisor of Henry III. The diapering appears between two pointed arches per bay, the tips of which reach the cornice of the clerestory. Below the arches are elaborate traceried grilles set in front of the wall, with thin shafts supporting three minor arches underneath each of the paired arches per bay. The minor arches are cusped trefoiled, and there are three circles in the tympana above with inset quatrefoils. The design shows the influence of both Lincoln and Westminster Abbey.

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Between each bay run thin responds from the base of the spandrels in the arcade to the cornice of the clerestory. The responds push the negation of the structural logic of the system to the extreme, as they are just thin mouldings that can hardly support anything. The springers which rise from tiny corbels at the top of the responds support a quadripartite vault. There are sphericaltriangular windows in the clerestory, the French-inspired device borrowed from Westminster Abbey, along with the diapering, also influenced by Lincoln. The north wall of the transept is filled with a fifty foot high six light window, inspired by Westminster Abbey, and roughly contemporary with the east window in the Angel Choir at Lincoln. The mannerist and decorative intentions of the architecture led the transept to be described as “a high chapel sparkling with light, set in a thin framework of mincing elegance: the dream of a courtier with an exotic taste” (Watkin, 53). The Decorated style exceeds its religious purposes for the purpose of representing national identity, developed from the Early English style, and “taste,” self-conscious fashion, in excess of the functional requirements of the architecture. At Westminster Abbey, the first bays west of the crossing in the nave were begun in 1253, by John of Gloucester. John of Gloucester was replaced by Robert of Beverley in 1260, and Robert of Beverley remained master mason until 1284. The elevations combine influences of the Lincoln nave elevations with French influences, and would in turn influence the elevations of the Angel Choir at Lincoln. Thick and tall quatrefoil bundle piers with eight shafts in the arcade, divided vertically by shaft rings, support relatively short pointed arches with multiple archivolts reaching the cornice of the clerestory, the familiar Early English motif. Thin responds emerge from the bundle piers, following the French model, and run all the way up to midclerestory level. There are sculpted faces on either side of the responds at the tops of the bundle piers. The gallery consists of what would become a familiar Decorated motif, a pair of pointed arches per bay with pairs of minor arches inscribed in each, the minor arches being trefoil cusped, with cinquefoils inscribed in circles above in the tympana, in the openwork bar tracery inspired by French cathedrals. The corbels at the tops of the responds and the single central pier in each bay supporting the minor arches are the only instances of dark stone, polished Purbeck, above the unpolished bundle piers below. The clerestory consists of two high lancet windows per bay with trefoil heads, and bar tracery above. The heads of the clerestory bays define the surface of the vault between the tierceron bays, constructed later, around 1270, by Robert of

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Beverley. The vault is on the model of the Lincoln nave and Ely presbytery, with tiercerons, transverse ribs, and the longitudinal ridge pole. The work on the nave was halted about that time, on the death of Henry III in 1272, after four bays, and was not taken up again until 1375, perhaps by Henry Yevele. Edward I felt no obligation to continue funding the construction of the abbey. A joint between the work of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries is visible after the fourth bay, in the clerestory level of the fifth bay. At Wells Cathedral, the chapter house undercroft and stairs were begun in 1255 and completed in 1290. The lower level of the undercroft, on the level of the site, features a vault of massive ribs supported by bundles of springers between the windows on the periphery, which sit strangely on tiny piers which rise from the floor, and a crude umbrella cluster of ribs in the center, supported by a round pier. The piers have plain circular moulded capitals. The vaulting combines the massive ribs of Peterborough presbytery aisle or Chester chapter house vestibule with the pointed arch vault of Hereford retrochoir or Lincoln Consistory Chapel. The upper chamber of the undercroft features a central pier which is octagonal and surrounded by sixteen shafts, with concave hollows in between. The vault, based on the vault of Lincoln chapter house, has a centralized conoid springer vault rising from the central pier, and a centralized octagonal ridge rib, which is offset from the octagonal plan of the undercroft, as its sides face the corners of the walls. The octagonal ridge rib is formed by eight ribs which spring from the central pier, which continue to the centers of the wall bays. Tiercerons are placed between the eight ribs in the center, resulting in sixteen ribs in all; the tiercerons are continued beyond the ridge rib, while the eight ribs forming the octagonal ridge rib are continued as radial ridge ribs towards the centers of the wall bays. The surface texture created by the tiercerons in the vault contributes to the development of English Gothic architecture in the early Decorated style, following Lincoln, with increased emphasis on the geometries and decreased emphasis on the structural articulation. The ribs no longer serve a structural function, and only serve a decorative one, which is derived from the excess structural articulation of the building. The ribs also serve an increased function as representative of an intelligible structure in the architecture, allowing the architecture to function as a catechism or edificium of the understood geometrical structure of matter, and of the structure of being, in the relation between the intelligible and sensible, between human intellect and nature and human intellect and divine intellect. The stairwell to the chapter house (Figure 49), which sits on top of the

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undercroft, is best known for the stairs, the surface of which has been worn down to gentle curves by centuries of monks walking up and down. The vestibule features bundles of polished Purbeck shafts supporting arches along the walls, and full-height Purbeck responds with foliate corbels supporting the springers of a quadripartite vault with a ridge pole and transverse ribs, in the Early English style as found at Lincoln or Salisbury. The arches contain simple Decorated foiled and cusped tracery. The emphasis in the vestibule is on the purity of the geometries, though the geometries, the structural articulation, and the use of vocabulary types are far in excess of anything required for the building. The architectural elements create a composition of texture and a play of light and materials which exalts the senses and the imagination, but which is in excess of any structural or functional requirement, as is typical of English Gothic architecture. The west front of Salisbury Cathedral (Figure 38) was completed in 1256. Like the west front of Wells Cathedral, it is a screen façade filled with sculptural figures. The dominant motif, used for the framing of the sculptural figures and lancet windows, is paired pointed arches set in a larger pointed arch, with quatrefoils set in circles in the tympana. Quatrefoils are also set in diamonds in decorative bands between the arcades; the tracery and decorative motifs mark the early Decorated style. Romanesque pier buttresses frame the central portals and windows, giving the façade a vertical emphasis, unlike Wells. On either side of the three large lancet windows in the central section, and of the windows of the sections outside the pier buttresses, segments of arches are inserted between the windows and the buttresses, creating a discontinuity between the vertical sections on either side of the pier buttresses. Horizontally, the façade does not read as a continuous whole, but rather as a series of fragments folded together, resulting in a disjunction between form and function which is typical of English Gothic architecture. The disjunction gives the façade a three-dimensional quality, as if the vertical sections between the buttresses were panels which disappear behind the buttresses on different planes. The Angel Choir of Lincoln Cathedral (Figure 20) was begun in 1256, the year that the Salisbury west front was completed, and the Angel Choir was completed by 1280, by Simon Thirsk, and possibly Richard of Stowe. The Angel Choir is also referred to as the retrochoir, chancel, or presbytery of the cathedral. It was built to house the shrine of Saint Hugh of Avalon, which was dedicated in 1280 in the presence of King Edward and Queen Eleanor, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Bishop Quivil of Exeter, whose

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examination of the architecture at Lincoln led to the subsequent architecture at Exeter Cathedral; the Angel Choir also contains the tomb of Remigius, the bishop of William the Conqueror who began the building of the Norman cathedral. The Angel Choir derives its name from the twenty-eight carved angels in the gallery spandrels, which were inspired by sculptures of censing angels in the corner spandrels of the transepts at Westminster Abbey. Construction of the Angel Choir at Lincoln began following the grant of a license by Henry III to remove part of the city wall, following the Roman wall, to the east of the cathedral, to allow for its extension. The architecture of the Angel Choir shows the influence of Westminster Abbey, and the presbytery of Ely Cathedral, which is considered to be the “missing link” in the development from the nave of Lincoln to the Angel Choir. Bar tracery appears in the Angel Choir about ten years after it first appeared at Westminster Abbey, and about ten years before it would appear again in the nave of Lichfield Cathedral and the cloisters of Salisbury Cathedral. The affinity with Ely presbytery can be seen mostly in the gallery and clerestory of the Angel Choir. Each bay of the gallery, with an open passage behind, is composed of two pairs of arches inscribed into two arches. The slightly pointed minor arches are supported by single polished Purbeck shafts in the center, and bundled Purbeck shafts on the sides, with gilded foliate capitals, and the arches have trefoil cusping, with openwork tympana with quatrefoils inscribed in circles. The major arches above have multiple archivolts with zigzag moulding, and there are foliate patterns in the spandrels at the top of the gallery. The tracery and decorative motifs differentiate the elevations of the Angel Choir from the elevations of the nave at Lincoln, with Ely and Westminster Abbey as precedents, and differentiate the Early Decorated period from the Early English style in its geometrical austerity. In the clerestory above the gallery in the Angel Choir, an openwork arcaded grille is set in front of the lancet windows, as in the east transept at Lincoln, or going back to Canterbury retrochoir aisles. There are four arches with trefoil cusping in each bay of the arcade supported by single Purbeck shafts, with openwork tympana above with foiled circles. The window heads of the clerestory bays define the shape of the vault above in between the clusters of tiercerons which rise from the responds between bays. The mullions and tracery of the openwork grille, like almost every detail of the Angel Choir, represent detailing far in excess of any structural or functional exigency. They represent the prosperity of the chapter of Lincoln at the time, and the desire for the architecture to express an idea outside of its structural

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and functional purpose. The openwork tracery screens are derived from the triforium of Westminster Abbey, and the tradition of openwork screens set inside the exterior wall in the Early English period, at Canterbury, Winchester, and the Lincoln east transepts. The triforium of Westminster Abbey shows the influence of glazed triforia in France in the French Court style, beginning at St. Denis in the 1230s. As the interior tracery in the Angel Choir blocked the view of the clerestory windows, it was considered problematic from an architectural design point of view, and was never copied. The arcading and bar tracery create an effect of transparency in a threedimensional composition of layers, a translucent double screen, characteristic of the Decorated style. The transparency reiterates the presence of the lux spiritualis, the spiritual light, in the material world. It corresponds to a phenomenal or noumenal transparency (both a product of the mind) which is an aspect of a higher form of intellection, the ability to understand spatial relationships, which is facilitated by the architecture, in the ascent of the soul or anima rationalis of the spectator, from the material level of intellect, virtus cogitativa or nous hylikos, to the creative level of intellect, virtus intellectiva or nous poietikos, which is enabled by the lux spiritualis in the illumination of the mind by divine intellect, intelligentia, as described by Robert Grosseteste. The transparency and layering of the clerestory in the Angel Choir recalls the earlier architecture of Geoffrey de Noyers in Lincoln Cathedral, the openwork arcading in the east transept, inspired by William the Englishman at Canterbury, the overlapping syncopated arcading in the choir aisles, if that was designed by Geoffrey, and the syncopated rhythm of the vault in Saint Hugh’s Choir, all of which entail the same conceptual transparency, the engagement on the part of the viewer with the architecture in the correspondence between the relations of architectural forms in space and constructed spatial relations in the imagination. The architecture of the east transept of Lincoln Cathedral (Figure 28), from a century earlier, represented a significant departure from precedent, and had a decisive influence on the development of the Decorated style. There is an open, two-storey room between the openwork arcading and the exterior wall, the purpose of which is not known. It is possible that a ceiling was intended between the gallery and clerestory levels. Each vertical plane, the exterior wall with just two tiers of tall lancet windows, and the elaborate openwork screen façade set inside it, can be taken as the north façade of the transept, the interior façade providing a clear view of the exterior façade behind it. The two facades seem to fit into the general program of the architec-

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ture at Lincoln Cathedral at the end of the twelfth century, attributed to Geoffrey de Noyers, working for Bishop Hugh of Avalon, of a series of experiments in vistas and visual experiences, and experimental spatial configurations, as in the asymmetrical vault and the syncopated arcading of the choir, but there is no indication that the coexistence of the two north facades in the transept had any functional purpose in terms of the organization of the space. Whatever the functional purpose might have been, the two facades enact a juxtaposition between an actual transparency and a phenomenal or conceptual transparency, between the spatial experience of the architecture and the conceptual experience of the architecture, which is an important element in the spatial experiments of the Decorated period. The phenomenal or conceptual transparency applied to the architecture suggests the juxtaposition in the reading of the architecture between the “surface structure,” the visual syntax, in the terms of contemporary linguistics, and the “deep structure,” the underlying matrix of relations that is necessary for any vocabulary to communicate an idea in a syntax. The transparency of the bar tracery in the clerestory can be seen as a “transformational relation,” an element in the syntax of the architecture which allows the spectator to pass from the surface structure to the deep structure of the architecture, and for an idea to be communicated. The surface structure of the syntax would correspond to the “signifier” in classical linguistics (or twentieth-century Saussurian linguistics), the word in a syntax or the syntax of a sentence, while the deep structure would correspond to the “signified,” the idea which is communicated by the word or the syntax. Architecture functions like a language, with a specific vocabulary and syntactical structure, to communicate ideas, and the language of the architecture at Lincoln Cathedral can be seen to be among the most poetic and creative in the history of architecture, expressing the ideas and values of its culture. At the bottom of the elevations of the Angel Choir, wide slightly pointed arches in each bay, with multiple archivolts, are supported by alternating Lincoln stone and polished Purbeck piers, all with polished Purbeck foliate capitals, and the spandrels of the arcade are decorated with relief trefoils. Short responds of thin bundled Purbeck shafts extend about equidistantly above and below the cornice line of the gallery, to corbels at the base of the gallery spandrels above, and to corbels about mid-spandrel in the arcade below. The corbel below is extended in an elaborate sculpted foliate decoration down to the base of the spandrel. Below one of them, in the northeast corner, can be found the sculpted Lincoln imp, the most popular attraction in the ca-

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thedral, the child of the devil, indicating a frivolity which is also the product of a prosperous era, along with the material richness of the architecture. The responds support clusters of five tierceron springers per bay (the bays of the vault alternate with the bays of the elevation, as in the nave). The vault has a ridge pole, but no transverse ribs or liernes; it is thus a simplified version of the nave vault, and the simplest vault in the cathedral, putting an end to the elaborate experiments in vaulting at Lincoln. It is a retroversion to the Early English style vault. The tierceron clusters form “palm frond” shapes, as Pevsner would describe them. The ridge pole is lined with crockets, like the shafts in Saint Hugh’s Choir, and the severies are filled with blue lias stone, a fossiliferous limestone from the Jurassic system. The bosses in the vault are considered to be the best of the period. Foliate carvings in the bosses display realistically the leaves of the local countryside, including oak, vine, maple, and water lily. Perhaps the naturalism is the product of the growth of natural or scientific philosophy connected with Robert Grosseteste at Oxford prior to his bishopric at Lincoln, and the scientific and empirical methods that he pioneered and were developed by the Franciscan School at Oxford, including Roger Bacon. The naturalism is also associated with the development of Gothic sculpture in France, in particular that of Joseph Master. Figural bosses in the Angel Choir also display a high degree of naturalism and realism. Figural groups in the bosses illustrate the Coronation of the Virgin, the Tree of Jesse, King David playing the psaltery and composing the psalms, and a variety of pairs of figures set against each other in antagonistic relations: wrestlers representing good and evil, an argument between a prophet and an apostle, a man battling a monster, two interlaced winged monsters, etc. The fifty-nine foot high, twenty-nine foot wide, eight light east window in the Lincoln Angel Choir, from around 1275, displays bar tracery inspired by Westminster Abbey and Reims Cathedral in France. The bar tracery consists of an intersecting ribwork of slender shafts which continue the lines of the mullions of the window into a decorative mesh in the window head. The eight lights at the bottom of the window (this is the earliest preserved eight light window) culminate in pointed arches, and are paired off, each pair surmounted by another pointed arch, which are again paired off and surmounted by two large pointed arches at the top. Quatrefoils inscribed in circles are inserted into the four minor tympana, and sexfoils inscribed in circles are inscribed into the two major tympana, all in openwork bar tracery. In the major tympanum at the top a circle encloses six circles inscribed with quatrefoils,

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all encircling a center circle inscribed with a sexfoil. Foiled circles were placed in tympana in the nave of Amiens Cathedral in the 1230s, and in the chapter house of Westminster Abbey around 1250. The glass between the bar tracery at Lincoln is stained glass, and crockets run up the jambs between the shafts, adding to the decorative effect. The number groupings are consistently two, four, six and eight, producing sixteen and twenty-four in groupings, combining the numbers symbolic of time in classical cultures, and numbers symbolic of the ideal proportions of nature. The tracery composition of the east window in the Angel Choir was the first to fill the full height and width of a cathedral façade. The inventive tracery design at Lincoln, along with that at Exeter, Canterbury, and Westminster Abbey, was the most ambitious in Europe at the end of the thirteenth century. Unlike French tracery design, though, there was no attempt in England to integrate the tracery into the structural logic of the building, continuing the tradition in England, beginning in the Early English period, of contradicting the structural logic of the building overall. Nor did the tracery in English buildings challenge the solidity of the thick walls of the buildings as it did in France. Just after the Angel Choir at Lincoln was begun, and while the remaining bays in the nave of Westminster Abbey were being completed, the nave elevations at Lichfield Cathedral were begun in 1258, by William FitzThomas, for Bishop Longespree (Roger de Meyland, 1257–96). The elevations show the influence of Lincoln and Westminster Abbey. Each bay of the arcade features high pointed arches, more condensed than at Lincoln, with multiple archivolts, reaching the cornice of the gallery. Relief tracery with cinquefoils set in circles fill the spandrels, and are intersected by thin insignificant responds running all the way up the elevation. The gallery features the same motif as in the Angel Choir at Lincoln, pairs of pointed arches with zigzag moulding in each bay, each with a pair of sub-arches below, with trefoil cusping and quatrefoils set in circles in openwork tracery in the tympana. The clerestory, completed later in the seventeenth century, features the motif of spherical-triangular windows with trefoil cusped circles of bar tracery from Westminster Abbey, and the similar motif in the north transept of Hereford Cathedral. The clerestory windows at Lichfield are unusually tall. The high clerestory windows and the metallic quality of the material at Lichfield is perhaps intended to suggest a shrine like Sainte Chapelle in Paris, but very little light enters into the cathedral. By 1259 the Westminster Abbey transepts were complete, and by 1260

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the transepts and choir vault of Beverley Minster were complete. The east end of the nave of Beverley (Figure 50) was constructed in the next decade. The choir vault is a simple quadripartite vault with slightly pointed transverse ribs, restored and painted later by Sir George Gilbert Scott (1866–78). The triforium of the nave presents a variation of the syncopated arcading found in the transepts and choir, based on the Lincoln motifs, but without the polychromatic effect created by the use of polished Purbeck shafts. All of the walls and shafts are of the same Tadcaster limestone. Purbeck shafts do appear in the clerestory, below the 100 foot high vault which was completed by the 1390s, restored by Nicholas Hawksmoor between 1717 and 1731, and restored and painted by Sir George Gilbert Scott in the nineteenth century. The chapter house of Salisbury Cathedral was constructed between 1263 and 1279. It is set off the east cloister walk to the south of the cathedral, and now houses an original Magna Carta. It is entered through a vestibule with sexfoiled circular windows in the arcade. It is octagonal, fifty-eight feet across, with a central umbrella column blooming into a vault on the model of Lincoln chapter house, but much closer to the chapter house of Westminster Abbey, with the elaborate high geometrical traceried windows turning the vault into a canopy floating above. The central column is circular, with eight thin detached Purbeck shafts, with stiff-leaf capitals, and stiff-leaf and animal carvings at the base. The column is thin enough to not interfere with the spaciousness of the light-filled room. Sixteen ribs bloom into the vault. The eight ribs at the centers of the bays in the octagon meet with pairs of tiercerons above the window heads, thus forming triradial ribs, as in the vault above Saint Hugh’s Choir in Lincoln Cathedral, though here there is no asymmetrical syncopation resulting. The intersections of the triradial ribs are covered by gilded foliate bosses. There is no centralized ridge pole as at Lincoln or Westminster Abbey chapter houses, but the joints between the different brickwork patterns between the inner and outer bays are covered with painted decorations which look Victorian. The sixteen ribs which spring from the central column form a cone, as in a conoid springer vault, supporting the roof. The cone can be seen as a cone of light, as described by Robert Grosseteste in the treatise De Luce, which is formed by rays of light which enter into the physical world as the lumen spiritualis, the reflected and refracted light of the immaterial lux spiritualis. The emanation of light in geometrical solids explains for Grosseteste the formation of bodies in nature. The bending of the ribs in the vault, and the branching off of the ribs in triradial groups, corresponds to the rarefaction of

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light in the formation of matter. The geometries are organized in mathematical terms (the sixteen ribs corresponding to the Golden Ratio, the triradial ribs corresponding to the Trinity), as the formation of matter has a mathematical as well as geometrical basis. The central column can be seen as the axis mundi, the axis around which the circle of the world soul revolves, from Anaximander and the Timaeus of Plato, generating natural form, in its perfection in revolution. The bar tracery of the windows represents a further rarefaction of the rays of light represented by the ribs, in curvilinear and orthogonal geometries, curved and straight lines combined, as described by Grosseteste in his De Lineis. The furthest rarefaction occurs through the tracery of the windows and then the patterns in the stained glass, increasingly dematerialized to coincide with the light entering through the windows, the lumen spiritualis which illuminates the chapter house. The architecture is a catechism of a circuitus spiritualis, an infinite cycle of light and matter which defines the natural world, and the relation between the intelligible and sensible, spirit and matter, in the fountain of being. Each window bay in the chapter house features the familiar motif of pairs of arched lancets each with a pair of inscribed arched lancets, with quatrefoils inscribed in circles in the minor tympana and octofoils inscribed in circles in the major tympana, inspired by the chapter house at Westminster Abbey. The lights are filled with stained glass, with patterns echoing the patterns of the bar tracery. Between the windows, which fill the bays, are wide bundles of thin Purbeck shafts supporting the tierceron ribs of the vault, the ribs which form the window heads in each bay, and even the outer mullions of the major and minor lancets in each window. The shafts have rich stiffleaf capitals, with heads, birds, and animals mixed in. A carved frieze below features Biblical scenes from Genesis and Exodus, such as the Creation of the Earth, Temptation in the Garden of Eden, Noah and the Ark, the Tower of Babel, and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. The carvings were restored in the 1850s. Work on the cloister of Salisbury Cathedral (Figure 43), though begun in the Early English period, by Bishop de la Wyle, around 1270, continued until the end of the thirteenth century. The cloister, though unnecessary for a secular cathedral, was based on the original cloister of Wells Cathedral, and the design is derived from the cloister of Westminster Abbey. The desire to add a cloister to a secular cathedral shows the influence of Westminster Abbey, and five other secular cathedrals also added cloisters: Old St. Paul’s, Hereford, Chichester, Lincoln, and Wells. The cloister at Salisbury is the

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largest cloister in England. Bar tracery, with encircled quatrefoils, and cinquefoils and sexfoils, was inspired by Westminster Abbey. The blind arcades along the walls mirror the bar tracery openings across from them. Bosses in the vault feature stiff-leaf, naturalistic foliage, along with some sculpted human figures and heads, typical of the early Decorated style at the end of the thirteenth century. The vaulting of the nave of Lichfield Cathedral was begun in 1265, followed by the vaulting of Salisbury nave in 1266, and Westminster Abbey nave in 1269. The vault at Lichfield was complete by 1293. It was designed by William FitzThomas (William the Mason, son of Thomas the Mason), perhaps with Thomas Wallace, for Bishop Longespree, and was heavily restored by James Wyatt (1746–1813), and Sir George Gilbert Scott (1856– 1908). The vault is only fifty-seven feet high, and is built out of wood and plaster. The design is a copy of the Lincoln nave vault, with six tiercerons per bay, short transverse ridge ribs or liernes, and the ridge pole. The tiercerons spring only a few feet from corbels at the top of the gallery, creating a shallow vault and short clerestory level. The dark color of the stone clerestory arches and timber vaulting ribs contrasts with the white severies between the ribs. The nave vault at Salisbury Cathedral is a quadripartite vault with transverse ribs, so there are three ribs per bay meeting at an imaginary ridge line. The vault is only eighty-four feet high. The arc of the ribs is much higher than at Lichfield; the ribs (or tiercerons) run down to the bottom of a high clerestory level which is set on the short gallery. The contrast between the dark Purbeck shafts and the grey Chilmark stone in the openwork arcading of the gallery and clerestory at Salisbury is continued in the vault. The simplicity of the ribs in the vault contrasts with the membrification of the architectural elements in the elevations. As a catechism of a hierarchy of being, the light of the clerestory windows corresponds to the lux spiritualis of the divine; the simple geometries of the vault correspond to the geometrical and mathematical patterns in the human mind which organize and explain the design of the universe, and the complex and interwoven geometries of the elevation correspond to the natural world in its multiplicity and variation, but containing within it the geometrical and mathematical patterns as understood by the mind. The vault of the nave of Westminster Abbey is a tierceron vault based on the Lincoln nave vault, with five tiercerons per bay running between corbels halfway up the high clerestory and the ridge pole, and shorter tiercerons connecting to the transverse segmental tiercerons or liernes which divide the

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vault bays at the centerpoint of the elevation bays, continuing the alternation as at Lincoln. The joints of the vault ribs are covered by large gilded heraldic bosses. Slivers of responds run from the corbels down to the top of the bundle piers in the arcade, as in France. The Lady Chapel of Chester Cathedral was vaulted around 1270. It is in the Early English style, derived from Lincoln nave, with tiercerons, the short segmental transverse ribs or liernes, and the ridge pole. The joints of the ribs are covered with large decorative bosses, with the Trinity, Virgin and Child, and the murder of Thomas Becket. The bosses and ribs were painted in a 1969 reconstruction. The east window in the Lincoln Angel Choir dates from 1275. It features the familiar pair of arched lancets, each inscribed with a pair of arched lancets, each of the minor lancets divided into two vertical panels, thus there are eight tall thin lancets, filled with colored stained glass, which dates from 1855. The four pairs of thin lancets are each surmounted by quatrefoils in circles, the minor arches by sexfoils in circles, and the major arches by a sexfoiled circle, each foil with a quatrefoil inscribed, and a small sexfoil in the center. The circles in the foils contain stories about Christ from the New Testament, while the lancets contain scenes from the Old Testament. The composition is the most elaborate example of the French-inspired bar tracery in an English Gothic stained glass window. The chapter house of York Minster was begun in 1275 and completed in 1290. It is the most unusual product of the Early Decorated period. In the arcade below (Figure 51), two tiers of polished Purbeck shafts, with elaborate foliate capitals, support an overhanging canopy. The arches of the overhanging canopy are pointed with trefoil cusping. There are two arches per bay between the Purbeck shafts, and the arches meet at the center at a foliate corbel which is hanging in midair, perhaps the first “pendant” in English Gothic architecture. The arches are not on a level vertical plane, but rather angled out between the shafts, and above them rise high pointed triangular gables, which are likewise not on a level vertical plane, but rather angle in and out, as well as titling backwards as they go up, creating an undulating effect, suggesting the coming of the Curvilinear style in the late Decorated period. On top of the gables sit elaborate sculpted foliate “burning bushes,” and above the pendant foliate corbels below are a variety of sculpted faces. The arcade represents the first baroque example of English Gothic architecture, comprised of forms which are not only extreme developments of precedents, but also appear to be radical departures from them, introducing aesthetic elements that did not exist before. The overlapping and undulation can be

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seen to be developments from the syncopated arcading at Lincoln, Beverley or Worcester. The pendant corbels can be seen to be the logical consequence of the disappearance of the responds in the elevations as they developed in the Early English and Early Decorated periods. The elaborate foliate sculpture can be seen to be an exaggeration of prototypes in the elevations of Lincoln and Salisbury, for example. Above the bizarre arcade in the York chapter house are prominent bar tracery stained glass windows, though not large enough so that the vault achieves the canopy effect as at Westminster Abbey or Salisbury Cathedral. The windows display the familiar motifs of Decorated bar tracery following Westminster Abbey: paired arched lancets with minor pairs of lancets and trefoiled arches inscribed, with cinquefoils inscribed in circles above, and above the paired lancets, three circles with nine foils inscribed in each. A deviation occurs though, as would be expected: the paired arches are pulled apart, and a fifth lancet is inserted at the center. The two main mullions then formed in the center continue upward into the foiled circles above, and appear to be continuations of the circumference of the circle at the top of the major tympanum under the vault. As in the arcade, the architect has willfully deviated from the accepted canon of forms in great church architecture, and created something strikingly original, perhaps following the inspiration of Geoffrey de Noyers at Lincoln. The harmony of previous tracery compositions such as in the chapter houses of Westminster Abbey and Salisbury Cathedral has been broken, and the license associated with the Decorated style is announced, as a product of a period of unrest. Such willful deviation from accepted canons is something normally associated with the cult of the artistic personality which is associated with the Renaissance, beginning with figures such as Giotto and culminating with figures such as Michelangelo and the phenomenon of the Baroque. The work in the York chapter house is indeed contemporary with Giotto in Italy, and the gap between English Gothic and Italian Renaissance is not as wide as it is perceived, due to the polemic of art historians beginning with Giorgio Vasari. The vault (Figure 52) above the bar tracery windows in the chapter house at York is a centralized tierceron vault, with bundles of tiercerons springing from between the windows towards a circumferential ridge pole. Lierne ribs which extend from the points at the tops of the window heads to the ridge pole function like the segmental transverse ribs in the Lincoln nave-type tierceron vault. From the intersections along the ridge pole, covered by large

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gilded bosses, sixteen ribs converge at a large gilded boss at the center of the vault. Just like the Purbeck shafts are missing from underneath the corbels of the arcade, so a central umbrella column is missing from the center of the chapter house underneath the vault. York and Southwell chapter houses are the only polygonal chapter houses in England without a central column. In all parts of the York chapter house, the architect has created original forms by manipulating vocabulary precedents in surprising ways. The octagonal vault is fifty-eight feet in diameter, and is constructed of wood imitating stone. It is the oldest wood vault in the minster. It was restored in 1845, with added painted decoration. Exeter Cathedral (Cathedral Church of St. Peter, Devon) was built among Roman ruins. The cathedral began as a Benedictine monastery in the seventh century, dedicated to St. Mary and St. Peter. Leofric became the Bishop in 1050 under Edward the Confessor. The cathedral was begun around 1112, after William Warelwast (d. 1137), the nephew of William the Conqueror, became Bishop. The eastern arm was consecrated in 1133, the nave finished around 1160. The chapter house and cloisters were built around 1225. The retrochoir and Lady Chapel of Exeter Cathedral were begun in 1275, and not completed until 1328. The Gothic building was begun around 1275, after the Norman eastern arm was demolished, by Bishop Bronescombe (1258–80). The Bishop had attended the consecration of Salisbury Cathedral in 1258. The Lady Chapel was completed by Bishop Quivil (1280–91), who is buried in it, in 1291, and work on the retrochoir continued under Bishop Quivil and Bishop Britton (1292–1307). The rebuilding of the cathedral continued under Bishop Stapledon (1307–26), and was interrupted by the Black Death of 1348. After that the nave and west front were completed by 1369, under Bishop Grandisson (1327–69), and the cloisters were rebuilt beginning in 1377. The building of the cathedral combines an ivory-colored stone from Devon, cream Beer stone, the polished stone from the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset, local red sandstone, and Portland stone. The vault of the Lady Chapel is a centralized quadripartite vault with latitudinal (or transverse) and longitudinal ridge poles, with an extra pair of tiercerons subdividing each quadrant bay and meeting at the ridge poles. The joints of the ribs are covered by large gilded bosses, and the severies are painted as a starry blue sky. The vault shows the influence of Lincoln; Bishop Quivil was present at Lincoln Cathedral in 1280 for the consecration of the Angel Choir, and was probably familiar with the vaulting in the first

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nave bays at Westminster Abbey, incorporating the ridge rib and tierceron. The elevations of the Lady Chapel include blind arcades with pointed trefoil heads, in the familiar Early English style, with trefoils in the spandrels, and cusping in the arches. Tracery in the Lady Chapel, initiated before 1280, displays a variety of vocabulary elements, including intersecting mullions, cusping, spherical triangles (similar to Westminster Abbey gallery, Hereford north transept, Lichfield nave), trefoils and quatrefoils both encircled and unencircled, and encircled sexfoils. The elevations of the retrochoir (or presbytery) of Exeter, begun in 1288, are a quintessential example of the early Decorated style, and an interesting development of the Early English style. The arcade consists of the familiar massive pointed arches touching the cornice of the triforium, with deep mouldings in multiple archivolts, set on massive quatrefoil or lozengeshaped bundle piers, with sixteen shafts each, displaying the excess membrification, in terms of the repetition of the forms and the size of the forms themselves, that can be found throughout the cathedral. The triforium consists of an arcade of four trilobed arches per bay set on thin bundled shafts, and set in front of a wall, as at Lincoln or Ely, but with no blind arcade on the wall. Above the triforium is a decorative frieze of punched quatrefoils set in diamonds, as on the façade of Salisbury Cathedral. The tall lancet windows of the clerestory, glazed in 1301, are set behind the plane of the frieze, while the springer ribs of the vault rise from the plane of the frieze, so that the conoid springers of the vault combine with the responds in the elevation to form a structural ensemble set inside the outer wall, as in the retrochoir aisle of William the Englishman at Canterbury. The responds can hardly be taken for structure, though, as they are bundles of very thin shafts rising from the base of the spandrels in the arcade (with elaborate foliate corbels below) to just above the decorative frieze. The foliate corbels look almost like pendants, they are so large. The elevations in the Exeter retrochoir give the appearance of a sequence of overlapping, disjointed planes, not unlike the Salisbury façade, with a series of interwoven structural systems, none of which do any actual structural work. One explanation might be that the elevations originally only had two levels or tiers, as at Southwell Minster. A similar effect can be found in Italian Renaissance architecture, in the elevations of the Church of Sant’Andrea in Mantua, by Leon Battista Alberti, from around 1470, or in the elevations of the nave of St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome, by Carlo Maderno, from around 1600. In these elevations, structural systems are interwoven in over-

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lapping planes, with the rhythmisce travée, the paired columns per bay, and the tabularium motif, the alternation of columns and arches, to create a conceptual architectural system which does no structural work (the vaults are supported by Gothic buttresses hidden behind the bays). The tall and deep-set clerestory windows in the Exeter retrochoir elevation, with stained glass lancets and bar tracery in the Decorated style, create pronounced indentations in the tierceron vault, and become easily lost, despite their size, in the forest of large tierceron conoid springer vaults which rise between them from the responds on the plane of the decorative frieze and triforium arcade. Two pairs of tiercerons in each bay of the vault (Figure 53) reach the transverse ridge ribs, which extend across the vault, unlike Lincoln nave; the rest of the tiercerons reach the ridge pole, as at Lincoln. The thick ribs of the vault are currently painted, and set against exposed brick severies, and the joints are covered by large gilded foliate bosses. The tiercerons of the vault create the “palm frond” effect as described by Pevsner. They are much more elaborate than the tierceron vaults of Lincoln nave or Ely choir, and they are so profuse that they suggest the fan vault, in the proximity of the ribs and the merging of the bays of the vault. The vaulting in the retrochoir aisle, executed by Roger of Exeter (1297– 1310) for Bishop Quivil and Bishop Britton, completed by 1302, presents a strange variation of the vaulting in the retrochoir. The ribs are thicker, stone ribs set against brick severies, with large carved stone foliate bosses. Conoid tierceron springer vaults rise in bays towards a ridge pole on either side, but they are offset, so the transverse segmental ribs or liernes between the springer bays meet at the center of the springer bays on the other side of the ridge pole. The segmental liernes appear as if they are continuations of the central tierceron on the other side, and if the lierne were taken away the cluster of ribs on the ridge pole would be triradial. Clearly the logic behind the vault is similar to that behind the vault of Saint Hugh’s Choir at Lincoln Cathedral, in its offset, disconcerting, syncopated, asymmetrical composition. The structural logic behind the vaulting of the Exeter retrochoir aisle appears to be even more difficult to decipher. The design of Exeter Cathedral is consistent from its conception in around 1275 to its completion one hundred years later. The design can be seen as the apotheosis of the early Decorated style of the second half of the thirteenth century, as found in particular in the Angel Choir at Lincoln, and the east end of Westminster Abbey, the two main sources of the design at Exeter. It is possible that the masons at Exeter had worked in Lincoln and

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London. The architecture of Exeter Cathedral takes the emphasis on surface pattern at Lincoln to the extreme. No new style or vocabulary elements are invented at Exeter, no liernes or Curvilinear tracery; the existing style is just pushed to its limits, with more tiercerons in the vaults (eleven per bay, as opposed to seven at Lincoln), and more shafts on the piers, more membrification, and more overt naturalism in the abstract geometrical architectural forms, closing the gap between geometry and nature, as the identity between geometry and natural forms is a dominant leitmotif of English Gothic architecture. The excessive membrification follows the principles of Scholasticism, for the purpose of organizing and clarifying knowledge. The increased membrification of the piers and arch mouldings in the elevations at Exeter was necessary to complement the heaviness of the vault with its proliferation of tiercerons, and the diminished vault surface; otherwise the vault would have been too top-heavy. The insignificant triforium, just a screen in the presbytery, and later in the nave, plays no structural role; it was inserted, as an afterthought during the course of construction, to alleviate the extensive membrification of the piers and arcades below and the ribs of the vaults above, which form a continuous structural system, visually, with no participation from the triforium. The triforium provides a visual break, separating the vault from the arcade; the subtlety of its detailing contrasts with the heavy members of vault and arcade. The elevation of the choir of Chester Cathedral (Figure 54) dates from 1280 to 1290. Designed by Richard L’Enginour (1272–1314), it appears to be a simplified version of the retrochoir elevation of Exeter Cathedral, executed in the dark red sandstone of Chester. The pointed arches in the arcade, with massive moulded archivolts, do not quite reach the cornice of the triforium. As at Exeter, four trilobe arches per bay (here looking more Romanesque than Gothic, with small round arches sitting on oversized piers) form an arcade that sits in front of a back wall, in this case forming a wall passage (thus creating a gallery). Above the gallery there is a hint of the continuous decorative frieze of quatrefoils in diamonds above the triforium of Exeter retrochoir. At Chester, the frieze is centered in each bay in front of the clerestory window, as at Exeter, and consists of a single row of quatrefoils. Responds run up the center of thick stone piers set between the clerestory windows; the responds begin at the base of the spandrels of the arcade, and support the tiercerons of a simple quadripartite vault with transverse ribs and a ridge pole, in the Early English style. The current vault is a reconstruction by John Richard Clayton (1827–1913) of Clayton and Bell, executed be-

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tween 1875 and 1880, with an angelic orchestra painted on the severies. The chapter house at Southwell Minster dates from the end of the Early Decorated period, around 1290. The arcade (Figure 55), executed under Archbishop John de la Romaine, consists of thirty-six stalls, five per side of the octagonal plan, minus four, with shafts with foliate capitals supporting narrow trefoil arches which are surmounted by crocketed triangular gables, with their tips at a cornice line. The crockets recall the “burning bushes” of the York chapter house. Interspersed in the blind arcade are a variety of foliate sculptures, including leaves and foliage (the “leaves of Southwell” celebrated by Nikolaus Pevsner), animals, beasts, and faces of the pagan Green Men, with leaves growing out of them. The leaves, realistically represented, include maple, oak, hawthorn, ranunculus, potentilla, vine, and ivy. Though realistically represented, the leaves are not imitated precisely, as concessions are given to the quality of the stone being carved, so that the leaves are somewhat manneristic, and express a synthesis of nature and the human mind, in a representation of the leaves as filtered through an aesthetic perception of them. The carvings were never painted. The stone is a finegrained magnesian limestone quarried near Mansfield, fifteen miles away. As Pevsner put it poetically in the Leaves of Southwell, “the balance of Southwell” is “something deeper too than a balance of nature and style or of the imitative and the decorative” (quoted in Pevsner and Metcalf, 309), mimesis and abstraction. It is “perhaps also a balance of God and the world, the invisible and the visible,” spirit and matter, intelligible and sensible, lux spiritualis and lumen spiritualis, the same balance represented in the geometries of the architecture. The carved leaves can be experienced on a variety of levels: visually, haptically, sensually, emotionally, and intellectually. “The inexhaustible delight in live form that can be touched with worshipping fingers and felt with all senses is ennobled…by the conviction that so much beauty can exist only because God is in every man and beast, in every herb and stone.” Beauty exists in the world because it is perceived as such by the human mind, insofar as the human mind understands the world in relation to divine intellect or design; the presence of the divine in nature reinforces the presence of the divine in the human mind, and the recognition of such reinforces the place of the human being in the world, in nature. The human mind is a microcosm of the ordering of the cosmos, and the perception of beauty in nature, as reproduced in the carvings, is a reaffirmation of the relation between the human mind and the ordering of the cosmos. The mannerist affectation of the carvings reinforces that relation.

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The carved leaves in the chapter house of Southwell at the end of the thirteenth century are predecessors of the forms of Humanism in the Renaissance. The underlying concepts of Renaissance Humanism, that “man is the measure of all things,” that the human mind is a microcosm of the ordering of the cosmos, that the universe can be understood through human reason, in mathematics and geometry, that the proportions of the human body reveal the intelligible or archetypal proportions of nature, can be found in the writings of Robert Grosseteste at Oxford and Lincoln in the early thirteenth century, and in the architecture and sculpture of the English Decorated period in the thirteenth century. The premise of an inherent relationship between the laws of human reason and the laws of the intelligence of the natural world already contains within it the possibility of a mannerist turn, as exhibited in both thirteenth-century England and sixteenth-century Italy. A “mannerism” was already present in the Early English period, especially in the experiments attributed to Geoffrey de Noyers at Lincoln; in fact Early English Gothic architecture can be defined as a mannerist variation of French and Norman precedents, beginning with the experiments of William the Englishman at Canterbury. The Early English and Decorated styles each contain within them both mannerist experiments and the conceptual basis of a proto-humanist ideal simultaneously; the two elements are separated and developed in distinction from one another in later periods. The very initiating act of Gothic architecture, the placing of the rib on the surface of the vault, can be seen as both mannerist, in its willful deviation form a precedent of structural logic, and as humanist, in its desire to allow the architecture to express the human condition, the relation between the human mind and nature, and between the human mind and the divine intelligence. The humanist ideal behind the generation of the architectural forms contains from the beginning the necessity of a mannerist development. The terms “mannerist Gothic” and “baroque Gothic” used by historians are redundant, as the Gothic should be seen as containing both mannerist and baroque forms of expression. Mannerism entails purposeful idiosyncrasies on the part of designers, for the purpose of experimentation, technical development, nationalistic expression, or the creation of a catechism or edificium of ideas related to philosophy or theology, and it also entails, concomitantly, a linguistic basis, a manipulation of the vocabulary elements of architectural composition, a linguistic play between the forms of the architecture and their functions. The tierceron ribs in the vault of the nave at Lincoln, for example,

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reveal the non-structural function of the structural form of the vault. The ribs are placed on responds which cannot possibly support them, and they are placed on the vault in a way that they could not serve any structural function. The vault is not the structural or functional roof of the cathedral to begin with, and the non-structural use of the ribs gives the game away, in a selfreferential game being played by the designers of the vault. The mannerist game in architecture depends on an understanding of the architectural forms as tropes in language. Mannerist architecture, in that it depends on tropic language, in excess of its structure or function, is poetic architecture. In the vaulting at Lincoln, the vaulting is a metaphor for the vaulting of the cosmos, with the cathedral as the body of the cosmos; the tierceron ribs are a metonym for the paths of the planets as they define the celestial map, or a metonym for the skeleton of the body, as a symbol of the cosmos; the severies are a metonym for the skin of a body. The lierne ribs in the vault are synecdoches for structural ribs, a piece standing in for a whole. The tiercerons express irony in that they are structural forms that play no structural role. The entire vault expresses irony, as it is not the structural or functional roof of the cathedral. Metaphor, metonym, synecdoche, and irony are the four principal figures of speech or tropes used in figural or poetic language, according to Aristotle in the Rhetoric, the main source for linguistic rules in classical philosophy, and a book which dominated the mannerist courts of sixteenth-century Italy. The rules of tropic language, in the relation between the signifier and the signified, and syntactical arrangements, underlie the mannerist rhetoric of English Gothic architecture, as they do any poetic architecture, or any form of poetic or creative expression. The tropic function of the vaulting, for example, links the structure of the cosmos to the structure of the human body, suggesting the human being as a microcosm of the cosmos, in both body and mind, the basic underlying humanistic idea of the architecture. The expression of the humanist idea requires the trope, thus the humanist architecture is always already mannerist architecture. The vault above the Southwell chapter house (Figure 56) is a “lierne star” vault, a centralized quadripartite vault with latitudinal and longitudinal ridge poles dividing the bays, as in the Exeter Lady Chapel, with two pairs of liernes connecting to each of the eight sections of ridge poles, with extra transverse tiercerons wedged between the ridge poles and running across the vault, creating sixteen ribs in all converging on the center, as at York chapter house, with the additional sixteen liernes connecting to the eight main trans-

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verse ribs. The number sixteen, at York and Southwell, refers to the Golden Ratio, in its humanist expression, in the combination of six and ten, considered the two perfect numbers in the classical world, from the ratio 1.6 to 1. The non-structural ribs are mannerist, vocabulary elements in a selfreferential linguistic game. They are vocabulary elements in a catechism of the physical laws of the universe. The stone ribs at Southwell are set against brick severies, and the joints are covered by foliate stone bosses. The vault of the Southwell chapter house appears to be the earliest lierne vault in English Gothic architecture, and it leads the way to the fully developed Decorated, or Curvilinear, period, from 1290 to 1380, a time of even increased prosperity. The vault was completed in around 1300. It has no central pier; the chapter house is only thirty-one feet across, much smaller than Salisbury or Westminster, so there is no need for central support. The cloisters of Lincoln Cathedral date from the last decade of the thirteenth century, 1290 or later. They were not added until then because they are unnecessary for a secular cathedral. The vault is a wood version of the tierceron vault associated with Lincoln Cathedral, with a ridge pole and three pairs of thick tiercerons in each bay. There are carved bosses over the joints along the ridge pole, and the severies are composed of wood planks. The tiercerons rise from a blank wall on the outside of the arcade, and from stone traceried arcades on the inside, supported by small piers with foliate capitals. There are two pairs of lancets at the bottom of each bay, with cusped trefoil heads, surmounted by quatrefoils under pointed arches, and in the large tympanum above there is an unusual encircled tracery pattern with trefoils, suggesting that a change is underway toward the Curvilinear style. There are pier buttresses between the bays on the inside arcade facing the courtyard. To the north side of the cloister is a library built according to a design by Christopher Wren in the Renaissance.

7 Curvilinear

The Curvilinear refers to the major part of the Decorated period, from 1290 to 1380, following the Early Decorated or Geometric period, before giving way to the Perpendicular period. Vaulting and tracery can generally be described as becoming more “curvilinear,” with the development of the lierne vault, vaulting composed of short sections of ribs which transform the vault from the appearance of a structural system to a surface pattern, and the ogee curve, the double curve in the arch. The Curvilinear period involves the development of the Perpendicular style, which begins in 1380 according to Thomas Rickman’s categories in An Attempt to Discriminate the Styles of Architecture in England, from around 1815 (the Decorated style reaches “to the end of the reign of Edward III, in 1377, and from perhaps ten to fifteen years longer”), but can be seen to have begun much earlier, as evidenced for example by John Harvey’s The Perpendicular Style 1330–1485. The periods are only defined as historical classifications for the purpose of explanation and expediency; they are not actual historical periods. Christopher Wilson, in The Gothic Cathedral: The Architecture of the Great Church 1130–1530, dates the beginning of the dominance of the Perpendicular style to 1360, following the completion of the choir at Gloucester Cathedral. He speculates that a change in approach, to a more restrained and uniform aesthetic, may have been inspired by the trauma of the Black Death of 1348, and that the design of the chapter house and cloister of Old St. Paul’s Cathedral in London by William Ramsey, destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666, provided a starting point for the tracery of the London Court style, what would be called the Perpendicular. Wilson’s dating follows that of Edmund Sharpe, who in the Seven Periods of English Architecture in 1851, substituted the title Rectilinear for Perpendicular, because of the preponderance of horizontal as well as vertical lines in the tracery, and dated the style 1360–1550, preceded by the Curvilinear style from 1315 to 1360. Paul Frankl argues in Gothic Architecture

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that the Curvilinear and Perpendicular should be seen as initiating simultaneously in 1292, with the design of St. Stephen’s Chapel in Westminster Palace, though the style labeled as Perpendicular would not be seen again for another forty years, in the south transept of Gloucester Cathedral, perhaps because the construction of St. Stephen’s Chapel lasted until then, until 1331, when construction of the Gloucester south transept began, showing the influence of the chapel in London, and then the remodeling of the chapter house of Old St. Paul’s Cathedral began the following year. The last decade of the thirteenth century saw work begun on the nave elevations of York Minster, the transept of St. Mary Redcliffe in Bristol, and the chapter house at Wells Cathedral. The vault of the St. Mary Undercroft of St. Stephen’s Chapel in Westminster Palace, begun in 1292, established an influential precedent for the development of lierne vaulting. The vault was designed by Michael of Canterbury, or by his son Thomas of Canterbury, and may not have been completed until 1319. Liernes were added to a Lincoln-style tierceron vault, with longitudinal and transverse ridge ribs, forming a series of lierne lozenges along the ridge pole. Seven thick tiercerons in each bay spring from conoid vaults on low bundle columns in between painted and sculpted window motifs on the wall. The tiercerons include a transverse axial arched rib and three arched diagonal ribs on each side. The outside tiercerons meet the transverse ridge rib between the bays of the vault. The liernes along the ridge pole prevent the transverse tiercerons from reaching the ridge pole. The lierne lozenges or diamonds along the ridge pole have a visual effect of playing a structural role, spreading the tensile pressure on the ridge pole to the edges of the vault. As in the vaults at Lincoln, the addition of the liernes to the vault of St. Mary Undercroft was probably in part the result of a practical exigency; the vault was bordered by three windows and a tripartite screen to the east and west, thus the vault was divided into three parts latitudinally by the liernes. The lierne would be a defining vocabulary element of the Curvilinear and Perpendicular styles, though it is considered to be a uniquely Curvilinear motif. Technically the lierne can be defined as any rib which does not spring from the edge of the vault, or any rib which runs diagonally on the vault and connects other ribs. Historians such as Francis Bond and John Harvey say further that it cannot be a ridge rib. The short transverse ribs in the vault of the nave at Lincoln, or the ribs which form the decagonal centralized ridge rib in the vault of the chapter house at Lincoln, cannot be called liernes by purists, though they can certainly be seen as proto-liernes, as non-structural

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ribs which do not spring from the edge of the vault. The ribs in the vault of the undercroft of St. Stephen’s Chapel are the first-known true liernes, but they must be seen as a vocabulary element that was derived from tendencies at Lincoln. There is no indication in the vault of the undercroft that the liernes were introduced to create the surface pattern that they would soon be predominantly used for; the emphasis of the ribs of the vaulting is on a visual structural articulation, as would be found in the Early English Lincolnstyle vault. In appearance the vaulting is closer to vaulting at Lincoln than the early lierne vaults at Ely or Wells, for example. The nave elevations at York Minster, designed by Simon the Mason, according to John Harvey, are split in half between a high arcade and a high clerestory, with a triforium grille incorporated into each clerestory bay. The arches of the arcade are pointed, reaching to the cornice, with multiple archivolts on bundled shafts. Thick half-cylindrical responds run from the floor halfway up the clerestory level, topped by foliate corbels, and supporting the springing ribs of the vault which was replaced after 1840. Each bay of the clerestory is divided into five lancets, in the stone grillwork in the bottom third, and in the bar tracery of the bottom two-thirds of the window above. In the stone grilles comprising a triforium, trilobe arches are surmounted by crocketed triangular gables, as in the Southwell chapter house. The tracery in the windows above features quatrefoils set in circles. The elevations of the transepts at St. Mary Redcliffe (begun in the 1290s by Simon de Burton, Mayor of Bristol), the only cathedral-like parish church in England, feature high clerestory windows of bar tracery set on top of stone grillwork triforia, similar to York nave. Large bundled responds in between bays support thick transverse ribs in the vault, dividing the vault into bays corresponding to the elevations, with three tiercerons springing towards the center of the vault bay on each side of the transverse ribs. The short tiercerons connect to a pattern of liernes in the center of each bay, consisting of a square divided into four quadrants in the center, and diamonds on each of the four sides of the square, tangent to the walls and the transverse arches. The interior of each diamond and square is lined with cusping, the ribs are painted, and all the joints are covered by gilded foliate bosses. The vault in the transept at St. Mary Redcliffe represents the first Curvilinear vault, achieving a new level of decorative pattern in vaulting, and detachment from structural exigency of vocabulary elements. The vault here becomes an embroidery pattern, or a stonework pattern, as in porcelain tracery patterns, turning the building into a giant craft object, dominated by the curves of the

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liernes and the cusping in the vault. The chapter house at Wells Cathedral (Figure 57), constructed under Bishop William de Marchia, features a central umbrella column with thirtytwo ribs (as compared to twenty at Lincoln or sixteen at Westminster Abbey) rising from a cluster of Purbeck shafts, the octagonal centralized ridge rib as at Lincoln, and tall windows, as at Westminster Abbey, with Curvilinear bar tracery. In the springer vaults between the windows there are eleven tiercerons per bay, five connecting to the tiercerons of the umbrella column along the section of the octagonal ridge rib, and three on each side connecting to the transverse rib or lierne which extends from the corners of the octagonal ridge rib to the window heads. The tierceron vault is in the Early English Lincoln style, also found at Westminster Abbey. The denseness of the cluster of tiercerons in the conoid springer vaults prevents the vault from having the canopy-like effect as at Westminster, though it is set above the high windows. The effect is more like a forest of branches overhead, as in the retrochoir and Lady Chapel at Wells. The windows are composed of four lights in lancets, paired underneath tall pointed arches, with sexfoils in circles in the tympana, and below, at the top of each light, an unusual composition with a steep trilobe pointed arch above a shallow trilobe, enclosing a three-leaf design formed by intersecting arcs in the center, combining the geometrical and organic, and announcing the Curvilinear style in tracery. Below the windows is an arcade with fifty-one stalls with canopies, covered with sculptures of heads of kings and ecclesiastical figures. A number of works were begun at the turn of the century: the east cloister walk at Norwich in 1297, the north choir aisle and Eastern Lady Chapel of Bristol in 1298, the vaulting of the north transept and choir of Lichfield in 1300, and in the next decade, the vaulting of the west cloister walk at Salisbury, the elevation of the choir at Exeter, the Bristol choir and nave, and the rebuilding of the chapter house at Canterbury. The east cloister walk at Norwich (Figure 58) was begun at the end of the thirteenth century, perhaps designed in part by John and William Ramsey, though the vaulting dates from the fifteenth century. Clusters of Purbeck shafts support conoid springer vaults and the archivolts of the arcade along the inner wall, while clusters of stone shafts support the vaults and archivolts. The vault is a Lincoln-style tierceron vault with a ridge pole and short transverse ridge ribs or liernes between bays, connecting the ridge pole to short tiercerons from the springers. The gilded bosses along the ridge pole are mostly foliate, while some display scenes from the Passions of Christ and medieval life. Canopied recesses in

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the wall below the vault were once used as book cupboards. Bristol Cathedral (Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, or St. Augustine’s Abbey), was founded by Robert Fitzharding in 1140, as a foundation of Augustinian canons, and made a cathedral by Henry VIII in 1542. The nave and west front of the cathedral were designed by George Edmund Street between 1868 and 1888. The chapter house, with its blind arcades of intersecting arches and diapering (Figure 23), survives from the Norman building (c. 1165). The north choir aisle, Eastern Lady Chapel, and choir or chancel are the earliest parts of the Gothic cathedral, from between 1298 and 1330, and it is these parts of the cathedral which represent the originality of the cathedral in architectural terms and which reflect the international importance of medieval Bristol, one of the wealthiest cities in England and its most important port. The north choir aisle, built to the same height as the chancel (making Bristol a “hall church”), is famous for its “flying ribs,” a series of transverse arches set below the vault, which have been described as flying buttresses (Figure 59, similar arches off the nave vault). The transverse arches, which spring from tall thin Purbeck shafts with foliate capitals, support flat transverse lintels, which in turn support the ribs of the steep concave vaulting. The flat transverse lintels, horizontal stone beams, carry the weight of the choir vault to buttresses in the outer aisle walls. The flat lintels have been described as tie-beams as in a timber roof. The result is a new kind of structural articulation, where the ribbed vault has been turned into a threedimensional, spatial construct, as if the members of the ribbed vault were pulled apart for the purpose of an elaboration of the systems of support. The vault is turned into a three-dimensional Curvilinear bar tracery, integrating structure and pattern. There is a tombstone in the north choir aisle at Bristol Cathedral of William the Geometer, believed to be a master mason of the abbey in the thirteenth century. The spatial vistas created by the arcades between choir and aisles in the cathedral, and through the vaulting of the aisles, recalls the play of spatial vistas attributed to Geoffrey de Noyers at Lincoln. A precedent for the flying ribs can be found in the vaulting of the tiny Easter Sepulcher in Saint Hugh’s Choir at Lincoln Cathedral, built for the safekeeping of relics in the 1290s, where the thick diagonal ribs of the quadripartite vault are suspended below the surface of the vault, for no apparent reason. The flying ribs in the Easter Sepulcher are so small that they were for a long time overlooked. The flying rib is seen as marking a definitive break in the Gothic from the Romanesque, in its role of dividing and defining

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space. Unlike the lierne, or the ogee arch, which defy the appearance of structure, and create a surface texture in its place, the flying rib preserves the visual appearance of a structure, thus allowing it to have a vestige of the Early English, and the Romanesque. While the lierne and ogee arch deny the representation of the structure of the building, they do present an autonomous structure, an invisible or intelligible scaffolding which is woven into the physical structure of the building. The representation of such an intelligible structure allows the architecture in its Curvilinear developments to continue to function as a catechism, as in Early English and Decorated architecture, of the intelligible structure of the cosmos, in developments from the vocabulary introduced at Lincoln. This is evident in many examples of lierne vaults and ogee arch tracery throughout the Curvilinear style, which can be related to the tenets of the natural philosophy introduced by Robert Grosseteste and the Franciscan School at the beginning of the thirteenth century, along with the theological concepts of human and divine intellect. The vault of the choir or chancel of Bristol Cathedral (Figure 60), built under Abbot Knowle, between 1300 and 1330, is close to the Lincoln-style tierceron vault, with tiercerons rising from conoid springers towards a ridge pole, and shorter tiercerons intersecting transverse ridge ribs in front of the window heads, as in Lincoln nave. As in the Eastern Lady Chapel of Bristol Cathedral, the tiercerons are intersected before they reach the ridge pole by liernes forming diamonds, and the ridge pole is eliminated, or reduced to an imaginary line running down the center of a series of diamonds formed by the liernes. Lierne diamonds are also placed between the transverse ribs and the shorter tiercerons in front of the window heads. There are bosses on the joints and the dark ribs contrast with the white severies, as in the Eastern Lady Chapel, but in the choir vault the diamonds are in addition cusped on the inside, increasing the density of the surface texture, and the Curvilinear content of the vocabulary elements, turning the lierne lozenges into tracery motifs. The cusping of the liernes originated in this vault, and was soon taken up in the vaults of the choirs of Wells Cathedral and Tewkesbury Abbey, and at St. Mary Redcliffe. The Bristol choir vault thus does not have a structural appearance, as it did in the undercroft of St. Stephen’s Chapel, for example. The liernes of the vault have an organic structural quality, like a crustaceous skeletal form, but not a functionally structural quality in relation to the building; it is thus an “intelligible organism,” and the line is blurred between the sensible form, species sensibilis, and intelligible form, species apprehensibilis. The archi-

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tectural forms play a structural role as a catechism of a cosmology, but not as a physical structure. The bays of the vault can be read as individual or as doubled, corresponding to the elevation bays, thus producing an oscillation of reading, as in the Lincoln nave vault. The vaults of the Eastern Lady Chapel and choir are the products of the same building campaign, the Eastern Lady Chapel being completed first. The elevations of the choir of Exeter Cathedral were executed between 1300 and 1310 by Roger of Exeter for Bishop Stapledon (1307–26). They can be see as a Decorated variation on the elevations of Lincoln nave: fullbay openings in the arcade, with pointed arches with multiple archivolts reaching the cornice line; a short arcaded triforium, here with four painted trilobe arches per bay, in some bays turned into a blind arcade; and slightly higher clerestory windows with lancets and bar tracery disappearing between the massive conoid springers of the vault, which rise from thin dark responds between the bays. Each tierceron rib in the vault appears to be thicker than the respond, creating a top-heavy effect, an illogical structure, but with an animated, organic presence. There is a Decorated stonework grille of two tiers of punched quatrefoils set above the triforium, creating a shelf in front of the clerestory windows, introducing the Decorated motif of shifting and overlapping planes in the elevation. The motifs are repeated in the nave. In the first decade of the fourteenth century, the nave of Bristol Cathedral was begun, and the tower of Lincoln Cathedral was heightened. The nave at Bristol was begun by Abbot Edmund Knowle in around 1306, and construction continued until the fifteenth century. The nave was completed to its medieval design by George Edmund Street (1824–81) in the nineteenth century. The nave is dominated by large quatrefoil bundle piers, with Purbeck shafts at the corners contrasting with the light stone, topped with gilded foliate capitals. The vault (Figure 61) is a Lincoln-style tierceron vault, with eleven tiercerons per bay in conoid springers rising from the thick bundle columns below. As it is a hall church, the vault rises from the arcade which separates the nave and aisles, so the shafts in the piers are the responds. The tiercerons rise towards the ridge pole, except for the pair of short tiercerons in each bay, in this case in front of the heads of the pointed arches of the arcade, which meet at a short transverse ridge rib, or lierne, as at Lincoln. The nave aisle vaulting continues the vaulting of the choir aisles, with the vault ribs springing from flat transverse lintels supported by thick transverse flying arches, with stonework arabesques in the spandrels, as in the choir, in the spirit of the Decorated Curvilinear.

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The crossing tower of Lincoln Cathedral was heightened between 1307 and 1311 by Richard of Stowe to a height of 271 feet, paid for by indulgences; the lierne vault (Figure 19) was added in the late fourteenth century, and the openwork parapet and four lead pinnacles were added by James Essex in 1774. A lead spire was blown down in 1548. The work of Richard of Stowe includes an arcade and clerestory. The arcade recalls the arcade of the choir at Exeter, but with simple pointed arches sitting on bundles of piers with alternating Purbeck and light stone shafts, creating a surface play and polychromy typical of the Decorated Curvilinear style. The roundness of the bundled shafts creates a horizontal undulation which complements the vertical undulation of the arches above. The clerestory consists of a series of thin lancets; each side of the tower is divided into two bays by a springer vault to the lierne vault above: there are four lancets in each bay of the clerestory, and three arches below in each bay of the arcading. The springer vaults, with short Purbeck responds below at the arcade level, are placed in front of the wall plane, to support the Perpendicular lierne vault above. The antechamber of the Berkeley Chapel at Bristol Cathedral dates from 1310, perhaps designed by William Joy. The vault of the tiny chamber (Figure 62) is the apotheosis of the flying rib vault initiated in the Easter Sepulcher at Lincoln around 1290, with variations in the aisles at Bristol, in the Curvilinear style. In the Berkeley Chapel antechamber, an entire vault ribbing system is suspended under a flat ceiling. The ribbing system consists of a ridge pole, transverse arch ribs and tiercerons, or diagonal transverse ribs forming a quadripartite vault. The transverse and diagonal arch ribs flying through the air are mimicked by ribs along the flat ceiling above. As in the Easter Sepulcher at Lincoln, the ribs are thick, and the joints are covered by oversized gilded foliate bosses. The result is an elaborately articulated, overarticulated structural system which supports only itself. It is entirely redundant, and structure has become pure decoration, as if structure itself is a redundancy. If the flying ribs were covered with brick severies, then the vault would function like any other medieval vault, playing no structural role other than to perhaps shore the walls, a role which obviously does not exist in this situation. In the antechamber of the Berkeley Chapel at Bristol, in the Curvilinear style, the architecture has become a mock-up of itself, pure sculpture. The non-structural vaulting system, posing as a structural vaulting system, is shown to be non-structural. The architecture would then be classified as mannerist—self-referential, contradicting established rules, involving a form which contradicts its function, thus allowing the architecture to express

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an idea beyond its function, to be a form of art. The idea being expressed by the vaulting system is a catechism of the geometrical structure of the cosmos, in terms of rays of light, in reflection and rarefaction, and geometrical figures which lead to the formation of material objects through the increasing density of the reflected light. Such a catechism was a theoretical basis of the architecture of the previous century, best exemplified by Lincoln Cathedral, in relation to the new scientific and natural philosophies developed at Oxford, and the writings of Robert Grosseteste. The crossing tower of Wells Cathedral was constructed between 1310 and 1322 by Thomas Witney, the master mason responsible for the retrochoir and Lady Chapel. The fan vault in the crossing (Figure 63) was built later in the 1480s by William Smyth. The Early English vault in the nave aisle of Gloucester Cathedral (Figure 64) was remodeled in 1319 under Abbot John Thokey (1306–29). It is a simple quadripartite vault with transverse and diagonal thick arched ribs, as at Durham or Winchester. A number of projects date from around 1320: the strainer arches of Salisbury Cathedral, the nave elevations of Worcester Cathedral, the pulpitum of Lincoln Cathedral, the pulpitum of Exeter Cathedral, the nave vault of Tewkesbury Abbey, the Lady Chapel of Lichfield Cathedral, the pulpitum of Southwell Minster, and the Lady Chapel and retrochoir of Wells Cathedral. The strainer arches between the east and west piers of the eastern crossing at Salisbury were probably designed by William Joy to strengthen the supports for the new crossing tower. William Joy also designed the later strainer arches at Wells Cathedral. The strainer arches at Salisbury can be described as an interpenetration of two half ogee arches, or the crossing of two double curves, displaying the emphasis on curvature which is a hallmark of the Curvilinear style, as seen in the contemporary works of the 1320s, including the Lady Chapel at Ely Cathedral. The pulpitum of Lincoln Cathedral represents an early example of the ogee arch and elaborate carved decoration associated with the Curvilinear style, especially in the Lady Chapel of Ely Cathedral, of which the pulpitum of Lincoln appears to be a small experimental precedent, similar to the way in which the Easter Sepulcher of Lincoln was a small experimental precedent for the flying ribs of Bristol. The carvings would have originally been brightly colored. The pulpitum of Exeter Cathedral was completed in 1324, designed by Thomas Witney, restored by Sir George Gilbert Scott. It is a triple-arch arcade veranda, with depressed ogee arches on piers with moulded capitals, with quatrefoils and sculpted foliage in the spandrels. The parapet

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features a blind arcade with cusping and crocketing and ogee arches in the Curvilinear style. Vaults under the veranda represent miniature versions of the lierne vaults of the choir of Bristol Cathedral and the nave of Tewkesbury Abbey (this miniature vault could be an experimental forerunner of the Tewkesbury Abbey vault). Plinths on the front piers of the pulpitum are identical to those at the bases of piers in the retrochoir of Wells Cathedral. Tewkesbury Abbey (Abbey of the Blessed Virgin Mary) in Gloucestershire was founded by Robert FitzHamon, a cousin of William the Conqueror, and was consecrated in 1121. The vault of the nave (Figure 45) was built on top of thick cylindrical Norman piers of Caen stone, between 1320 and 1330. The vault represents another unique Curvilinear lierne vault, dominated by orthogonal and diagonal geometrical patterns, as at St. Mary Redcliffe. The effect is very different from the vaults at St. Mary Redcliffe, though, because of the size of the ribs, the size of the bosses, and the lack of cusping. The vault presents a texture rather than a structure, but it is an architectonic texture rather than a decorative surface texture. The interlacing of the thick ribs on the surface of the vault of the Tewkesbury nave visually elaborates the structural system suggested by the Norman piers and arches of the arcades and the conoid springers which rise from the top of the piers. The vault is an architectonic catechism of the ceiling of the vault of the cosmos, rising above the material world in the arcade below. Tewkesbury Abbey is filled with vaulting and other details which have significance as catechisms of cosmic structures, including a mandala in the crossing vault. In the nave vault there are three parallel ridge poles. Eleven tiercerons spring from each pier below, the first along the plane of the elevation, the central one forming a transverse arched rib. The intermediate tiercerons extend diagonally across the surface of the vault, intersecting each other and the central ridge pole, forming an elaborate pattern of triangles between the ridge poles. The pattern of triangles is extended beyond the ridge poles by liernes which are placed diagonally between the tiercerons in the springer vaults. The result is perhaps the first true “net” vault in English Gothic architecture, the type of vault which develops which creates a visual net (reticulatum) over the interior space, emphasizing the surface texture of the building vocabulary. The vault is a more elaborate version of a vault at Urchfont in Wiltshire, combined with Lincoln-type springer vaults; the vault has both a volumetric presence, compatible with the Norman arcade, and a woven geometrical primitive hut presence, with a pseudo-structural element. The ribs mimic branches of trees while the thick cylindrical piers mimic the trunks of

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trees, and the springer vaults look like “palm fronds,” as at Lincoln. The light filters through the clerestory windows and into the nave as if it were being filtered through the branches of trees, and the organic quality of nature is brought to life through the inorganic forms of the architecture, in the form of poetic allegory, in the symbolic vocabulary of natural philosophy. Fifteen bosses along the ridge pole of the Tewkesbury nave vault illustrate the Life of Christ, while subsidiary bosses illustrate angels playing musical instruments, creating the intelligible celestial music which corresponds to the audible music of the natural world. The pulpitum or choir screen of Southwell Minster (Figure 65), built between 1320 and 1340, is a masterpiece of the Curvilinear style, combining the tectonic clarity of the Early English with the decorated expressiveness of the Curvilinear. Without mimicking the organic, the pulpitum has an organic quality, achieved only by the coherence of the design, and the geometrical relations, which link it to the foliate carvings and sculptural architectural details of the chapter house at Southwell from the end of the Geometric Decorated period. That said, the design of the pulpitum belongs to the Curvilinear in contrast because it is more superficially decorative, more removed from the architecture of the building in its functional necessity. The pulpitum consists of an arcade of five arches, forming a veranda or open front; the three central arches are pointed, with multiple archivolts, as in the Early English style, and unique bar tracery outlines of trefoils inserted underneath. The central archway provides a view of the choir beyond; there are flying ribs in the vault behind the three arches, as in the Easter Sepulcher at Lincoln, and the antechamber of the Berkeley Chapel in Bristol Cathedral. The arches are surmounted by, again, the outline or suggestion of triangular gables with crocketing, as in the Southwell chapter house. In the pulpitum, pieces and outlines of the vocabulary elements of Gothic architecture as it was established, foils and gables, and thin piers suggesting pier buttresses between the arches, produce a rhetorical or tropic architecture, a more poetic architecture, and an architecture of increased artificiality and self-referentiality, in the Curvilinear style. English Gothic architecture was rhetorical to begin with in the Early English style, in the use of structural vocabulary elements for non-structural purposes, for example the tierceron and lierne ribs introduced at Lincoln. The Southwell pulpitum, though, like the flying ribs in the antechamber of the Berkeley Chapel in Bristol Cathedral, introduces another layer of the transformation of structural elements into rhetorical devices, by representing them only in sculptural

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mock-ups, as appliqués to the actual architecture which they are representing. Plato said that the artist was “thrice removed from reality,” that forms of art could only be copies of forms in nature which themselves could only be copies of archetypal forms. Curvilinear architecture is true art in the Platonic sense, thrice removed from reality. The arches in the outer bays of the Southwell pulpitum are ogee arches, whose double inflexive curve represents a mannerist twist of the pointed arch. They are also set underneath the crocketed outlines of triangular gables. There is cusping underneath them, and a frieze of tracery quatrefoils at the base below a shallow niche. The pulpitum was perhaps originally colored, like the pulpitum of Lincoln Cathedral a few miles away. The pulpitum at Southwell replaced an earlier one from around 1250; the present pulpitum was restored in 1820, by the Bernasconi brothers. At Wells Cathedral, the Lady Chapel and retrochoir (Figure 66) were built between 1320 and 1340, the Lady Chapel by Thomas Witney, the retrochoir by William Joy, who may have worked at Bristol Cathedral. The Lady Chapel was restored by Benjamin Ferry in 1842, the choir by Anthony Salvin from 1848 to 1854. This part of Wells Cathedral is one of the most beautiful and fulfilling buildings in the world, a masterpiece of the Curvilinear style, merging structure, ornament, articulation, geometry and the suggestion of the organic, into a sculptural building which merges with a play of light and shadow, and a play of the juxtaposed and overlapping planes and spaces typical of the Curvilinear, to create an almost phantasmagoric environment, a dream space, a human-made enchanted forest. While the majority of Wells Cathedral constructed in the thirteenth century has no affinity with the architecture of Lincoln Cathedral, all of the vocabulary elements of the Lady Chapel and retrochoir come from Lincoln: umbrella column, ridge rib, tierceron, lierne. This area of the cathedral transforms the vocabulary precedents of Lincoln from a static architectonic arrangement to a flowing, sculptural arrangement, giving then a life which they did not have at Lincoln. The rational and irrational, organic and inorganic, merge at the east end of Wells. The east window dates from between 1327 and 1339. The Lady Chapel is octagonal, with a domed vault of ribs approaching a net vault, perhaps influenced by Islamic ribbed octagonal vaults, for example the dome in front of the mihrab in the Great Mosque at Córdoba of the Umayyad Dynasty in the tenth century, the influence of which can also be seen in the Prior’s Kitchen at Durham Cathedral. The vaulting conoids in the Wells Lady Chapel rise from responds in slightly concave shells, curving in

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the manner of an Islamic squinch dome. The tiercerons (or liernes) form an elongated eight-pointed star pattern on the surface of the vault. The vault is a centralized umbrella vault, playing the same role as the vaults in the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem or the Baptistery of the Orthodox in Ravenna in the representation of the celestial vault, the intelligible structure of the cosmos, emanating in hypostases from the One, as the ribs represent beams of light, the lumen spiritualis, which multiplies and rarefies from the originary lux spiritualis of the One. The vaults in the Gothic cathedrals in England are the products of cosmological conceptions in Christianity which are very similar to cosmological conceptions in Sufism in Islamic cultures. The vault contains the first liernes used at Wells, two liernes per each vault bay, springing from the short ridge ribs between vaults. The liernes are roughly contemporary with the liernes in the vault of the choir at Bristol Cathedral. While the outer star is formed by liernes, the intersecting tiercerons of the Wells Lady Chapel vault form a second elongated eight-pointed star pattern in the center of the vault which is similar to patterns found in early fourteenth-century illuminations in England, for example in the Ormesbury Psalter, Gorleston Psalter, or Robert de Lisle Psalter, as pointed out by Jean Bony, which also show the influence of Islamic arabesques. The central boss in the vault features Christ Enthroned, representing the material manifestation of the divine, the lumen spiritualis formed from the lux spiritualis which emanates from the ineffable unity of the divine to form the material world. The retrochoir was built to house the relics of a saint, as at Canterbury and Lincoln, but the best candidate, Bishop William de Marchia (d. 1302), failed to qualify for canonization, so the retrochoir never fulfilled its purpose. The architecture of the retrochoir is composed of six clusters of Purbeck shafts with foliate capitals, plus two intermediate piers at the east end of the choir, and two intermediate piers which also form part of the elongated octagon of the Lady Chapel. The bases of the piers are composed of two-tiered plinths which are identical to the plinths on the front of the Exeter pulpitum, completed in 1324 by Thomas Witney, the architect of the Wells Lady Chapel. On either side of the retrochoir are the chapels of St. Katherine and Corpus Christi; the chapels are square in plan, and have simple tierceron vaults. Triangular piers at the west ends of the chapels define the space of the retrochoir as hexagonal, along with an additional set of piers at the edges of the choir, and the piers of the Lady Chapel; the retrochoir is thus an elongated hexagon perpendicular to the elongated octagon of the Lady Chapel. The sets of piers between the choir and retrochoir are not aligned exactly,

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resulting in additional triangular spaces in the vaulting above. The Lady Chapel of Ely Cathedral, the largest Lady Chapel in England, was constructed between 1321 and 1349. It was initiated by Alan of Walsingham (1314–64), much of its design is by John Ramsey (fl. 1304–39), and much of it was executed under Bishop Simon de Montacute (1337–45). Treasurer John of Wisbech (d. 1349) acted as supervisor of construction, and it was complete by the time of his death. The arcade (Figure 67), which was originally brightly painted, is carved from soft limestone from Weldon or Clipsham. The arcade is composed of nodding three-dimensional ogee arches, with leaf-foil cusping, crocketed triangular gables, and a rear arcade alternating with the front arcade in a syncopated rhythm derived from Lincoln. In some places smaller foiled ogee arches and freestanding sculptural figures are set within the nodding ogee arches, illustrating the life and miracles of Mary. The arcade combines the spatial experiments of the Early English with the organic forms of the Early Decorated and the curvilinear geometries of the later Decorated period. As in the Rococo, every inch of the surface is covered by a profusion of foliate and figural sculpted elements. The arcade of the Ely Lady Chapel has the appearance of an epigenetic landscape, where there is an underlying geometrical structure beneath organic natural forms, as described by Robert Grosseteste in the treatise De Natura Locorum, for example. De Natura Locorum was written in combination with De Lineis, and applies the abstract geometries of De Lineis to natural phenomena, such as mountains, polar regions, the tropics, the equator, seasons, tides, vapors, night and day, planets and constellations. It shows the influence of Aristotle, and Avicenna and Averroes, among others, and is an attempt to explain the actions and formation of light and visible phenomena, in particular such actions as reflection, refraction, and rarefaction, through geometry, as they are perceived as an image or species, and are defined by the perception of them. The virtus of lux, or the power of celestial light, as it becomes rays of light in lumen, or reflected light, is applied to earthly phenomena as it is translated to geometry, perspective, and optics, in a new natural philosophy. De Lineis (Libellus Lincolniensis de Phisicis Lineis Angulis et Figuris) was completed before 1233, two years before Grosseteste became Bishop of Lincoln, and while he was lecturing to the Franciscans at Oxford. According to Grosseteste, “Both universal action and action in the material world, in drawing into the contingency of matter, can illustrate how natural causes and effects can be known through lines, angles and figures.” Such a dialectic is

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the only way to understand the forces in nature, in the multiplication of their power or virtue (virtus), to form a totality of force in action or stability, as it exists both in nature itself and in human perception. The forces of action and stability are seen as having an underlying diagrammatic structure of lines, angles and figures, acting as vectors and nodal points, in a dynamic flux, much like contemporary Topology Theory, in an epigenetic landscape. These forces of action exist both in natural phenomena and in perception itself, and appear to be at play in the arcading of the Ely Lady Chapel, as a catechism of the new natural philosophy. The sculpted foliate forms which sprout from the undulating surface of the arcade in the Lady Chapel at Ely Cathedral suggest vegetation on the surface of the earth as a product of an underlying geometrical matrix of forces. A similar motif occurs on the exterior of the north porch of St. Mary Redcliffe in Bristol, where trilobe ogee arches are pulled out from the plane surface, and inserted into pediments with crockets running up the sides; the pediments are also angled outward. The jambs around the portal entrance in the porch are reminiscent of Islamic floral/geometric designs, for example the merging of geometry and organic form in the Hall of the Abencerrajes at the Alhambra in Granada a few years later, between 1370 and 1380. The result at Ely and St. Mary Redcliffe is the challenging of the wall plane as an autonomous unit in the architecture, and the introduction of a new kind of space in the architecture, where a plastic, dynamic spatial conception is introduced, freeing architecture from the “static” orthographic formula of plan/elevation, and introducing a more temporal concept of the experience of space as represented in the forms. The vault of the Ely Lady Chapel (Figure 68), with a span of forty-six feet, is the widest medieval vault in England. It is another variation of the Decorated “lierne star” vault, with liernes forming a series of hexagons along the ridge pole. Without the lierne patterns it is a conventional Lincoln-style tierceron vault, with eleven tiercerons per bay in each conoid springer, the first three on each side connecting to a transverse ridge rib between the bays of the vault, connecting the window heads. The next tierceron on each side forms a transverse diagonal arced rib across the vault, and the central tierceron forms an arced transverse rib. While the bays of the vault contradict the bays of the elevation, the lierne pattern serves to dissolve the distinction between the bays of the vault, and the vaulting conoids give way to a continuous surface pattern, with forty-eight compartments per bay, as in the nave vault at Tewkesbury Abbey. The painted bosses, which are comparatively

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small, are currently the only trace of color left on the stone vault. The entire Lady Chapel would have originally been filled with color—the arcade, the vault, and the stained glass windows, none of which remains. In that the arcades have broken into three-dimensional sculptural forms, the vault seems conservative in comparison, with its surface patterns, given the three-dimensional sculptural vaults which are to come in English Gothic architecture by mid-century. Nevertheless, the vaulting pattern represents a crystalline organic intelligible form emerging from the conoid clusters of rays, as light is rarefied into matter in a catechism of the processes of nature as described by geometry. The dissolution of the distinction between bays in the vault, and of the structural relation to the elevations, reveals the mannerist tendency to negate the structural articulation of the form, to create a disjunction between form and function. The construction of the choir of Ely Cathedral is roughly contemporary with the Lady Chapel, dated 1322 to 1337. John Ramsey (master of works, 1322–36) is credited with the design, possibly with William Ramsey (d. 1349). The work was carried out under Bishop John de Hotham (1316–37), who was Chancellor of England. The choir elevations are Curvilinear in the preponderance of decorative motifs, mouldings and relief sculpture, the three-dimensionality of the profile, the importance of voids and spatial relations, and the ogee arches and other curved geometrical elements introduced into the tracery. Rather than a high arcade and a short triforium with subdivisions, as in the Early English, the triforium in the choir mimics the arcade, with equally high arches filling the entire bay, with only light stone tracery set within, supported by a slender pier in the center. The tracery only serves as a kind of diaphanous screen, providing views of wall passages behind (it could be called a gallery). Archivolts and cornices in the arcade and triforium are filled with decorative mouldings, giving the walls an unprecedented textural effect. Thin respond shafts and corbels between the bays are purely decorative; the conoid springers of the vault actually sit on the cornice at the top of the triforium, which borders the front of a shelf which extends back towards the clerestory windows, which are set in a recess above the triforium and between the conoid springer vaults. Thus the Decorated play of horizontal and vertical surfaces is present as well. The vault of the Ely choir (Figure 41), designed by John Ramsey, is a lierne star vault like the vault of the Lady Chapel. It is believed to be the first vault built showing the influence of the vaulting of St. Mary Undercroft in St. Stephen’s Chapel in Westminster Palace, with the ridge rib, tiercerons,

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and liernes forming lozenges, a vault developed from the vocabulary established at Lincoln. The intersecting polygons formed by the diagonal liernes along the ridge pole blur the distinction between the bays created by the tiercerons of the conoid springers alternating with the bays of the elevations below. The bays of the elevations are interwoven into the vaulting pattern, with thirty-six compartments per bay, by the transverse ridge ribs which connect the window heads. Large gilded foliate bosses are placed along the ridge pole, and smaller gilded foliate bosses are placed at every intersection between tierceron and lierne. While the geometries of the elevation traceries suggest the entangled forms of nature in foliage, the geometries of the vault suggest the constellations of the skies above, creating a catechism of earth and heaven, or the vault of the cosmos, illuminated by the lux spiritualis which enters through the stained glass windows of the clerestory and is reflected and refracted in the lumen spiritualis which spreads throughout the space of the choir, and condenses to form the geometrical elements which lead to the formation of matter, following the natural philosophy in the treatises of Robert Grosseteste. The Curvilinear vocabulary of the Ely choir is a development on the vocabulary introduced at Lincoln Cathedral, and the architecture continues to serve the same purpose as at Lincoln, to represent the structure of being, and to accommodate the intellectual ascension of the worshipper from the world of sense experience and material intellect to the world of intelligibles and universal intellect. The increasing sensuality of the Curvilinear architecture serves to engage the spectator more in the world of the senses, to integrate human intellect more into the natural world, and to provide a stronger connection between natural forms and divine intellect. Divine intellect is more integrated into human sense experience, in the Aristotelian sense. The vaults of the Ely choir and Lady Chapel anticipate the “net vaults” to come, with increased compartmentalization and proliferation of liernes, and increased emphasis on surface texture over structural articulation. Following the collapse of the Norman tower, the octagonal crossing at Ely was begun at about the same time as the new choir (the choir was severely damaged by the collapse of the tower) in 1322, and construction continued until perhaps 1336. An octagonal stone crossing with eight columns was designed by Alan of Walsingham, the sacrist of the cathedral, a cleric who played a role in the architecture of the cathedral, like Elias of Dereham at Salisbury or Matthew Paris at St. Albans. The crossing took six years to

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build, and an octagonal timber lantern (Figure 69) was designed by William Hurley, master carpenter of Edward III, which took fourteen years to build. William Hurley (Hurle, or de Hurlegh) also worked at St. Stephen’s Chapel in the Palace of Westminster, designing the timber roof there, and at Windsor Castle. He died around 1354. The lantern was restored by James Essex, who also restored the Lincoln crossing tower, in the eighteenth century. Wooden vaults reminiscent of Lincoln-style conoid springers with tiercerons were constructed springing from between the bays of the stone octagon to support the lantern above, though most of the support for the wooden lantern is actually provided by concealed wooden beams in a system that can be seen as a prototype for timber hammerbeam construction. In hammerbeam construction, the horizontal tie beam is cut through, thus the beams across the lantern, to give greater height to the center. The best example of the hammerbeam roof is in Westminster Hall, the oldest existing part of the Palace of Westminster, originally built in 1097. In the hammerbeam roof there, the hammerbeams are supported by curved braces from the wall. It was built by Hugh Herland under King Richard II, between 1395 and 1399, and is considered to be the greatest example of medieval timber architecture. The concealed vaulting in the Ely lantern is visible from the roof, as the brackets are on top of a flat ceiling just above the vaults, and there is a wooden model of it in the south transept of the cathedral. The eight timber springer vaults in the octagon rise from corbels on top of thin tripartite shafts which run up the walls from the floor. The responds are interrupted by carved lanterns below the windows, which sit on corbels with carvings illustrating the life of St. Etheldreda. The lanterns are topped by nodding ogee arches with crockets and pinnacles in the Curvilinear style, with additional flanking buttress shafts. The timber tierceron springer vaults and the timber lantern were designed to emulate stone, as continued from below; as they were originally painted and gilded, they would have appeared to be stone, creating a trompe l’oeil effect, not unlike a dome painted in di sotto in su on the surface of a vault. The Ely lantern replaces, as it were, a central boss or column that would be found in the vaulting of octagonal chapter houses. The lantern was restored by Sir George Gilbert Scott; the central boss features Christ in Majesty. The vault of the lantern is a centralized tierceron vault, or a lierne star vault, a development of vaulting at Lincoln, with eight timber conoid springers which mimic the timber springer vaults in the stone octagon below, supporting the lantern. The tiercerons spring from piers in the corners of the

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octagon; the central tierceron in each bay extends to the boss in the center, while three shorter tiercerons on each side connect to transverse ribs connecting the window heads of each bay to the central boss. The angles of the lantern correspond to the sides of the octagon beneath it, so that it appears to be twisted, giving it an additional spatial dynamism consistent with the Curvilinear style. The offsetting of the angles of the lantern also allows for additional beams from the angles of the stone octagon below to support the walls of the timber octagon above. Pevsner describes the structure as being “much like a twentieth-century space frame.” The clerestory in each bay of the octagonal lantern is composed of four lancets surmounted by bar tracery, and below the clerestory is a gallery featuring painted figures in niches below each lancet of the clerestory. According to Nikolaus Pevsner, the hexagonal crossing of Siena Cathedral in Italy might be seen as a source for the design of the Ely octagon, or the octagonal drum of Florence Cathedral designed by Arnolfo di Cambio in 1294 (though it would only have been known on paper by then, as it was not built yet), and Persian sources have also been suggested, along with octagonal Islamic vaulting. In England, the octagonal wooden vault of the chapter house at York Minster may have provided inspiration. The lines of the ribs in the springer vaults below the lantern are continued in the mullions of the windows of the lantern. The lines form a surface which is then folded at an angle to form a solid, following the classical conception of the formation of matter as proceeding from point to line to surface to solid. While seven ribs spring from each shaft in the lantern toward the center of the ceiling, the five mullions in each window descend from a ridge rib which connects the center of the ceiling to the peaks of the window heads. As representing rays of light, the ribs expand both toward the center of the ceiling, representing the point at the center as the One, or God, the origin of all things, and the spiritual light, lux spiritualis, and downward toward the material world, as the lux spiritualis becomes the lumen spiritualis, which forms the material world. The lantern is thus a catechism of the circuitus spiritualis, the movement through the hypostases of being in both directions which constitutes life. The eight sides of the octagon are symbolic of creation, the Holy Spirit, baptism (thus the proliferation of octagonal baptismal fonts), and regeneration (as in the rebuilding of the crossing). They also symbolize the mediation between the natural world, of the cathedral below, and the world of the spirit, in the lantern above. In the Byzantine squinch dome, the natural world is

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represented by the square or cube of the plan of the church, and the world of the spirit is represented by the spherical dome above, mediated by the eight pendentives. The polygonal figure of the octagon also represents the mediation of the human mind, in reason governed by mathematics and geometry, between the material and spiritual worlds, and the ascension and descent of the human soul. The polygon inscribed in the circle in Byzantine and Renaissance architecture represents the relation between ratio or discursive reason and the virtus intellectiva, the higher intellect which knows the intelligibles, and understands divine intellect. The Ely lantern, as in all aspects of English Gothic architecture, accommodates the ascension of the anima rationalis or soul from virtus cogitativa to virtus intellectiva, toward the intelligentia of the divine. As described in the De circuli quadratura of Nicolas Cusanus in the fifteenth century in Rome, polygonal geometries correspond to human intelligence in ratio, as rectilinear geometries correspond to the sublunary world, while the circle corresponds to the archetypal intelligence in the virtus intellectiva, as circular motion corresponds to the perfection of the celestial world. When the polygonal figure is inscribed in the circle, its sides are multiplied and the figure becomes more multiplied as it approaches the perfection and infinity of the circle, in the process of the complicato or folding, as enacted in the lantern at Ely, but the polygonal figure, multiplied to infinity, can never reach the circle, as discursive reason can never participate in the virtus intellectiva, but the virtus intellectiva can participate in discursive reason in the unfolding of the polygonal figure, the explicato, or explanation. The centralized Renaissance church or chapel, as described by Leon Battista Alberti in De re aedificatoria, was intended to be a model of this relationship. The process is more explicitly described in the squinch dome of the Byzantine church. The octagon illustrates the complicato of discursive reason towards the virtus intellectiva, a theme which was well-known in Byzantium, in the writings of the Greek commentators on Aristotle, such as Alexander of Aphrodisias in the second century or Themistius in the fourth century, in the distinction between the active, cosmic intellect and the passive, material intellect, from the third book of Aristotle’s De anima. The theme was well-known to scholars in thirteenth-century England through translations of Arabic commentaries on Aristotle’s De anima. The mediation between the spiritual and material worlds is reiterated in the lantern at Ely by the hierarchy of materials used. The elevations of the lantern were inspired by the exterior elevations of St. Stephen’s Chapel in

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London (begun in 1292), where William Hurley was active as chief royal carpenter from 1326, with two tiers of windows and niches. St. Stephen’s Chapel was used as the House of Commons from 1547 until 1834, when it was burned and then demolished, except for the crypt, St. Mary Undercroft. The overall design of the octagon and lantern at Ely also shows the influence of Michael of Canterbury’s work at St. Stephen’s Chapel. The painting in the stained glass in the upper half of the lantern walls at Ely becomes sculptural figures painted in the lower half (painted figures were also included in the elevations of St. Stephen’s), which becomes architecture below, in a progression from the least material to the most material of the three arts, which represent the divine as a trinity, three in one. The progression from painting (or mosaic) to sculpture to architecture can be seen in Byzantine architecture, for example in the Baptistery of the Orthodox in Ravenna from around 450, representing the emanation of the immaterial into the material world. The painted statues in the Ely lantern correspond to the human mind, mediating between the least material and most material, as divine intellect is manifest in human intellect through geometry and metaphor. The groups of four painted statues in each wall of the lantern correspond to the material world, while the painted figures in the niches of the walls and the severies of the vault correspond to the Celestial Hierarchies, the hierarchy of angels which mediate between the human mind and God, according to Pseudo-Dionysius in the Celestial Hierarchy, translated by Robert Grosseteste in the previous century. In the Enneads, Plotinus infused the Platonic dialectic of the sensible and intelligible, or in Grosseteste’s terms the virtus sensibilis (virtus cogitativa) and the virtus apprehensibilis, into the phenomenon of light, as Grosseteste would in the distinction between lux and lumen. Like the sun in the universe, the source of the light which is diffused through matter is impossible to connect to the light itself, thus there are two lights, as with Plato, the flame and the glow of the embers, the lux and the lumen. The intelligible light of Plotinus, the lux, is like the center of the circle, or mediating octagon, as for Grosseteste. The point at the center is the source of all the radii of the circle, like the tiercerons in the vault, and thus of all the points along the circumference of the circle, but the center cannot be said to be a part of any of the radii, or any of the points along the circle, as lumen cannot participate in lux, and corporeity cannot participate in the One, which is inaccessible to it. In the Enneads Plotinus describes what can be called the autodiffusion of lux into lumen in lines of virtus projecting in species (form) in Grosseteste’s

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terms. The diffusion of light is not caused by a bodily magnitude in the central point, but rather by “another kind of power than corporeal quantity.” In the diffusion of light, according to Plotinus, it is not possible to define light as occupying a particular point in space, as it is equally diffused. For Grosseteste, the light is only in virtus, which, though projected along lines, occupies no particular point. Light is simultaneously present at every point in space, as with sunlight, according to Plotinus. The central point illuminates as body lit because it is the physical manifestation of the intelligible light, the lux, not the intelligible light itself. In the vault of the Ely lantern, the image of Christ at the center is the physical manifestation of God, and the source of all light in the universe. The vault in the North Porch of St. Mary Redcliffe (Figure 70) in Bristol dates from 1325. Like the wooden vault in the crossing at Ely Cathedral, it is a centralized tierceron vault, though hexagonal rather than octagonal, and stone. Four tiercerons spring from each bay between the window heads, but none of them reach the central boss. They all connect to one of six transverse ridge rib segments; the inner joints are connected by a lierne hexagon around the central boss. The bosses are large gilded foliate bosses, contrasting with the grey stone. The two tiercerons on each side of the severies of each bay meet the transverse rib which runs from the window head across the vault, through the hexagon in the center, resulting in three continuous transverse ridge ribs. The surface of the vault is a series of folds creating flat surfaces, with a palimpsest of patterns overlaid. The vault looks like a snowflake, or a pattern in a kaleidoscope, merging the structure of the building with the surface texture of the ribbing, and merging the intelligible form of the architecture, the structure as understood in the mind, called by Grosseteste the species apprehensibilis, with the visible form of the architecture, the species sensibilis, as perceived by the senses, in the same way that the species apprehensibilis of natural forms is connected to the species sensibilis. In order to perceive a form in nature, it must first be understood by the mind, and in that way the laws of nature are revealed. In order to perceive a form in architecture, it must first be understood by the mind, and in that way the secrets of architecture are revealed. In this way the architecture accommodates the intellectual ascension and comprehension of the spectator, as a model for understanding nature, and the archetypal intelligence of the world. An unusual vault in the chancel of the church at Urchfont in Wiltshire from between 1325 and 1330 is a predecessor of the lierne net vault. Shallow flat severies forming springer vaults rise from corbels near the tops of the

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windows in the elevations. There are three tiercerons per springer vault; the central tierceron forms a transverse arched rib, and the two on each side form transverse diagonal arched ribs which extend to the next bay over on the other side of the vault, crossing a thin central ridge pole. The ribs form a pattern of triangles on the vault, as in the sides of the polyhedral atomic geometries in the Timaeus of Plato, suggesting the geometrical structure of the cosmos. The thinness of the ribs suggests the branches of trees forming the roof of a primitive hut, representing the architecture of the church as an elementary or originary form of structure and shelter. The simplicity of the geometries and the sparseness of decoration are in contrast to the complex and increasingly decorative vaulting systems developing at the time, but the vault corresponds to the development of the Lincoln-style vault as a catechism of the intelligible structure of the universe. Its influence can perhaps be seen in the vault of the nave of the Church of Ottery St. Mary in Devon, north of Exeter, in its simplicity and structural emphasis. The south transept of Gloucester Cathedral (Figure 71) dates from between 1331 and 1336. Its remodeling formed the first part of the modernization of the east end of the cathedral in honor of King Edward II, who was murdered in 1327 at nearby Berkeley Castle and was buried in the cathedral. The design of the new transept is attributed to either Thomas of Canterbury (d. 1336), perhaps the designer of the vault of St. Mary Undercroft in St. Stephen’s Chapel; William Ramsey, who succeeded Thomas as architect of St. Stephen’s, and who also worked at Norwich, Ely and Lichfield; or John Sponlee, who designed the vault of the Aerary Porch of the Dean’s Cloister at Windsor Castle. The remodeling of the transept was executed under Abbot John Wygmor. It is likely that Edward II’s son, Edward III, would have recommended Thomas of Canterbury, the royal mason from London, to direct the project, in the London Court style, now called the Perpendicular. The Curvilinear architecture consists of wall paneling and tracery, with ogee arches and cusping, threaded by flying buttresses of the tower, and a lierne net vault above. The paneling replaced the previous Romanesque ashlar facing, and was inspired by the exterior elevations of St. Stephen’s Chapel in London designed by Michael of Canterbury, father of Thomas of Canterbury, as were the elevations of the Ely lantern, with the grille of vertical mullions, and similar mouldings. The architecture of the south transept is often described as Perpendicular; although it falls chronologically into the Curvilinear period in Rickman’s categories, it predicts, or is the earliest example of, the vertical emphasis of English Gothic architecture in the next

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two centuries. The tracery in the transept can be related to St. Stephen’s elevations, and the vault responds can be related to the responds in St. Mary Undercroft. The paneling in the south transept at Gloucester is dominated by vertical mullions which continue through both the wall surfaces and the voids of the arcades. The mullions are interrupted briefly by cornice lines, under which there are rows of cusped traceried arches, pointed in the arcade and ogee in the triforium or upper arcade (the elevation repeats the organization of the Ely choir elevation, with a double arcade rather than a shorter triforium). The cusping extends down along the mullions; it is mimicked in the tracery of the clerestory windows, with ogee arches and cusping, and quatrefoils in the tympana above. On the floor level there are canopied displays with crocketed triangular gables. The vocabulary of the elevation belongs to the Curvilinear period, while the dominance of the vertical mullions suggests the Perpendicular. The most unusual thing about the elevation is the presence of the diagonal member of the flying buttress, dividing the upper arcade opening in half, and continuing right through the lower arcade opening, or entrance portal into St. Andrew’s Chapel. The functional and structural logic of the elevation and the functional and structural logic of the buttress are interwoven, and coexist in complete disregard of each other. Diagonal mouldings are sculpted into the wall panels in places as if to acknowledge the presence of the buttress, but they are insignificant and redundant, as if the presence of the buttress needs to be acknowledged. The diagonal mouldings are a timid attempt to respond to the presence of the buttresses in the visual composition of the elevation; they do not accomplish any integration of the two structures—they only end up reinforcing the incompatibility of the two structures. Although the integration of the buttress into the wall is a unique and interesting episode in the development of English Gothic architecture, it is an aberration, and in no way establishes a precedent for the interweaving of incompatible structural systems. The awkward juxtaposition reinforces the heraldic importance of style in English Gothic architecture, the importance of the role of the architecture as the representative of a national identity or consciousness tied to a particular period; the style of the architecture cannot be altered, no matter how awkward the integration of it into the context. The vault in the south transept of Gloucester is an unusual development of the lierne net vault. Tiercerons spring from springer clusters towards a longitudinal ridge rib, forming transverse and diagonal arced ribs. Series of

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diagonal liernes are placed between the tiercerons, some forming minor transverse diagonal ribs. Unlike the previous lierne vaults, the liernes are not confined to the central vault surface parallel to the longitudinal ridge rib, but are extended to the edges of the vault, to the window heads and well down towards the springing of the tiercerons in the springer vaults. Thus the entire vault surface is covered with the undifferentiated woven network of liernes and tiercerons; the “net” effect is made stronger by the fact that the liernes and tiercerons are close in size, and that there are no bosses covering the joints or interfering with the effect of the net pattern. It has been argued that the absence of bosses demonstrates the skill of the masons in cutting the stone to accurately line up the joints. The surface of the vault itself has been transformed into a net pattern of ribs; the traditional composition of the vault as a juxtaposition of ribs and severies has been eclipsed. Given all this, the liernes appear more as tentacles branching off from the tiercerons, like the branches of a tree, than as a purely decorative pattern, thus, although the ribs are decorative, they give the appearance of a structure, an organic structure mimicking natural forms in trees or plants. The vaulting pattern turns the building into a thatched hut, or a primitive hut, linking architecture to its originary function as shelter, and to its originary means of production, weaving, thus suggesting the architectural theories of Marc-Antoine Laugier in the eighteenth century and Gottfried Semper in the nineteenth century, which can be found synthesized in English Gothic architecture in the fourteenth century. Around 1332, the chapter house of Old St. Paul’s in London was constructed, to a design by Walter Ramsey, using motifs that would be influential in the subsequent development of the Curvilinear and Perpendicular styles. The choir of Tewkesbury Abbey was begun in 1332, and completed in 1340. The renovations to the abbey in the fourteenth century were initiated by Lady Eleanor le Despenser, or Eleanor de Clare, wife of Hugh Despenser, and niece of King Edward II. In the arcade of the choir, broad pointed arches sit on huge cylindrical piers in each bay. In the second level, arcaded window openings containing stained glass windows correspond to the arcaded openings below; thus the choir follows the model of Ely choir and Gloucester south transept, in the elimination of the triforium, and the doubling of the arcade. The stained glass windows contain five lancets per bay and bar tracery, with roses above. The imagery in the stained glass is of the ancestors and relatives of Eleanor le Despenser, clad in armor. Tierceron ribs spring from between the window heads up towards the vault, which was

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constructed later, between 1375 and 1390, contemporary with the crossing vault at Tewkesbury. Construction of the choir vault of Wells Cathedral (Figure 72) began in 1333, and continued until 1340. The vault was probably designed by William Joy, and the choir was restored by Anthony Salvin between 1848 and 1854. The vault represents a new variation of the lierne net vault which became a popular Curvilinear motif. Two tiercerons spring from corbels on top of thin Purbeck responds between the high clerestory windows. The windows are recessed behind a shelf on top of the vertical plane of the triforium, which is filled with ornate tracery, all in the Curvilinear style. The central tierceron in each bay forms a transverse arced rib. The other tierceron forms a diagonal transverse arced rib spanning two bays of the vault in either direction, and intersecting the transverse ribs. A third tierceron in each bay forms a diagonal transverse rib in the other direction, but it springs from the peak of the window head rather than the corbel halfway down the clerestory. The intersecting tiercerons from the corbels and the window heads form overlapping checkered patterns, and at the intersections of each tierceron, from the corbels or the window heads, are placed cusped lierne diamonds, eliminating the actual intersection, replacing it with the void inside the diamond. Two rows of diamonds (or squares, as they are oriented to the longitudinal and latitudinal axes of the vault) run parallel along either side of the ridge, which has no ridge rib; a ridge rib is suggested by a series of intersecting tiercerons which run along the ridge. Additional lierne diamonds appear on the surface of the springer vaults, where transverse ribs converge towards the corbel below. There are bosses, but they are no larger than the cusping, and blend in with the pattern formed by the ribs. The cusping imitates the cusping in the vault of the choir of Bristol Cathedral. The intersecting tiercerons between the lierne diamonds can be seen as saltire crosses, reiterating the theme, most visibly represented by the strainer arches underneath the crossing of the cathedral, of the crucifixion of St. Andrew, the patron saint of the cathedral. The result is a net formed by the ribs which has a structural logic, the longer tierceron ribs being interrupted and reinforced by the shorter lierne ribs, as the shorter line is the line of greater strength, according to Aristotle, and Robert Grosseteste. The vault appears as if it could be self-supporting, that the severies or vault surface would be structurally unnecessary, so it seems as if the choir is enclosed by a structural cage, between the rib network of the vault and the tracery of the elevations. The architecture displays

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an increased membrification, or proliferation of parts and subdivisions, in the spirit of Scholasticism, and an increased dematerialization, in the spirit of the light mysticism of Catholic theology at the time, but both are achieved through surface texture, in an intelligible structure, rather than actual structural articulation, in the spirit of the English Gothic. In the vaulting of the choir of Wells Cathedral there is a disjunction between the transverse arced ribs formed by the tiercerons at the center of each springer vault and the diagonal ribs which are intersected by the liernes, turning them into patterns. The transverse latitudinal ribs correspond to the structure of the elevations, while the diagonal ribs do not, as they form an autonomous structural appearance of a net independent of the elevations. The latitudinal and diagonal ribs clash, representing two distinct structural systems, as if an additional branch were laid on top of the woven structure of a primitive hut. The combination creates a disjunction between the form of the vault and its function, a disjunction which has been present since Canterbury and Lincoln; there is a disjunction between the appearance of the net vault and the architecture of the elevations below, which is aggravated by the latitudinal transverse ribs. The lierne diamonds which prevent the intersections of the diagonal tiercerons prevent the tiercerons from suggesting a structure in relation to the elevations, and the latitudinal ribs, in that they correspond to the structural logic of the elevations, clash with the pattern formed by the diagonal ribs. The decorative weaving of the ribs thus overtly challenges the structural logic or presence of the vault, and appears as if it does not belong there in relation to the latitudinal ribs and the vertical support system of the elevations. The disjunctions in the structural logic at Lincoln are taken to the next level; the architecture can certainly be called mannerist, in its semiotic game of revealing the non-structural roles of structural vocabulary elements. As the intelligible structure of the vault clashes with the real structure of the elevation/vault system, its role as an intelligible structure is called into question. The conflict challenges the willing suspension of disbelief that the vault represents a structural system. The relation between the species sensibilis, the sensible, perceived form, and the species apprehensibilis, the intelligible form of matter constructed by the virtus intellectiva in mathematics and geometry, as described by Robert Grosseteste in works such as the Commentary on the Posterior Analytics, is called into question. What is perceived does not correspond to the intelligible form, which is a prerequisite for all perception in Grosseteste’s theory of vision; what is per-

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ceived is thus seen as a representation of a representation, rather than just a representation, or that which takes the place of a representation, as in the shadow on the wall in the Allegory of the Cave in the Republic of Plato. The intelligible structure of reality, known to the virtus intellectiva, or higher form of intellect which is aided by the participation of divine intellect, intelligentia, is inaccessible to the material intellect, virtus cogitativa or nous pathetikos, tied to sensory perception, in the terms of Grosseteste. The senses are deceptive, and the will of the mind, the solertia, is necessary to overcome sensory perception in order to see the intelligible as illuminated by the lux spiritualis in the oculus mentis. The design of the vault of the choir at Wells Cathedral seems to enact the problematic relation between human sensory experience and the ability to understand divine intelligence, which the architecture of the church is designed to facilitate. The nave vault of St. Mary Redcliffe (Figure 73) was begun in 1337 and completed in 1342. The vault pattern, fifty-four feet above the floor, is a more complex and distorted version of the transept vault, begun somewhat earlier, perhaps in 1290. The nave vault is composed of a series of springer clusters in each bay of the vault, between the window heads of the clerestory, with seven tiercerons per bay. The arches of the clerestory windows are extremely wide, so the tierceron clusters of each bay, spreading out like fingers across the surface of the vault, are easily distinguished. Liernes interrupt the tiercerons above the window heads, but not in the springer conoids, as they do in the Gloucester south transept for example. While the bays of the transept vault at St. Mary Redcliffe are clearly divided by pronounced transverse arches, the presence of the springers is minimized, and the square bays are filled out with the diamond and square lierne patterns; the vault reads as a series of centralized square bays, distinct from each other; the presence of a ridge line is minimized as well. The nave vault, in contrast, is dominated by the presence of the tierceron springers and the longitudinal ridge line—it is only imaginary, but it is reinforced by zigzagging lines of liernes running parallel to it. This is the first in a series of vaults in the Curvilinear style dominated by zigzagging liernes running parallel to the ridge line. The tiercerons in each bay extend to form transverse ribs and diagonal transverse ribs which run to the window heads and responds in the next bays over, forming a crossing pattern of diamonds longitudinally, which is extended by the zigzagging liernes running parallel to the ridge line and more liernes added to form diamonds above the window heads. The vocabulary is the same as in the transept vault—painted ribs with

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cusping and gilded bosses against white severies—but the pattern leaves the regular geometrical organization of the transept vault, and begins to suggest the irrational forms of nature. The line between the sensible form, species sensibilis, and intelligible form, species apprehensibilis, is blurred. The ribs undulate and fold across an uneven vault surface, suggesting topographical lines, and they are unevenly clustered and thorny (with the cusping), suggesting natural growth. There are similar instances in the architecture of Lincoln Cathedral where the patterns suggest topography and charts of the vectors of the virtus of natural forces, corresponding to the treatises on natural philosophy of Robert Grosseteste, such as the astronomical treatises, Computus I, Calendarium, Computus Correctorius, and Computus Minor; the treatise on light, De luce seu de inchoatione formarum; treatises on the heavenly bodies, De Generatione Stellarum, De Motu Corporali and De Motu Supercaelestium; treatises on meterological phenomena, De Impressionibus Elementorum, De Iride, De Colore, and De Calore Solis; and the cosmology De Lineis (Libellus Lincolniensis de Phisicis Lineis Angulis et Figuris). Perhaps the vaulting pattern in the nave of St. Mary Redcliffe, along with the vaulting pattern in the North Porch there, reflects the growing influence of natural philosophy, and the attempts to understand natural phenomena through geometry and mathematics and other rational means, though it is certainly more easily explained in terms of stylistic developments, and the desire on the part of the church to evoke the wonders of divine creation and the infinity of divine intelligence, with the stretched canopy of the vault simulating the starry vault of the heavens as a cosmology. Between 1337 and 1367, the choir and presbytery of Gloucester Cathedral were vaulted, and the Norman walls below were covered with early Perpendicular style paneling, with cusped ogee arches. The vault, ninety-two feet high, was designed by William Ramsey under Abbot Adam of Staunton (1337–51). The presbytery was probably completed between 1352 and 1367 under Abbot Thomas de Horton (or Houghton, 1351–77), contemporary with the construction of the fan vaults in the east walk of the cloister by Thomas of Cambridge. The vault was painted in 1895 by Clayton and Bell. It is the most elaborate lierne net vault in the Curvilinear style, combining the parallel ridge ribs, and patterns of diagonal ribs, of Tewkesbury Abbey, with a network of liernes extended to the edges of the vault. The vault can be seen as a logical consequence of development from the articulation and membrification of the vault begun at Lincoln; from the beginning the vault was an intelligible structure, not an actual structure, and the

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intelligible structure, the representation of the underlying geometrical structure of physical forms in nature, just became more pronounced. The vault, displaying the salient characteristic of the early stages of the emergence of the Perpendicular style, takes the membrification of Scholasticism to the extreme, exceeding any possibility of acting as a device to aid in mental organization, but rather succeeding in overwhelming the visual sense of the spectator, suggesting a mysticism as opposed to a rational philosophy or theology. The stupefying effect suggests the negative theology of PseudoDionysius, which was well-known at the time, in part resulting from translations carried out by Robert Grosseteste as Bishop of Lincoln. The mysticism of Pseudo-Dionysius promotes the suspension of reason in the via negativa; the best way to know God is to learn how to not know God, in the docta ignorantia or learned ignorance. The overwhelming complexity of the late Curvilinear vaults suggest the impossibility of comprehending the infinity of the universe through reason, based in geometry and mathematics, and suggests the wisdom of suspending comprehension in the face of the infinite intelligence of the divine. A growing emphasis on mysticism in theology can explain the increasingly complex and theatrical forms of the Curvilinear in the English Gothic. The vaults of the nave and choir, or chancel, of the Church of Ottery St. Mary in Devon, north of Exeter, date from between 1338 and 1342. A parish church was dedicated on the site in 1259, and the collegiate church was founded in 1337 by John Grandisson, Bishop of Exeter. The church was built between 1338 and 1342, modeled on Exeter Cathedral. Reverend John Coleridge, father of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, was Vicar of the church from 1760 to 1781. The choir vault, fifty-nine feet long, is obviously based on the vault of the choir at Wells Cathedral, and also designed by William Joy, who would later be called to Exeter Cathedral by Bishop Grandisson to be the master mason there. In contrast to the Wells choir vault, a sparse three tiercerons spring from corbels on responds in each bay, between each bay in the elevations, and the intersections of the tiercerons are marked by two parallel lines of lierne diamonds on either side of an imaginary ridge line, which is marked by two intersections of tiercerons in each bay. Like the vault at Wells, the tiercerons are stopped short at the intersections to form a cusped lierne diamond, or square set to the longitudinal and latitudinal axes of the vault, with a void at the center where the intersection of the tiercerons would be. The effect is thus again a stretched net, a skeletal intelligible structure contained within a Curvilinear pattern.

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The ribs are thicker than those of Wells choir, and polished and dark, creating a clear contrast to the severies, and giving the ribs more of a structural appearance than at Wells. The elimination of the transverse axial rib gives the vault the appearance of a more autonomous structure in relation to the elevations, as compared to the Wells choir vault. The diagonal liernes in the center do not continue beyond the center rib in each bay to the midpoint of the ridge ribs, like they do at Wells, so the appearance is not that a superfluous non-structural pattern has been overlaid on the vaulting geometry, as it appears in Wells choir. In contrast, the vault of Ottery St. Mary choir gives the appearance of an autonomous structural logic, an organic interlocking structural form like a crustaceous skeleton. The organic quality is created by the curvature of the edges of the squares along the ridge line, and the curvature is continued along the liernes in the intersecting linear geometry. The five-bay nave vault (Figure 75) at Ottery St. Mary, sixty-six feet long and thirty-four feet high, was also designed by William Joy. Again, only three tiercerons per bay spring from corbels on top of responds in the elevations, which have no triforia. In this vault there is a ridge pole, and the tiercerons just intersect, forming transverse ridge ribs (though the arc of the vault changes beyond the openings above the window heads), and spanning two bays to form diagonal transverse ribs. The intersections of the tiercerons are covered with gilded bosses, and the tiercerons are painted red and blue, in contrast to the ample white surfaces of the severies. The colors are symbolic of the Trinity: red for the blood of Christ, white for the Holy Ghost, and blue for the Celestial Father. The vaults in the choir and nave at Ottery St. Mary are restrained examples of the designs of William Joy, especially if he is responsible for the flying ribs in the antechamber of the Berkeley Chapel at Bristol Cathedral, and the retrochoir at Wells, along with the Wells choir vault. They are stylized versions, in the Curvilinear style, of the increasingly complex tierceron and lierne vaults, catechisms of the intelligible geometrical structure of the cosmos. They perhaps show the influence of the vaulting at Urchfont in their simple geometries. The strainer arches at Wells Cathedral (Figure 63) were constructed between 1338 and 1350, by William Joy, master mason at the cathedral, after the tower began to lean and crack, because the foundations failed to support an addition to the tower made by Dean John Godelee in 1313. The work was postponed by the Black Death, of which William Joy may have died. The scissor arches, supplemented by hidden buttresses, redistributed the stresses of the load and braced the tower above the foundation. The main arch blocks

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the continuous view from the nave to the choir; aesthetically, it can be seen as a perfect intermediary between the Early English nave, with its rows of pointed arches and rib vault with both arced and pointed transverse ribs, and the Curvilinear choir, with its stylized lierne net vault designed by William Joy. The strainer or scissor arches can also be seen as saltire crosses, the cross on which St. Andrew, the patron saint of Wells Cathedral, was crucified. The arches can be seen as double ogee arches, recalling the arcading in the Lady Chapel at Bristol Cathedral, and the voided roundels in the spandrels between the ogee arches recall the curved voided tracery in the spandrels above the flying arches in the aisles at Bristol, as William Joy had worked at Bristol Cathedral previously. The vault of the nave of Exeter Cathedral (Figure 76) was constructed between 1340 and 1369. It was designed by William Joy and Richard Farleigh (1352–77) for Bishop Grandisson. It is sixty-nine feet high, and at 300 feet long, it is the longest Gothic vault in the world. The vaulting cells are of red sandstone, and the vaulting ribs are of Devon Beer limestone. Fifteen tiercerons per bay spring from the responds in the elevations, which feature piers of sixteen shafts each, forming clearly defined conoid springer vaults. The corbels are carved foliage and baskets of flowers. The central nine tiercerons extend to a ridge pole, while the outside three on either side extend to transverse ridge ribs which connect the ridge pole to the peaks of the window heads in each bay of the elevation. The intersections along the ridge pole and transverse ribs are covered by excessively large sculpted and gilded bosses. The vault does not present any development of the Lincoln tierceron vault scheme, except for the number and size of the tiercerons, which render the severies insignificant, like the network of liernes in the Gloucester choir vault renders the surface of the vault insignificant, and the vault ribs are transformed into autonomous structures, thus, though the vocabulary is Early English, the effect is Curvilinear and decorative. The vault has to be seen as one of the more conservative designs of William Joy, though it becomes clear that even in the conservative designs, a twist or additional element is always added which expands the vocabulary and visual effect of English Gothic architecture, all within the framework of vocabulary elements introduced at Lincoln. Like the Gloucester choir vault, the Exeter nave vault presents an overt analogy to organic form, in this case the skeleton of the rib cage of an organic body. The vault has also been described as resembling the structure of the hull of the ship, thus reinforcing the etymological origin of the “nave.” As Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

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said in the nineteenth century, in the Introduction to the Philosophy of Fine Art (or the Introductory Lectures on Aesthetics), delivered in 1818, architecture can never be organic, it can only ever imitate the organic. The vaulting imitates both organic form and architectural structure itself. The vaulting does not function as structure, and is independent of the function of the cathedral, except in an intelligible or symbolic sense, and it contradicts the structural logic of the cathedral. The south transept of Chester Cathedral dates from around 1350, executed under Abbot Richard de Seynesbury (1349–62). It is divided in half by a high arcade and high clerestory level, with no triforium, as at York, Worcester, Lichfield, or St. Mary Redcliffe, in the Curvilinear style. The red sandstone of Chester alternates with the white grout lines between the stones to create a rich surface texture, along with the mouldings in the arches, the thin full-height responds, and the decorative tracery grille above the cornice line of the arcade. The clerestory windows were designed later by Seth Derwell (1493–1525), and the current five-bay vault was designed by Charles Blomfield in around 1900. Charles Blomfield (1848–1926) was the son of Sir Arthur Blomfield (1829–99) and the grandson of Charles James Blomfield (1786–1857), Bishop of Chester. The vault (Figure 77), made out of oak, is a Lincoln-style Early English vault with a ridge pole, and eleven tiercerons per bay springing from the thin responds. Nine of the tiercerons reach the ridge pole, while the outer two connect to the short transverse ridge ribs or proto-liernes initiated at Lincoln, in front of the window heads. The light through the clerestory windows reflecting off the surface of the oak vault adds to the pleasing effect of the red sandstone in the elevations. The King’s Gallery on the west front of Lincoln Cathedral (Figure 16) was put in place between 1351 and 1354, under the direction of Treasurer John Welbourne. The King’s Gallery consists of a row of seated figures of English kings from William I to Edward II set in Curvilinear-style canopies with crocketed triangular gables reminiscent of the pulpitum or Easter Sepulcher at Lincoln, or the canopies in the chapter house of Ely Cathedral. The row of canopies is set above the original portal of the Norman church of Bishop Remigius, with its multiple archivolts with zigzag and dogtooth mouldings, and just below the west window of the screen façade constructed during the bishopric of Robert Grosseteste. The statues of the kings are stiff and unnaturalistic, in contrast to the high level of naturalism in the foliate carvings of the period, in the chapter house at Southwell for example. The first full fan vault in English Gothic architecture, the earliest surviv-

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ing, was constructed in the east walk of the cloister of Gloucester Cathedral between 1351 and 1364. The vault is attributed to Thomas of Cambridge, or Thomas de Cantebrugge, who would be active at Hereford Cathedral from 1364 to 1370. He is thought to have designed a large single fan vault for the chapter house at Hereford which is related stylistically to the smaller fan vaults in the cloister at Gloucester. The chapter house at Hereford does not survive, and the design can only be gleaned from small fragments and a drawing made by the antiquarian William Stukeley in the eighteenth century, which is in the Bodleian Library at Oxford University, though the drawing is considered to be more of an imaginative reconstruction than an accurate drawing of existing remains. John Harvey suggests that Thomas designed the vault at Hereford while still working at Gloucester. Another possible designer of the chapter house at Hereford might be John of Evesham; he was appointed master mason at Hereford Cathedral in 1359. Thomas of Cambridge perhaps supervised the construction of the first six bays of the east cloister walk at Gloucester before he left for Hereford. The abbot at Gloucester at the time, contemporary with the completion of the presbytery in the cathedral, was Thomas de Horton. Fan vaults would follow in the south (Figure 78) and west (Figure 79) walks of the Gloucester cloister between 1381 and 1412; they are thought to be designed by Robert Lesyngham (1376–94) under Abbot Walter Froucester, though Robert had already left for Exeter by 1377, and may have returned to Gloucester later. At Gloucester Cathedral previously he supervised the remodeling of the north transept between 1368 and 1374. The fan vaulting in the Gloucester cloister can be seen as the logical consequence of the development from the Lincoln tierceron vault, in the advancements of the Curvilinear style. The fans of the vault are really just conoid springer vaults of tiercerons, rising from corbels on responds, turned into actual conoids. The vault surface forms the conoid, and the ribs become nothing more than surface application, as in the lierne vaults in the south transept and choir at Gloucester, masking the structural articulation, in the mannerist tendency of the Curvilinear, in which a surface texture containing an intelligible structure replaces a representation of the actual structure of the building. Construction of the fan vaults in the Gloucester cloister was relatively straight forward, in relation to later fan vaulting, as the bays are all square (ten bays per cloister walk), corresponding to the original Norman cloister, on the foundation of which the Gothic cloister was built. Later fan vaulting had to be adapted to rectangular bays, including at Gloucester. As the ribs

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are only surface decoration, the vaults are supported by square keystones in the central spandrel of each bay. The vaults are “shells of jointed masonry with a self-developing system of tracery cells cut in relief on their surface,” as described by Peter Kidson. The tracery patterns are cut independently into each piece of interlocking masonry which make up the vaults. In the arcade of the cloister, a row of bar tracery windows, with ogee arches, is set on a lower wall with windows. In the south walk the bundled responds are set on top of the wall, while in the east and west walks they run down to the floor. The responds rise to about a third of the way up the clerestory level, and the conoid fans spring from there. Relief tracery in the outer wall mimics the tracery of the windows on the courtyard side. Two pairs of pointed arches with trilobe cusping are set underneath the ogee arches. The fans also contain ogee arches with trilobe cusping set between the tiercerons, culminating in trefoils inscribed in semicircles connecting pairs of tiercerons, which are tangent to a semicircular rib which borders the fan and defines the base of the upside down cone, and also defines the borders of the spandrels between the fans on the surface of the vault. The tracery on the vault surface forms a continuity with the tracery on the walls of the elevations; the structure of the walls and vault, the whole construct of the cloister, is represented entirely as decorated surface pattern. The tiercerons of Lincoln were never structural to begin with; now they are just tracery, just surface pattern. The surface of the conoid fans helps to shore the walls, as would the regular vault, but the vault betrays no structural properties, only a decorated form of the intelligible geometries which form a catechism of the geometrical substructure of matter. Though it is purely geometrical, the fan vault has an organic feel to it, suggesting natural forms, crystalline rock formations or plant growth. The line between geometry and organic form, between the human mind and nature, and the human mind and the divine mind, is again blurred. In the understanding of the intelligible geometries, the human mind, or soul, anima rationalis, ascends from the material intellect, discursive thinking, virtus cogitativa or nous pathetikos, dependent on sense experience, to the active intellect, virtus intellectiva or nous poietikos, independent of sense experience. The virtus intellectiva requires the participation of divine intellect, intelligentia, which illuminates the oculus mentis, the mind’s eye, with the lux spiritualis, the incorporeal divine light. When the anima rationalis is illuminated by the lux spiritualis and is able to function in the virtus intellectiva, the line between human intellect and divine intellect is blurred, as repre-

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sented and facilitated by the blurring of geometry and organic forms in the architecture. The cognitive structure which was present in the architecture of Lincoln Cathedral, and described in the writings of Robert Grosseteste, is present in the fan vaulting in the cloister at Gloucester Cathedral, but in the Curvilinear style the cognitive structure makes no pretense to be the architectural structure. The spandrels of the vaulting, the areas between the rings surrounding the conoid springer fans, are filled with tracery as well. There is no ridge pole, although a ridge line is suggested by the intermediate points of tangencies between the fans along the center of the vault. The tracery in the spandrels is mostly composed of six circles inscribed with octofoils, with adumbrated foiled circles in the corners which take the shape of hearts as they run into the spaces between the concave lines of the fan edges before they meet. The tangencies of the two pairs of circles at the center of the spandrels somewhat continue the visual suggestion of the presence of a ridge line. The small circles in the spandrels reiterate the circular base of the cones at the top of the conoids, suggesting a continuous flat surface between the walls above the fans. Walking through the cloisters is like walking through an enchanted forest of geometries, as in the retrochoir and Lady Chapel of Wells Cathedral, in the apotheosis of the Curvilinear style. The original nave vault of York Minster was constructed between 1354 and 1360. The present vault (Figure 80), ninety-three feet high, is a timber reproduction by Sydney Smirke (1798–1877), brother of Sir Robert Smirke, after the original vault, perhaps a quadripartite stone vault, burned in 1840. The vault is a simplified version of the Lincoln tierceron vault, like the vault of the nave of Worcester Cathedral, with three tiercerons per bay rising from corbels on top of responds which rise to just above the stone grillwork in the lower level of the clerestory, replacing the triforium, typical of the Curvilinear approach to the elevation. The two outer tiercerons meet a ridge pole, while the central tierceron is interrupted halfway and branches into three liernes which continue to the ridge pole. Between the springer bays, which are concave surfaces rather than conoids, short transverse ribs connect to tiercerons which extend to about halfway down the moulding along the arch at the top of the window, something not seen before in vaulting. The intersections of the tiercerons with the window mouldings, which are covered by bosses as are all the intersections of ribs in the vault, turn the window mouldings into vault ribs, tangent to the wall elevations. Liernes placed between the ridge pole and outer tiercerons of the spring-

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ers, and between the outer tiercerons and the intersections of the transverse ribs and tiercerons going to the window mouldings, form octagonal star patterns along the ridge pole, between the window heads latitudinally and the springer vaults longitudinally. The vault thus combines tierceron patterns and lierne star patterns, alternating longitudinally along the ridge pole. Gilded foliate bosses cover the intersections of ribs; the largest bosses are placed on the intersections between the central tiercerons in each springer bay and the liernes which connect them to the ridge pole, relieving the visual emphasis on the clusters of liernes along the ridge pole. In plan, all of the tiercerons and liernes extend across the vault to form a series of diagonal crossing patterns. The concavities of the vault in three dimensions are subsumed by the patterns, which become dominant if the vault is viewed from straight below. Here the Early English emphasis on spatial relationships and the Curvilinear emphasis on surface patterns are juxtaposed and fluctuate, depending on the point of view of the vault. In the two-dimensional pattern, the lierne stars between the elevation bays can be seen to be the primary motif, with the lierne springers of the bays of the vault playing a subsidiary role, as the tiercerons lead into and form the lierne star patterns, or the diagonals of the tiercerons leading away from the ridge pole can be seen to be the dominant motif. The fluctuation between space and pattern is continued in the fluctuation in the pattern itself, mimicking the spatial fluctuation itself between concave surfaces. The vault in the nave at York Minster would seem to be a medieval celebration of the “in between,” between the vault as structure or spatial configuration and the vault as surface pattern, between the tierceron vault and lierne star vault. Such a fluctuation or “in between” renders the visual experience of the vault self-conscious; the viewer becomes aware that both ways of looking at the vault in the different terms are necessarily constructed, necessarily the product of a priori conceptual structures. In the terms of Robert Grosseteste, the visual experience enacts the relation between the species apprehensibilis, the intelligible form seen by the oculus mentis, mind’s eye, prior to the perception of the sensible form, and the sensible form itself, the species sensibilis. In Grosseteste’s theory of perception, a sensible form must be understood, or constructed mentally, in order to be perceived. Grosseteste does not deny the existence of the sensible form independent of the mind, but perception must involve a dialectic between the sensible form and its conception in the anima rationalis, which is a product of the higher form of intellection, virtus intellectiva, involving the

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participation of divine intelligence, intelligentia. The original vault of the York nave of 1354 was decorated with blue paint and gold stars to symbolize the celestial intelligence, which emanates into the material world through geometry, as in the geometries of the vaulting. The vault is almost as high as the vault of Westminster Abbey, reinforcing its celestial representations, and the importance of the city of York. The visual experience of the York nave vault seems to be a catechism of the process of perception as described by Robert Grosseteste, and later members of the Franciscan School, including Roger Bacon, explicating the relation between human and divine intelligence. The experiments and seeming peculiarities of the Curvilinear period seem to contribute more to the explication of that relation, and the conceptual structures initiated by Grosseteste, to be understood as the conceptual basis for the design of English Gothic cathedrals and churches from the Early English to the Decorated periods. In its present state, resulting from the nineteenth-century reconstruction, both the ribs and the severies of the York nave vault are painted white, emphasizing the role of the ribs as surface texture over the representation of a structural system, contributing to the increasing emphasis on surface texture in the Curvilinear period, as in the vaults of the cloister at Gloucester. The vaulting of the nave aisles and choir aisles (Figure 74) at St. Mary Redcliffe was executed between 1355 and 1385. Square bays marked off by heavy pointed transverse ribs and arch mouldings on the sides are filled with centralized tierceron and lierne patterns. Two tiercerons spring from each corner to form the outlines of a series of lierne polygons; the tiercerons play no role other than to establish a surface pattern. Three lierne hexagons run in the center along an imaginary ridge rib, with sexfoil cusping inside, and the liernes of the central hexagon are continued to form the borders, along with the tiercerons springing from the corners, of lierne diamonds on either side of the longitudinal axis, with quatrefoil cusping. The ribs are painted and the intersections are covered with gilded leaf bosses, all against the background of the white vault surface. The aisle vaults continue the decorative patterning of the transept and nave vaults, which would culminate in the choir vault of the fifteenth century, in the progression from geometrical organization to the blurring of the geometries with the suggestion of natural forms, in the blurring of the line between the species apprehensibilis and species sensibilis. The west front of Winchester Cathedral was begun in 1360, along with three bays of the nave, under Bishop William of Edington (1346–66), and continued under Bishop William of Wykeham (1367–1404), who was Chan-

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cellor of England and founder of Winchester College and New College, Oxford. It was completed under Bishop Henry Beaufort (1405–47), son of John of Gaunt and uncle of Henry V. The west front features three porches and the great west window. The central portal (Figure 81), the first phase of the remodeling, is set under a stilted pointed arch with multiple archivolts, with cusped tracery in paneling in the walls above. Below the arch is a centralized lierne vault formed of liernes which create intersecting arches springing from bundled responds below. The patterned lierne vault, with thick ribs and foliate bosses, in the light stone from the Isle of Wight, is reminiscent of the vaulting of the North Porch of St. Mary Redcliffe, and anticipates the Perpendicular style vaulting to come in the next century in the interior of the cathedral. Below the vault, the bundled responds support pointed arches with elaborate cusping, trefoils set in single foils, and on either side of the central pair of doors, pointed arches with trefoil cusping appear in relief tracery on the walls, with sexfoils set in hexagons above, the bottom two sides of the hexagons being the concave edges of the arches below. The vertical emphasis is repeated throughout the west front. The choir and retrochoir of York Minster were rebuilt between 1361 and 1370. The retrochoir was begun by William de Hoton, master mason of the minster from 1351 to 1370; the arcades and clerestory were designed by Robert de Patrington between 1368 and 1370. The current lierne wood vault (Figure 82) was designed by Sir Robert Smirke (1781–1867) between 1829 and 1832. The choir elevation, originally built in the mid-twelfth century by Archbishop Roger de Pont L’Evêque, was rebuilt beginning in 1361, and continued by Hugh de Hedon from 1399 to 1401, and William Colchester, master mason of the minster, from 1400 to 1415. The elevations present the Curvilinear formula of a high arcade of pointed arches with multiple archivolts extending to the cornice line, as in the Early English elevation, topped by a high clerestory level, with stone grillwork replacing a triforium. The vaulting of the choir and retrochoir, replacing the original vaulting which burned down in a fire of 1829, is a more complex version of the vaulting of the nave. As in the nave, three tiercerons spring from responds in each bay on concave surfaces, extending across the vault to form a quadripartite vault, with transverse ridge ribs and diagonal ribs in each bay. An additional transverse ridge rib is placed between the bays of the vault, connecting the window heads in each bay of the elevations, and shorter tiercerons extend from the peak and sides of the window heads to connect to the transverse ribs and tiercerons. Longitudinal and diagonal liernes fill in the spaces be-

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tween the ridge pole and the window heads, and between the transverse ribs; the liernes form hexagons around the central intersections of ridge pole and transverse ribs between the window heads; the hexagons are surrounded by an elaborate latticework of liernes, clustered in longitudinal lines running parallel to the ridge pole, halfway between the ridge pole and the elevations. The lierne clusters seem to form bracing for the tierceron springers in each bay, so it is difficult to separate the pattern of the liernes from the structural function of the rib, unlike the nave vaulting, where the readings of the structural system and pattern of ribs fluctuate, creating the “in-between” phenomenon, between the species sensibilis and the species apprehensibilis. As both the ribs and the severies are painted white, they are inseparable in their material presence; large gilded bosses cover the intersections, with foliate and figural carvings. The bosses, as kinds of buttons, here come to play a role in the structural catechism, appearing to hold the patterns of ribs in the textural composition of the vault together. The boss functions as the button hole in the fabric, the point de capiton, the point at which the species sensibilis and the species apprehensibilis meet, making the visual communication of the vault as an intelligible structure possible. The choir aisle vaulting is simple Early English, a tierceron vault with three tiercerons per bay, forming transverse ribs and diagonal ribs, or a quadripartite vault, and with extra transverse ribs between the window heads in each bay of the elevation, as in the basic underlying structure of the choir and retrochoir vaults. The elevations of the presbytery of Norwich Cathedral (Figure 83) were rebuilt between 1362 and 1369 in the Curvilinear style, by Robert Wodehirst, or Wadhirst, who also worked on the cloister at Norwich, under Bishop Thomas Percy (1355–69). Wodehirst had worked at Westminster Abbey in the 1350s, according to John Harvey in English Mediaeval Architects. The original Norman arcade of the Norwich presbytery was begun in 1096 by Herbert de Losinga, along with quarters for monks. Losinga became Bishop by buying the position from William Rufus; his simony was condemned by Reformers, and the cathedral in Norwich was built as an act of atonement after Losinga traveled to Rome to obtain absolution. Monks were brought from Canterbury to establish a monastery attached to the cathedral. Losinga died in 1119, by which time the nave of the cathedral had been started. The Norman nave was completed under Bishop Eborard, and a tower was completed by William de Turbe. The presbytery was partially rebuilt between 1245 and 1257, in the Early English style. The rebuilding, including the vaulting, continued in the Per-

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pendicular period, between 1472 and 1499, by Robert Everard, under Bishop James Goldwell. The Perpendicular vaulting is sympathetic to the Curvilinear clerestory. The original Norman work is present in the plan, and the double arcade of round arches, with zigzag mouldings, below the Curvilinear clerestory level. The clerestory level features an inner openwork arcade set in front of the windows, recalling the treatments by William the Englishman at Canterbury and Geoffrey de Noyers at Lincoln in the Early English experiments in spatial vistas, and the dematerialization of the elevation in relation to the vault, subverting the structural logic of the French Gothic cathedral. A similar treatment occurred in the Ely Lady Chapel. This Curvilinear version of the openwork arcade features cusped ogee arches set in the bays between the arches, with the peaks of the ogee arches acting as corbels for the springer ribs of the vault. The stained glass clerestory windows feature two tiers of four lights in each bay; the tiers are separated by a frieze divided by vertical mullions, as in the west front of Winchester Cathedral, and the lights of the upper tier are topped by arches which are enclosed by a larger pair of arches, with quatrefoils in the tympana, and hexagons above, as in the blind tracery on the west front of Winchester, in the Curvilinear style. The unusual vault (Figure 84) of the Prior’s Kitchen (became a Muniment Room and is now a gift shop) at Durham Cathedral was constructed between 1366 and 1374 by John Lewyn (fl. 1364–98). The centralized vaulting of the octagonal room, formed by two thick ribs springing from each bay, features an octagonal lantern or louver in the center bordered by an octagon formed by the ribs. The vault is clearly influenced by tenth-century Islamic vaulting in the Great Mosque at Córdoba in Spain, or at Masjid-I Jāmi in Isfahan (Iran) in the twelfth century, reflecting an Islamic influence in English Gothic architecture which goes back to the west fronts of Lincoln and Ely. At Córdoba an octagon is formed by eight cycloid arches which cover two bays each, forming eight pendentives between eight horseshoe arch window heads, forming a squinch dome. At Durham the pendentives are thinner and the angles are more acute; the ribs on either side of each bay are almost parallel, forming eight pairs of transverse ribs, forming an octagon in the center, as at Córdoba, but without the dome above. The more compressed ribs in the Prior’s Kitchen vault cause them to overlap four other ribs, instead of two as at Córdoba, creating additional triangular spaces between the pendentives, which create an eight-pointed star. The vault of the Prior’s Kitchen can also be seen to be based on the vault of the Chapel of the Nine Altars at Durham, where eight ribs converge at the

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center of the vault to form a large ring, the segments of which can be seen as liernes along an imaginary ridge pole. The vault of the Chapel of the Nine Altars, containing carved figures of the Four Evangelists, is a representation of the emanation of the spirit of God, from the center of the ring, through the logos, into the material world, represented by the geometrical progression from the point in the center, to the lines of the ribs, to the surface of the vault, to the solid of the building in the architecture, corresponding to the formation of matter. The material world is formed by geometries and mathematical proportions, as emanating from the originary spirit, the incorporeal light, as was described in the treatises by Robert Grosseteste. The vault in the Prior’s Kitchen is in the same way a catechism of light and material emanation, as its Islamic predecessors were also intended to be. The vault at Durham is one of a series of experimental vaults carried out in the late fourteenth century, including the vaulting of the Aerary Porch of the Dean’s Cloister of Windsor Castle by John Sponlee in 1353–54, and the vaulting of a staircase at New College, Oxford, in around 1385, by William Wynford. Each vault is a centralized lierne vault, with tiercerons springing from responds in the corners to form polygonal shapes, the octagon at Durham, and lierne diamonds at Windsor and Oxford, with the vaulting of the North Porch of St. Mary Redcliffe as a precedent. In Sponlee’s vault at Windsor, an eight-pointed star at the center is surrounded by eight open squares, intersecting the diagonal tiercerons and ridge ribs. The intention in each of the vaults is to create a crystalline organic pattern with the geometry of the liernes, to blur the line between the organic and inorganic, or nature and the human mind. In Islamic architecture, the result of the development was the muqarnas vault, as in the Hall of the Abencerrajes in the Palace of the Lions in Alhambra, Spain, from the same time period, 1370–80, where intricate geometrical formations take on the appearance of crystalline stalactite forms, in the ultimate blurring of the line between geometry and nature, between human reason and divine intelligence as manifest in organic forms. Work in the crossing and transepts of Worcester Cathedral dates from around 1375. The tower was built between 1357 and 1374 by John Clyve (fl. 1362–92). The crossing vault is a centralized sexpartite vault; the severies contain painted decorations illustrating the Celestial Hierarchies by Sir George Gilbert Scott. The southwest transept contains a lierne vault (Figure 85) and early Perpendicular-style stone grillwork in the elevations, both from around 1375, which were added to the original Norman architecture from around 1185. The stone grillwork fills the walls below a high recessed clere-

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story level. The vault is a quadripartite vault with thick diagonal ribs springing from corbels at the bottom of the clerestory level, with a thin ridge pole and thin transverse ribs connecting the window heads of the clerestory, and short tiercerons extending from the outer shafts of the window mouldings in each bay and extending to the thick diagonal ribs and thin transverse ribs between the window heads, forming a zigzag pattern along the edges of the vault. The vault is thus a tentative halfway point between the Early English vault and the complex lierne vaults of the Curvilinear period, each a development of vaulting at Lincoln. The vault of the southwest transept at Worcester seems anachronistic in relation to the more advanced Perpendicular paneling in the elevations. The severies are composed of exposed dark and light red sandstone bricks, as are the ribs, giving the vault more of a tectonic appearance than a decorative one, again in contrast to the Perpendicular paneling of the elevations. The east transepts at Worcester (Figure 86) continue the elevation and vaulting schemes of the choir and retrochoir from the Early English period, in the vocabulary established at Lincoln Cathedral. The nave, choir, and west front of Westminster Abbey were begun in around 1375. The choir and eastern bays of the nave were planned by Henry of Reyns between 1243 and 1253, under King Henry III, and construction was continued by Henry Yevele (1320–1400), beginning in 1375 or 1376, under Abbot Nicholas Litlyngton (1362–86) and King Richard II (1367– 1400). Henry Yevele is considered to be one of the greatest architects of the middle ages in England, although consideration has to be given to Geoffrey Middle Ages de Noyers and William Joy. The nave elevations were designed by John Palterton, master mason of Westminster Abbey from 1344 to possibly 1379. The nave arcades were not begun until 1387. The nave and choir of Westminster Abbey are a copy of the nave of Lincoln Cathedral, apparently reverting back to the Early English style for the purpose of representing a nationalism associated with the king. As at Lincoln, bundles of polished Purbeck shafts support pointed arches with multiple archivolts reaching up to the cornice line, with a triforium of traceried arches and clerestory lancets beneath a tierceron vault with a ridge pole and transverse ridge ribs extended in front of the window heads. The same approach could be found in the naves of Beverley Minster and Chester Cathedral; the nave of Westminster Abbey, in particular in the use of the Purbeck stone, is an homage to the uniqueness of Early English Gothic architecture, representing a national identity. Diapering in the spandrels of the arcades and galleries, in the form of carved trelliswork of stylized flowers, which would

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have been brightly colored, suggests the simpler lattice diapering in the spandrels of the crossing tower at Lincoln Cathedral in the 1230s. There is a slightly noticeable joint in the nave after the fourth window bay from the crossing which marks the end of thirteenth-century work and the beginning of fourteenth-century work, where the details are more in the Curvilinear style. These details include polygonal bases and capitals, different mouldings of the shaft rings, cusping and quatrefoils in the lancet lights of the clerestory windows, and spandrels in the gallery without diapering, a motif more common in the Early English and Decorated periods. The lower part of the west front of Westminster Abbey, with the great window, is attributed to Henry Yevele from around 1375. The design is in the early Perpendicular style, in the waning years of the Curvilinear style, with an emphasis on vertical mullions in relief paneling, heavy pier buttresses on either side of the window, steep crocketed triangular gables, the Curvilinear motif, set in the upper tiers of the paneling, and the Perpendicular formula in the window of pointed arches over the outside pairs of lancets containing tiers of lights. The stained glass in the window was designed by James Thornhill (1675–1734) in 1721, and painted by William Price. The towers above were built to a design by Nicholas Hawksmoor (1661–1736), the student of Christopher Wren, in 1745, under Dean Joseph Wilcocks (1731–56). Underneath the window can currently be found the Grave of the Unknown Soldier and statues of twentieth-century martyrs. The lower part of the west front of Westminster Abbey represents the culminating design of the Curvilinear period, and the official initiation of the Perpendicular period.

8 Perpendicular

The last phase of English Gothic architecture is called the Perpendicular, as defined by Thomas Rickman in the Attempt to Discriminate the Style of Architecture in England. The period runs from 1380 (or, as has been seen, from developments as early as 1330) until 1540, with Bishop West’s Chapel at Ely Cathedral. The Perpendicular style is dominated by strong vertical lines (and, as has been seen, horizontal lines), linear patterns (which have developed throughout English Gothic architecture, beginning at Durham and Lincoln), the repetition of cusped panels, and overlapping ogee curves forming “reticulated” patterns, instead of the dominant curvilinear elements of the previous period, and patterns with more formal compositions and detached components. Many of the basic vocabulary elements of the Curvilinear, such as the lierne rib, are also the basic vocabulary elements of the Perpendicular. The origin of the Perpendicular, which has been called the “national style of England,” because of its association at the end of the medieval period with English royalty and nationalism, and because it is unique to England, can be seen in the architecture at Gloucester Cathedral in the fourteenth century, and the architecture of the London Court style at St. Stephen’s Chapel in Westminster Palace, commissioned by Edward I, and Old St. Paul’s Cathedral at the end of the thirteenth century. Details of St. Stephen’s Chapel which can be called Perpendicular include vertical tracery patterns in the spandrels above the arched windows, mullions extended downwards from the windows through the arcade, and mullions on the exterior arranged in a kind of curtain. Similar details could be found in France in the thirteenth century, in what is called the Rayonnant style. Similar autonomous tracery can be found in the triforia of the choir of St. Denis north of Paris, the south transept of Amiens Cathedral, and the transepts of Notre Dame in Paris. Similar tracery could be found in the chapter house and cloisters of Old St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, designed

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around 1332 by William Ramsey, who was a master mason at St. Stephen’s. William Ramsey may also have contributed to the design of the south transept of Gloucester Cathedral between 1331 and 1337, and the choir between 1337 and 1350, during what is referred to as the Curvilinear period. The choir of Gloucester Cathedral is seen as a London Court style building because it was designed to be a shrine for the remains of King Edward II. There is no precise cut-off point stylistically between the Curvilinear and Perpendicular, as is evidenced by the vaulting of the choir and crossing at Tewkesbury Abbey. The choir vault and crossing vault of Tewkesbury Abbey date from between 1375 and 1390. The vault of the choir (Figure 87), renovated between 1332 and 1340 by Lady Eleanor le Despenser, or Eleanor de Clare, wife of Hugh Despenser, is a stellar lierne vault with cusped tiercerons, curved liernes forming lozenge patterns, and severies in the center painted red and blue, the colors of the Trinity in combination with the white severies. At base the vault is a Lincoln-style tierceron vault, with tierceron springer ribs, a ridge pole, and transverse ridge ribs. Additional liernes are placed across the tiercerons, and running diagonally across the ridge pole, and the curved liernes, in the form of ogee arch segments, are placed between the tiercerons and longitudinal and latitudinal ridge ribs. Intersections of ribs are decorated with gilded foliate bosses and heraldic shields. The ribs are cylindrical, and are cusped with what looks like thorns, so there is the suggestion of the metaphor of sticks in a thatched hut. The outline of the ribs becomes blurred over the painted severies, and it is difficult to distinguish the forms in relation to the structure of the vault. The curved liernes cause the lozenge shapes to suggest organic forms, which are contradicted by the primary colors. The overall effect is almost hallucinatory, and the vault looks very much like psychedelic designs in the 1960s. The distinction between the organic and inorganic, structure and nonstructure, and two dimensions and three dimensions are blurred, challenging the processes of perception in relation to intellection. In the terms of Robert Grosseteste, there is a disjunction between the species sensibilis, the form as perceived in sense experience, and the species apprehensibilis, the form as conceived a priori to allow it to be perceived. We order the world in perception in intellection, as Plotinus said, from what would otherwise be a chaotic blur as received in apperception, prior to the intellectual act of perception which applies the species apprehensibilis to the species sensibilis. The species apprehensibilis is visible to the oculus mentis, the mind’s eye, according

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to Grosseteste, in that it is illuminated by the lux spiritualis, the noncorporeal light which illuminates intelligibles in the mind, and which is the product of intelligentia, divine intelligence. The vault of the choir of Tewkesbury Abbey is a catechism of the relation between human intelligence and divine intelligence, and illustrates how perception and intellection are dependent on the participation of the divine. The vault of the crossing of Tewkesbury Abbey (Figure 88) is a centralized lierne vault in the form of a mandala, with the image of the sun in the center, with an eye in it, on a red background. The sun symbolizes the Yorkist kings, and the sun with an eye in it synthesizes Christian theology and classical philosophy, correlating the all-seeing Christian God with the procreative powers of the sun, source of light in the universe, and source of the Good in the universe, as described by Plato and Plotinus. The sun is surrounded by a lierne octagon, symbol of creation, which is inscribed in a fourpointed star, which is inscribed in another lierne octagon, which is inscribed in a square, which is inscribed in an octagon, which is inscribed in a square, with one more square around it, the midpoints and corners of the squares connected by liernes. The area inside the octagon circumscribing the star at the center is painted red, and there are small gilded bosses placed between the liernes which appear to be minor suns or planets. The vaulting is surely intended to be a cosmological catechism; it is reminiscent of diagrams of the polyhedral figures inscribed inside each other in Plato’s description of the underlying atomic structure of matter in the Timaeus. In Grosseteste’s terms, the sun creates the lumen spiritualis from the lux spiritualis and distributes it along geometrical lines throughout the universe, through the stars and planets above and into the material world. The sun is the source of light and of the Good, the divine order of the universe. The mandala in the vault perhaps suggests a knowledge of the similarities between the cosmologies understood in Christian theology and classical philosophy and the cosmologies of eastern religions and philosophies. The vaulting of the crossing tower of Lincoln Cathedral (Figure 19) dates from around 1380. The vaulting represents a culmination of the developments in vaulting carried out at Lincoln Cathedral, with the use of the conoid springers, tiercerons, liernes, and ridge ribs. Conoids in the corners and at the center of each side meet two longitudinal and two latitudinal ridge ribs which run between the clerestory levels of each side of the square tower and intersect to form a continuous square ridge line around a central boss. Five tiercerons in each bay extend to the square ridge line while an additional

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tierceron on each side of the conoids extends to the extensions of the ridge lines to the clerestory, in concave cavities above the windows, as in the nave. Each of the five central tiercerons in each bay is extended to the central boss, as if there were a central column underneath, suggesting the pendant which is to come in the development of vaulting. The central boss is surrounded by cusping forming a floral pattern, and preventing the tiercerons or liernes from actually reaching the centerpoint. All of the intersections of ribs are covered by foliate bosses. The vaulting perhaps shows the influence of Exeter vaulting, in the thickness and density of the ribs, and in the suggestion of organic forms, with the use of the basic Lincoln vocabulary of vaulting. As described previously, the vaulted ceiling is divided into nine compartments, the eight conoid bays and the center defined by the square ridge line. The nine compartments correspond to the Celestial Hierarchies, the nine levels that mediate between the mind of man and God, from the Celestial Hierarchy of Pseudo-Dionysus, translated by Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln, in about 1235. In the Celestial Hierarchies, the three levels of the Trinity are each divided into three levels of choruses: Angels, Archangels, and Principalities of the Spirit; Dominations, Virtues, and Powers of the Son; and Thrones, Cherubim, and Seraphim of the Father. The Celestial Hierarchies were used as a metaphorical ordering device to organize the hierarchy of the clergy of the church by Robert Grosseteste as Bishop. To reiterate, it is not reasonable to assume that the builders of Lincoln Cathedral read the treatises of Bishop Grosseteste, but it is reasonable to assume that all professions at the time were immersed in ways of thinking that pervaded the culture, from the treatises of the scholars to the liturgical and iconographic programs that would have been devised by the clergy. The architects and master masons were well-educated, and they would have been in constant contact with the ways of thinking of the time in sermons, disputations, and lectures. The Franciscans played an important role in England in making higher forms of knowledge more accessible to the average person, even the natural sciences, mathematics and optics which were the subject of Grosseteste’s treatises, and which played a role in the design of the architecture. The membrification of the vaulting, reflecting the structural clarity and progressive divisibility of the summa, in the spirit of the manifestatio of Scholasticism, creates an edificium, a three-dimensional model of an epistemology, a catechism of a structure of knowledge. The organization of the vaulting can be seen to represent a diagram of the order of the Church, as an imago generalis ecclesiae. The units are or-

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ganized hierarchically, and are brought together as parts to create a whole or universal. The units of the church include the parish, run by the priest, and monastery, run by the abbot (though not at Lincoln). The parishes and monasteries of the church are governed by the diocese, which is governed by the archdiocese, the district of the archbishop, which is governed by the highest ranking bishop, primatus. The church is governed by the pope, who is governed by Christ. A secular hierarchy is established to correspond to the ecclesiastical or celestial hierarchy; the vaulting patterns connect the organization of earthly and human intelligence to divine intelligence. The analogy between scripture or ecclesiastical hierarchy and building as edificium is found in the Moralia in Job of Gregory, and the Didascalicon of Hugh of Saint-Victor. The edifice of scripture has both a structure, or history, and a superstructure, or allegorical content, in the same way that architecture has both a structure and an allegorical or metaphysical content, the ideas associated with its forms. In the Metrical Life of Saint Hugh, the second biography of Hugh of Avalon, Bishop of Lincoln, written between 1220 and 1235 by Henry of Avranches, a friend of Robert Grosseteste, Lincoln Cathedral is compared to a honeycomb, yielding sweet inner meaning, the allegory of divine communion. Hugh of Saint-Victor compared history, as the foundation and principle of sacred learning, to a honeycomb, from which the allegory is extracted as honey. The vaulting pattern of the crossing tower at Lincoln can easily be seen as a honeycomb. The structure of the cathedral corresponds to the history of the church in its foundation of learning, and the metaphysical role of the architecture in communicating ideas corresponds to the allegorical content of spiritual development. The vaulting pattern in the crossing and the image of the honeycomb can be compared to the syncopated arcading of Saint Hugh’s Choir, the vaulting pattern in Saint Hugh’s Choir, and several other elements of the cathedral. In each case the membrification and reticulation, as instruments of the progressive divisibility of the manifestatio of Scholasticism, contain the synthesis of reason and faith, in the comprehension of the Good and the justice of the ecclesiastical hierarchy. The visual effect of the severies of the vaulting in the crossing tower, the areas between the ribs, is like that of a billowing tent being stretched to the corners and centerpoints of the walls, structured and held in place by the geometries of the ribs. The vaulting can be seen as a skeletal variation, in a rational structure, of the effect found in Byzantine architecture, as at the Baptistery of the Orthodox in Ravenna, or the Hagia Sophia, designed to represent the vaulting of the heavens, and complete the metaphorical role of

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the building as a microcosm of the cosmos. The vaulting at Lincoln represents the beginning of the Great Synthesis between religious faith and the rational structure of philosophy. The ridge ribs and conoid springers in the tower vaulting repeat those in the nave vaulting at Lincoln, as if the longitudinal vaulting of the nave has been wrapped around to form a square, not unlike the early Christian rotunda basilica in Rome, for example the Mausoleum of Santa Costanza, where the nave of the basilica, with its ambulatory, colonnade and clerestory, is wrapped around in a circle. As has been seen, the severies of the crossing vaulting at Lincoln can be seen as an epigenetic landscape, where seemingly natural and organic surfaces are formed by underlying geometrical matrixes. In contemporary Complexity Theory, organisms in nature undergo structural changes in morphogenesis, in increasing complexity, to avoid torpor or entropy, as in the increasing complexity of the Scholastic summa or the detailing of English Gothic architecture. In morphogenesis, the organism can undergo changes as a result of influences on it from its environment, in epigenesis. In Topology Theory, an epigenetic landscape, in the form of waves or fields, as on the surface of the earth, is the result of the action of the environment on unstable, structureless forms (forms without a geometrical or mathematical structure, reflecting the dialectic between reason and faith). The relief features of the folds or fields of an epigenetic landscape, as in waves or dunes, for example, are the product of a complex network of interactions underneath the surface, in the form of vectors, nodal points, and directional movements, as represented by the geometries of the vaulting. The undulating folds of the severies in the vaulting of the Lincoln crossing can be seen as a topological field, an epigenetic landscape. Robert Grosseteste also described the fields and forms found in nature, such as hills, valleys, clouds, etc., as the product of underlying geometrical and mathematical forces. These are described in the treatise De Natura Locorum, an extension of the treatise De lineis, angulis et figuris. De Natura Locorum attempts to apply the mathematics and geometry described in De Lineis, which are understood to be the underlying matrix or structure of light, as it diffuses into matter, to natural phenomena. The relation between surfaces in natural forms and the geometry of matter as described by Grosseteste, at the beginning of natural philosophy, is displayed in the vaulting of the crossing tower of Lincoln Cathedral. As was seen, the fan vaulting of the south, north, and west walks of the cloister of Gloucester Cathedral, designed by Robert Lesyngham, dates from

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1381 to 1412. The southwest tower of Wells Cathedral was constructed between 1384 and 1394. While the nave aisles and nave vault responds of Canterbury Cathedral were begun as early as 1378, initiated by Archbishop Simon Sudbury, the nave arcade and nave vault were begun in 1390, at the same time as the nave of Beverley Minster. Archbishop Sudbury was murdered in the Peasant’s Revolt in 1381, and work on the nave was suspended for ten years. The nave of Canterbury is believed to have been designed by Henry Yevele, the king’s master mason, under Prior Thomas Chillenden, and was completed by Stephen Lote, Yevele’s student, in 1405. It is possible that Thomas Hoo may have been a master mason as well. Francis Woodman, in The Architectural History of Canterbury Cathedral, argues that Thomas Hoo should be credited with the design and construction of the nave. A. D. McLees suggested that, because Yevele was only appointed as a consultant at Canterbury in 1398, nineteen years after work on the nave began, he cannot be seen as its designer, though details of the nave, in the moulding profiles, correspond exactly to details of the nave of Westminster Abbey, for which there is proof that Yevele was the designer, based on records of payments made to him by the abbey. Henry Yevele was the king’s master mason from 1360 until his death in 1400, when he was around eighty years old. He is considered to be the most important architect of the late medieval period in England; he owned a mansion next to London Bridge and several other properties in London and the countryside. He was a squire, one level below knight, and worked at St. Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Palace, and Westminster Abbey, where he contributed to the design of the nave and west front. He also ran a lucrative business supplying building materials and designing tombs and other church fittings. Some historians suggest that he was more of an entrepreneur, supervisor and contractor, than an architectural designer, while other historians attribute the elegant and economical naves of Westminster Abbey and Canterbury to his unique visionary genius. The nave at Canterbury is exceptionally high and narrow. Tall thin bundled responds in the nave arcade support the conoid tierceron springers of a lierne vault. Nine tiercerons spring from corbels on top of the responds in each bay. The major latitudinal and diagonal springers in each bay form a quadripartite vault; smaller tiercerons in between extend to a longitudinal ridge pole and transverse ribs connecting the window heads between the bays; and hexagonal lierne lozenges line both the ridge pole and the transverse ribs, forming a centralized lierne cross in each bay. The lower part of

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the clerestory level in each bay consists of blind arcading, in the Curvilinear style, and the responds rise to the top of the arcading. There are three stained glass lights per bay in the clerestory, and the geometries of the lierne vaulting in the ceiling continue the symbolism of the vertical tracery and triune groupings of the elevation to unveil the underlying divine pattern of the cosmos through geometry and mathematics. The detailing of the nave of Beverley Minster (Figure 50) is a simplified version of the detailing of the transepts, without the dark Purbeck stone. The design of the entire nave, in every detail, is remarkably homogeneous, with the use of the Tadcaster limestone throughout, and, combined with the rest of the church, provides one of the most satisfying architectural experiences in England. The nave arcades at Beverley are supported by octagonal piers, with four round shafts on the main axes and four smaller round shafts on the corners. The capitals of the main shafts are plain, while the capitals of the minor shafts feature a variety of foliate designs. The shafts support pointed arches with multiple archivolts which reach to the cornice of the triforium. Thin responds rise from between the spandrels, with figures of angels carved beneath the bottom corbels. The triforium features a monochrome version of the Lincoln-style syncopated arcading which is found in the transepts. An inner clerestory arcade is supported by bundles of shafts placed behind the responds, and an inner set of short unpolished Purbeck shafts, barely noticeable. The clerestory windows are set behind in the outer wall, in the familiar Decorated motif. The responds rise to about a third of the way up the clerestory level, and support the transverse and diagonal ribs of a simple quadripartite vault, as in the transepts, now featuring Victorian decoration. The nave was restored by Nicholas Hawksmoor between 1717 and 1731, and by Sir George Gilbert Scott between 1866 and 1878. The nave elevations of Winchester Cathedral were built between 1394 and 1460. They were begun by William Wynford, royal master mason (fl. 1360–1405, master mason at Windsor c. 1360 and Wells Cathedral c. 1365), under Bishop William of Wykeham (1367–1404, Chancellor of England, founder of Winchester College and New College, Oxford). Wynford first worked under Wykeham at Windsor, where he is credited with the layout of the rooms, then at Winchester College and Oxford. Wynford is pictured kneeling in prayer alongside Hugh Herland, the master carpenter who built the hammerbeam roof in Westminster Hall, designed by Henry Yevele, in the east window of Winchester College Chapel. Wynford’s design for the nave of Winchester is often compared to Yevele’s (attributed) design for the

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nave of Canterbury, though the vault in the nave of Winchester was built later by Robert Hulle. Both naves are seen as an epitome, in their economy of means and sublime effect, of late medieval English Gothic architecture, and the Perpendicular style. The nave of Winchester (Figure 89) is also a homogenous design, similar to the naves of Beverley and Canterbury. The arches of the arcade are composed of multiple archivolts, each supported by a round pier topped by octagonal moulded capitals, the sides of which correspond to the sides of the carved archivolts. Relatively thick round responds rise to mid-clerestory level. There is blind tracery in the spandrels above the arches, with cusping, and a short triforium grille above, with a series of traceried panels topped by cusped arches. Along the cornice line below the triforium grille are a series of sculpted faces alternating with foliate carvings. The lower clerestory level is filled with another grille composed of blind traceried panels, three corresponding to the three central lights of the clerestory windows, all of which is set back slightly from the lower triforium grille. The responds are also topped with foliate capitals, forming the corbels for the springing of the conoid tierceron vaults in the ceiling. The Founder’s Chantry at Tewskebury Abbey (Figure 90) dates from 1397. The chantry was built under Abbot Thomas Parker (1389–1421) to commemorate the founder of Tewkesbury Abbey, Robert FitzHamon, who died in 1107. Along with the vaulting in the Chantry Chapel of Edward Lord Despenser in Tewkesbury Abbey, built by Robert Lesygham after the Black Death of 1348, the vaulting of the Founder’s Chantry represents an early model of the fan vault. The vaulting consists of light traceried ribs on the vault surface, which form a homogeneous surface in comparison to the vaulting of the Gloucester cloister, which is composed of separate blocks of stone. Conoids in the corners and sides of the vault of the small chantry chapel consist of ribs springing from corbels below, placed closely together, and culminating in cinquefoil-cusped arches inscribed in ring ribs, or circular ridge ribs. In the spandrels are placed quatrefoil tracery, four cloverleaves inscribed in circles, with cusping in the center between the circles which forms a quadripartite leaf pattern. Clearly the vaulting is purely decorative, with no suggestion of a structural function in relation to the chantry chapel. The grilling of the arcading of the chapel is in the Perpendicular style, with mullions culminating in cinquefoil cusped arches, as in the vaulting. The central panel in each grille is topped by an ogee arch, and the mullions are multiplied in the upper parts of the openings to form reticulated patterns,

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as in the west window at Beverley Minster. The outer pairs of panels are inscribed in ogival arches, and the cinquefoil cusping is continued in the reticulation above, as well as in the blind traceried arcading in the spandrels above the arched grille openings. As in Canterbury nave, for example, the articulation of the elevations complements the articulation of the vaulting, with some specific patterns repeated, so that an ontological hierarchy is represented, from the least material to the most material, from divine intelligence to human intelligence, from the celestial to the earthly. The cloisters of Canterbury Cathedral were vaulted between 1397 and 1414. They were designed by Henry Yevele and Stephen Lote under Prior Thomas Chillenden, who also sponsored the rebuilding of the nave. The vaulting of the cloisters (Figure 91) combines conoid tierceron springers with sprays of fan vaulting, and liernes forming cusped eight-petalled rosettes, with 864 bosses and Plantagenet coats of arms. The conoid springers / fans spring from bundled shafts placed in front of arcading along the lower walls, with trilobe pointed arches set on thin shafts. The lierne star patterns (eight-petalled rosettes) are formed around the intersections of the longitudinal ridge rib and the transverse ribs between the springer bays. The complex lierne pattern can be related to that of the nave vault. Cusped arched liernes are placed between the tiercerons which extend to the ridge pole and transverse ribs, creating the appearance of a thicket. The heraldic shields are placed along the ridge pole, acting as bosses at the intersections of the tiercerons, and at the intersections of the liernes in the rosettes, creating a visual cacophony in relation to the ribs. The thickness of the tiercerons is somewhat reminiscent of the effect of the vaulting at Exeter Cathedral. In the inner arcades, towards the courtyard, four thin shafts per bay culminate in an elaborate tympanum, filled with five bar tracery circles enclosing quatrefoils. The ogival arches of the arcade are surmounted by crocketed ogee arches which rise to pinnacles above the roof of the cloister. In between the arcade bays, pier buttresses are allowed to rise to the same level of the pinnacles of the ogee arches, in an architecture of excess with a distinctive Perpendicular appearance, connected to the expression of a strong nationalism and the prominence of the royal family in England. The Beauchamp Chantry at Tewkesbury Abbey (Figure 92) was built between 1421 and 1439. It is next to the Founder’s Chantry in the north choir aisle. Also called the Warwick Chantry, it was sponsored by Isabella Despenser, Countess of Warwick, in memory of her two husbands, Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Worcester, and Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick.

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The chantry is divided into a lower and upper level, both of which feature pendant fan vaults. This seems to be the first appearance of the pendant vault, which would be one of the defining vocabulary elements of the Perpendicular style, as in the vaulting at Oxford Divinity School and Christ Church at the end of the fifteenth century, and St. George’s Chapel at Windsor, Henry VII Chapel at Westminster Abbey, and King’s College Chapel at Cambridge at the beginning of the sixteenth century. The pendant was perhaps inspired by the hanging corbels in the arcade of York chapter house, or the absence of the central column to support the vault of the York chapter house. The pendant corbels at York can be seen to be the logical consequence of the disappearance of the responds in the elevations as they developed in the Early English and Early Decorated periods. In the pendant vaulting in the Beauchamp Chantry at Tewkesbury Abbey, the pendant vaults are centralized fan vaults, or umbrella vaults, with the column taken out from under them. The pendant vault appears as the ultimate contradiction of structural logic, a defining leitmotif throughout the development of English Gothic architecture. In the first Gothic building at Canterbury, the skeletal structure of the chapel aisles designed by William the Englishman established a precedent for experiments in later English Gothic architecture, in Geoffrey de Noyer’s grilles in the northeast transept at Lincoln, or the flying ribs in the Easter Sepulcher at Lincoln, and then at Bristol and Gloucester, for example, where the vaulting arrangement became independent of the structure it is in theory supporting, and independent of a structural system altogether, culminating in the pendant vault. At Canterbury and Lincoln, the structural logic of the architecture was contradicted by thick upper walls supported by thinner arcades in the elevations. At Lincoln, the vaulting shafts attached to the nave wall obviously serve no structural purpose; they extend the springer ribs visually down the wall, and visually attach the webbed ribs of the vault to the wall, which connects the wall to the vault as a continuous enclosing envelope, but not as a coherent structural system. The vault itself plays no structural role other than the possible shoring of the walls; it is not the roof of the building. The ribs of the vault are a geometrical catechism, not a structural system. In general, the contradiction in the structural logic of the cathedral can be seen as a particular manifestatio of Scholastic thinking, for the purpose of establishing the architecture as an edificium of a metaphysical presence, and the dialectic between faith and reason. The appearance or form, eidos, of the architecture does not correspond to

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the structure of the architecture in the same way that images as given by sense perception do not correspond to their archetypal or intelligible existence, in classical philosophy. The forms of sense perception need to be explained by a higher intellectual faculty in order to be understood, the nous poietikos or the virtus intellectiva described by Robert Grosseteste in the Commentary on the Posterior Analytics. In an edifice where the sensual appearance does not correspond to the structural logic, the spectator or worshipper is inspired to ascend in intellect from that dependent on sense perception, nous pathetikos or the virtus cogitativa of Grosseteste, to the higher intellect, which involves divine participation in the intelligentia, in order to understand the divine design of the cosmos, and the relation between human intellect and divine intellect. According to philosophers such as Hegel or Schelling, in order for architecture to be art and express an idea separate from its material presence, in order for it to overcome its material and functional limitations as art, its form must contradict its structure or function. The contradiction of structural logic allows the architecture to express an idea, to be an edificium or catechism of an epistemology, in theology or philosophy, and to represent the ideas and beliefs of its culture. In its contradiction of structural logic, English Gothic architecture does precisely that. The actual structure of the building is juxtaposed with the metaphysical structure of the building, corresponding to the juxtaposition of the earthly and celestial, and of reason in sense perception, virtus cogitativa, and understanding of the intelligibles, virtus intellectiva. So the pendant vault should be seen as the logical consequence of the development in English Gothic architecture of the primary role of the architecture as an edificium of the theology and cosmology of the culture, and as a metaphysical structure designed to accommodate the intellectual development of the worshipper in relation to divine intelligence. In the vaulting of the lower level of the Beauchamp Chantry at Tewkesbury Abbey, the pendant fans are composed of ribs which culminate in cusped arches and are enclosed by circular ridge lines, as in the vaulting of the Gloucester cloister, and the spandrels are similarly filled with quatrefoils inscribed in circles. In the vaulting of the upper level of the Beauchamp Chantry, the pendants are much shallower hanging from the ceiling, the ribs are thinner and spread to a wider area, and they are not enclosed by circles, but rather extend to longitudinal and latitudinal ridge lines, around the intersections of which, and between the pendant vaults, are placed lierne octagons. The surfaces of both vaults are painted, more elaborately in the upper level, as there is more

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severy space between the ribs. While the vault of the lower level can be seen as more classical and geometrical, the vault of the upper level can be seen as more manneristic and more representative of the organic. The west cloister walk of Worcester Cathedral (Figure 93) was constructed between 1435 and 1438 by John Chapman, in red sandstone. The arcading is filled with Perpendicular bar tracery with cusped arches and reticulation at the upper level in the manner of Beverley west window or York east window. The vault is a tierceron and lierne star vault, with conoid tierceron springers, a longitudinal ridge pole, transverse ribs to the window heads between bays, and lierne octagons surrounding the intersections of the ridge pole and transverse ribs, all in red sandstone, with brick severies and carved bosses covering the joints. Sherborne Abbey, or St. Mary’s Abbey in Dorset, was a Benedictine abbey rebuilt beginning in 1415. The rebuilding was begun by Abbot Robert Brunyng. The choir elevations were begun in 1425 by Robert Hulle, who designed the nave of Winchester Cathedral, and were completed under Abbot William Bradford, who succeeded Abbot Brunyng. The choir was vaulted between 1445 and 1459, and is considered to be the first full-span fan vault in England. The vault (Figure 95), designed by Robert Hulle, is built of ashlar stone from nearby quarries, and consists of fans along the sides, which are really just conoid tierceron springer vaults enclosed by segmental ridge ribs, and lierne star patterns in the severies. The fans are supported by long thin responds set between high windows with Perpendicular tracery; the visual effect is of the vault as a billowing tent, the undersurface of the cosmos suspended above the material world. Three thin shafts bundled in the responds flare out into the tierceron ribs of the fans, which have bands of cusped ogee arches between them, and extend to the segmental ridge ribs which approximate a circle around the fan. Between the fans runs a thin ridge pole and thin transverse ribs which run between the window heads, though they do not actually reach the window heads. The edges of the fans are connected to the longitudinal and latitudinal ribs by diagonal liernes which form lierne star patterns along the ridge pole. Each bay of the vault is twenty feet by twenty-six feet, and there are twenty-seven bosses in each bay. The current appearance of the vaulting results from Victorian restoration after 1856, in which it was partially rebuilt, painted and gilded. It has the most decorative appearance as yet in any vault in English Gothic architecture. In its complexity, a hallmark of the Perpendicular vault, it is reminiscent of vaults at Gloucester Cathedral and St. Mary Redcliffe.

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The Perpendicular paneling on the nave elevations of St. Mary Redcliffe dates originally from between 1446 and 1470, sponsored by William Canynges, a merchant who held the office of Mayor of Bristol five different times. The clerestory was raised and the lierne vault was constructed, and the paneling was completed later by John Norton, a nineteenth-century Gothic Revival architect. The vault of the nave of Norwich Cathedral (Figure 94) was also begun in 1446, or perhaps after a fire in 1463, and completed in 1479. The nave galleries were rebuilt between 1454 and 1462. The master mason was Robert Everard, with Reginald Ely acting as a consultant (Ely began the construction of King’s College Chapel at Cambridge in 1444). The vaulting of the Norwich nave was constructed under Bishop Walter Lyhart, whose heraldry can be found in sculpted corbels, on top of the Norman arcades dating from the twelfth century, built under Bishop Losinga and Bishop Eborard de Montgomery (1121–45). Respond shafts rising up reconstructed galleries support conoid tierceron springer bundles, with the tiercerons extending to a ridge pole and transverse ribs between the window heads. Zigzagging liernes running parallel to the ridge pole on either side form the lierne star patterns along the ten bays of the vault. The intersections of the ribs are covered by 270 bosses, containing scenes from the Old and New Testaments, from the Creation to the Last Judgment. The vault is not far removed from the Lincoln model, and is conservative in relation to the vaulting developments at the time, such as the more complex vaulting at Winchester, but is rich and decorative. Geometrical forms emerge from the conoid clusters of ribs as a species or form might emerge from rarefacted rays of lumen in the form of a cone, in the terms of Robert Grosseteste in De Luce and De Lineis. The species would be understood as an intelligible or archetype in geometrical or mathematical terms. The appearance of the vault is as a series of “palm fronds” as at Lincoln, with some extra liernes interwoven along the ridge pole. The liernes are believed to provide extra structural support for the severies of the vault. The elevations of King’s College Chapel at Cambridge were begun in 1444 by Reginald Ely, and were continued by John Wolrich, architect to Edward IV, between 1476 and 1485. The chapel was founded by Henry VI in 1441, and was eventually completed by Henry VIII, with the largest fan vault in the world, at the beginning of the sixteenth century. The elevations consist of almost full-height traceried Perpendicular windows, with piers between them, creating a glass cage on the model of the Sainte Chapelle in Paris, or the choir of Gloucester Cathedral, both intended as royal shrines.

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The chapel at Cambridge is in the tradition of royal chapels in England established by St. Stephen’s Chapel in Westminster Palace. The glazing of the twenty-six windows in King’s College Chapel was carried out between 1517 and 1547, and features scenes from the life of Mary, the patron saint of the chapel, in the lower parts, and scenes from the Old Testament in the upper parts, which foreshadow the life of Mary and the birth of Christ. All of the original glazing survives intact. The vaulting of the choir of St. Mary Redcliffe dates from around 1450. It is a more regularized and geometrical version of the nave vault, also fiftyfour feet high, with the same conoid tierceron springer vaults, cusping and gilded bosses, but the longitudinal zigzagging liernes are replaced by three parallel ridge poles and transverse liernes forming a series of lierne squares down the center of the vault, with lierne diamonds placed between the bays tangent to the window heads. The difference between the vaults exemplifies the difference between the Curvilinear and the Perpendicular, where the irregular curvilinear lines are replaced by the more austere horizontal and vertical lines. The choir vaulting suggests none of the irrationality of natural forms or the organization of topographical lines represented in the nave vault; it is more superficially decorative, as in Sherborne Choir: the vaulting pattern has no relation to the structure of the vault, and presents itself as a two-dimensional organization of Euclidean geometries, as if to evoke the polyhedral atomic structures of matter as described in the Timaeus of Plato, a cosmology of the universe, a description of matter in geometrical terms, which was not attempted again until the De Lineis of Robert Grosseteste. The vaulting of the presbytery of Peterborough Cathedral, which also dates from 1450, is very similar to the St. Mary Redcliffe choir vault, with an even more regularized set of lierne squares running longitudinally along the ridge pole, forming in fact five parallel ridge ribs at the center of the vault. Tierceron springers extend from corbels at the top of the elevations to the outer longitudinal ridge ribs, and to transverse ridge ribs which connect the window heads in the clerestory. The tiercerons meet the outer ridge ribs at the same points as latitudinal ridge ribs which form the series of lierne squares, sixteen per bay, which are intersected by diagonal crossing liernes. The result is a lierne “net” vault, where, following upon the patterns at St. Mary Redcliffe choir and Sherborne choir, the vaulting is a surface texture rather than a structure (or structural catechism), contributing to the development of the emphasis on surface texture in English Gothic architecture which began as early as Durham Cathedral, according to Paul Frankl. The current

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appearance of the vault results from Victorian restoration, painting and gilding. Peterborough Cathedral is the Cathedral Church of St. Peter, St. Paul and St. Andrew in Cambridgeshire. It was originally built as a Benedictine abbey between 1118 and 1238, and was made a cathedral by Henry VIII in 1541. The nave vaulting of Winchester Cathedral (Figure 89) dates from around 1450. It was designed by Robert Hulle, who designed the Sherborne Abbey choir vault. Hulle succeeded William Wynford at Winchester, and completed the nave remodeling begun under Bishop Edington (1345–66), Bishop William of Wykeham, and Bishop Henry Beaufort (1405–47, son of John of Gaunt and uncle of Henry V). The vault is a stellar lierne vault, with liernes zigzagging along either side of the ridge pole, as in St. Mary Redcliffe nave or Norwich nave, designed by Robert Everard and Reginald Ely. In comparison with the vault at Norwich, at Winchester the tiercerons are thicker and sparser (seven per springer bay as opposed to thirteen), the zigzagging liernes are placed further away from the ridge pole on either side, the bosses are larger and stone rather than gilded, and additional liernes are placed on the concave surfaces between the bays of the vault in front of the window heads. The continuous transverse ribs seen at Norwich are interrupted by lierne diamonds extending from the ridge pole. The vaulting at Winchester is less conservative than at Norwich, and more in the spirit of invention of the Perpendicular, and it is much more homogeneous in the context of the recently remodeled nave, in both materials and similarities in Perpendicular tracery. The basic vocabulary elements of the vaulting and elevations are still present from the Lincoln model, and the nave at Winchester has to be seen as the apogee of the development of the Lincoln vocabulary in the Perpendicular style, and one of the culminating achievements of English Gothic architecture. Robert Hulle also designed the nave aisle vaults at Winchester, where in each bay tiercerons spring from the corners and intersect to form a lierne diamond at the center, in combination with liernes placed diagonally and extending to the apexes of the arches which bound the bays. Foliate bosses cover the intersections. The pattern is similar to the pattern in the vaulting of the south walk of the cloister of Wells Cathedral, rebuilt around the same time under Bishop Bekynton (1443–65), though the execution is much more refined. The crossing of Gloucester Cathedral (Figure 71) was remodeled between 1450 and 1457, by Robert Tully, under Abbot Sebrok, in the Perpendicular style. The unusual remodeling features mid-air stone ogee arches set

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on flat four-centered arches, supporting pendant conoid springers with seven vault ribs of the lierne net crossing vault, all in front of Perpendicular wall tracery, creating a cacophony of forms equal to the Gloucester choir. The flying four-centered and ogee arches appear to be a Perpendicular development of the flying ribs of Bristol Cathedral, in the continuing experimentation and increased dynamism of forms in the development of English Gothic architecture. The roots for such experiments can still be found at Canterbury and Lincoln, while the basic vocabulary, the ogee arches, cusping, and complex lierne vaulting, signal a departure from the Early English and Decorated approach. The premise that the vaulting is supported by the suspended arches defies any structural logic, and the composition is more accurately seen as pendant vaulting with flying arches suspended from the pendants. The weight of the ogee arches even seems to stretch out the tierceron pendants downward, adding to the vertical or Perpendicular effect which is reiterated in the blind tracery in the walls of the crossing. The logic of the structure of the forms is defied, and the logic of the forms themselves is defied, as they are pushed and pulled to create a system of static and tensile forces which is completely independent of the structure of the building, as if a model of the geometrical substructure of the cosmos, or a catechism of something, were hanging from the crossing. The flying arches could be seen as the axis mundi, or orbits of the planets, while the intricate lierne vaulting could be seen as a map of the stellar constellations, and the tracery on the walls could be seen as the geometrical constitution of the material world. Clearly something is intended here beyond the functional or structural exigencies of the building. The Lady Chapel of Gloucester Cathedral was constructed between 1457 and 1498, begun by Abbot Richard Hanley (1457–72), and completed by his successor William Farley (1472–98). It was the last part of Gloucester Cathedral to be built, and it has been called the “final flowering of the Perpendicular style of English architecture at the end of the fifteenth century.” It is a “glass cage,” like King’s College Chapel, with elevations consisting mostly of windows filled with Perpendicular tracery, with panels culminating in cusped arches, and piers in between supporting the conoid tierceron springers of a lierne net vault. The vaulting, begun in 1475, duplicates the complex lierne net vaulting of the choir, with three parallel ridge poles, tiercerons emerging from conoid springers and intersecting to form an elaborate surface texture, and zigzagging liernes placed between the tiercerons towards the springers. The vaulting makes no more sense in relation to the

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traceried windows in the elevations than it does in the choir in relation to the Perpendicular paneling. The nave of Chester Cathedral was completed between 1461 and 1490 by William Rediche. It was the last area of the cathedral to be rebuilt, its construction delayed by the Black Death in the mid-fourteenth century. The elevations are simplified and austere in relation to the earlier choir, with no triforium arcade, and just blank paneling at the bottom of the clerestory windows instead of open grillwork. The outer windows of the arcade do display Curvilinear tracery, two pairs of lights each culminating in ogee arches which form floral designs in the tympana. The current timber vault of the nave (Figure 97) was constructed by Sir George Gilbert Scott during the Victorian restoration of 1868–76. The vault was constructed of oak so as not to overload the red sandstone piers below. It is a lierne vault typical of the fifteenth century, with tiercerons springing from responds and extending to a ridge pole and transverse ridge ribs between the window heads, with lierne hexagons lining the ridge pole and transverse ribs, forming net patterns between the springer bays. The intersections of the ribs are covered by large bosses, which were just cleaned and gilded in 1997. The wood and gilding of the vault complement the red sandstone below. The vaulting of the crossing of York Minster (Figure 98) was begun in 1470. It is a centralized intersecting lierne vault, constructed out of timber and painted white, with gilded sculpted bosses. Diagonal ribs spring from triune springer bays in the center of each wall of the tower; diagonal ribs also spring from the corners, to cross the vault, and longitudinal and latitudinal ribs connect the window heads of the pairs of windows in each wall. Liernes fill in the corners, and pairs of curved ribs are inserted on either side of the longitudinal and latitudinal ridge lines, giving the vaulting a visually ambiguous appearance, as if the geometry were not static but in the process of moving or changing, responding to the forces of the building. The geometrical pattern could be seen as the underlying matrix of a topographical or epigenetic landscape, the intelligible substructure of natural forms, which contains within it the dynamic forces found in nature. All of this makes the crossing vault a very popular attraction for visitors to the minster. The vaulting of the choir or presbytery of Norwich Cathedral (Figure 83) was constructed between 1472 and 1499, by Robert Everard, under Bishop Goldwell, towards the completion of the nave vaulting. Like the nave vaulting, the vaulting in the choir consists of tiercerons splaying out towards a ridge pole and transverse ridge ribs, with liernes zigzagging parallel to the

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ridge pole on either side to form a series of lierne star patterns. In an unusual divergence, the tiercerons do not spring from corbels on responds, but rather from the peaks of the window heads of minor grilled openings inserted between the main arcade openings in the clerestory level. The open grillwork of the clerestory is thus uninterrupted by the structural exigency of the vaulting; the springer vaults make no pretense of structure—they are suspended from the ceiling as if pendants, like the vaults in the Gloucester crossing with the flying ogee arches hanging from them. In the Norwich choir, it is as if the wall elevations are hanging from the vault. The conceit combines the Early English play of vertical planes with the Perpendicular lierne vaulting pattern, encapsulating the development of English Gothic architecture. The tiercerons and liernes of the vault appear as an organic dematerialization of the solid geometrical structure below, but somewhat incongruous, like a thatched roof place above brick walls. The vaulting is more dematerialized than the nave vaulting, where the tiercerons are thicker and the convexity of the springers is more pronounced, but the incongruous effect is about the same in relation to the elevations. The nave vault of Sherborne Abbey (Figure 96) was constructed between 1475 and 1490, by William Smyth, the master mason of Wells Cathedral, under Abbot Peter Ramsam (1474–1504). The vaulting presents a complex and intricate interweaving of conoid tierceron springers, fans, longitudinal and transverse ridge ribs, lierne patterns, cusping, and bosses, a summation of the entire vocabulary of English Gothic vaulting. The edges of the fans are polygonal rather than circular, visually integrating them with the intricate lierne patterns in the spandrels, made more intricate by the exaggerated cusping. The fans appear as nothing more than protrusions from the tightly woven surface texture, attaching the vault to the elevations. The vault has the appearance of a dynamic animate form, an epigenetic landscape animated by the forces and vectors of its underlying geometries. Many of the bosses in the vault contain Tudor heraldic symbols. The pendant lierne vault of the Divinity School of the Bodleian Library of Oxford University in Oxfordshire was constructed by William Orchard (d. 1504) between 1478 and 1488. The Divinity School was founded in 1420 and housed theological lectures and discussions. The vaulting (Figure 99) hovers over a glass cage formed by elevations of full-height windows with Perpendicular tracery. The pendant vaulting is set between massive bundled transverse ribs which rise from piers between the windows about two-thirds of the way up from the floor, appearing to be almost flying ribs, recalling

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Bristol Cathedral. The spandrels between the ribs and the vault surface are decorated with openwork stone tracery, as at Bristol. Between the ribs, thin transverse ribs run between the window heads in the elevations, intersecting a thin longitudinal ridge rib which is intersected by the bundled ribs rising from the piers between the windows. Pendants are formed in each of the quadrants of each bay between the bundled ribs, from tiercerons which extend from the longitudinal and latitudinal ridge ribs. Additional tiercerons rise from the corners of each bay. The fans are decorated with cusping and intermediate ribs, and all of the intersections are covered by large bosses (455 in all). The pendants consist of sculpted finials which serve as the corbels for the springers hanging in midair. The visual effect is similar to the vaulting of the nave of Sherborne Abbey, a complex summation of the vocabulary of English Gothic vaulting. The Divinity School displays the summit of the design and execution of English Gothic architecture, the epitome of the representation of English national identity, and the culmination of the vocabulary of the architectural catechism of the theological and philosophical epistemology of the Middle Ages in England. The vaulting of nearby Christ Church at Oxford was also constructed by William Orchard, between 1478 and 1503. The Cathedral Church of Christ of Christ Church College began as an Augustinian abbey founded by Prior Robert of Cricklade in 1150. The Church of St. Frideswide (the patron saint of Oxford), it was incorporated into Christ Church College in 1546, and made a cathedral by Henry VIII. The choir remains from the original church which was partly destroyed by the building of the Tom Quad of Christ Church College between 1525 and 1529. The four-bay pendant lierne net vault (Figure 100) with transverse arches and ridge pole sits on a Norman arcade and triforium with large cylindrical piers topped by square abaci supporting round arches in the arcade, with a clerestory above. The Norman elevations were restored by Sir George Gilbert Scott between 1870 and 1876, who also inserted the rose window in the east wall. The bays of the vaulting are divided by huge cylindrical ribs which rise from corbels at the cornice line of the clerestory on top of short responds in the triforium spandrels. Somewhat like the Divinity School vault, the ribs are “flying ribs” detached from the vaulting surface. They are interrupted abruptly by the pendants of the vault, which in appearance they shore up in some way, though the connection between them is awkward and eccentric. The pendants are not pure pendants, and as they are attached to the cylindrical ribs they are more like secondary corbels extended from the eleva-

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tions toward the vault surface. Tiercerons extend from the pendants to the ridge pole and thin transverse ribs in each quadrant of each bay, in an organization similar to the Divinity School vault. Liernes placed between the tiercerons form a series of patterns centered around the intersection of the longitudinal and latitudinal ridge ribs in each bay. Perhaps the perverted, contradictory logic of the pendant lierne vaulting, an epitome of the English Gothic approach, inspired the imagination of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who lived at Christ Church College for forty-seven years as a student and mathematics don, and published Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass using the pen name Lewis Carroll. The crossing vault of Wells Cathedral (Figure 63) was designed by William Smyth (as suggested by John Harvey), master mason at Wells Cathedral in 1480; it is a centralized fan vault on the model of Sherborne Abbey, the nave vault of which was also designed by William Smyth. Conoid tierceron springers from the corners form fans with circular borders; the fans are decorated with horizontal tiers of trefoil cusping and intermediate ribs. The intersections of ribs are covered with foliate bosses, and a star pattern is formed at the center. The decorative Perpendicular tracery overrides any structural geometrical intent; the fans appear to be nothing more than infill in the corners of the crossing tower, constructed by Thomas Witney in the early fourteenth century. Dramatic views of the crossing vault at Wells can be seen through the openings above the saltire crosses of the strainer arches constructed by William Joy shortly after the construction of the crossing tower, reminiscent of the spatial vistas created by Geoffrey de Noyers at Lincoln Cathedral at the end of the twelfth century, and by Thomas Witney and William Joy in the Lady Chapel and retrochoir at the east end of Wells between 1320 and 1340. Between 1486 and 1500 a number of chapels were vaulted: Bishop Waynflete’s Chapel and Bishop Langton’s Chapel at Winchester Cathedral; Bishop Alcock’s Chapel at Ely Cathedral; Bishop Stansbury’s Chapel and Bishop Audley’s Chapel at Hereford Cathedral; Wykeham Chapel at Sherborne Abbey; and St. George’s Chapel at Windsor. Windsor Castle was originally built during the reign of William the Conqueror; Henry of Reyns was the master mason circa 1243. Rebuilding was conducted in the late fourteenth century by William of Wykeham under Edward III, with John Sponlee as master mason. St. George’s Chapel was begun in 1475 as a chantry chapel by Edward IV; it became the resting place of Edward IV, Henry VI, and Henry VIII. Henry Janyns was the master mason from 1475 to 1483. The

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vaulting was constructed between 1487 and 1506 by William Vertue and Robert Janyns. Edward IV founded St. George’s Chapel as the Chapel of the Order of the Garter, an order of chivalry established by Edward III, at war with France, in 1348. The Order of the Garter is the highest order of chivalry in England and the oldest surviving order of chivalry in the world. The chapel is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary; St. Edward the Confessor, King of England in the eleventh century; and St. George, Patron Saint of England, slayer of the dragon, and symbol of the Crusades. The vaulting of the nave of the chapel, which follows that of the choir, is dominated by the conoid tierceron springers which splay out into the surface of the vault, from corbels on top of tall thin responds which rise from the floor up between the Perpendicular traceried windows, to two-thirds up the clerestory level, which culminates at the surface of the vault. The arcading of the elevations is dominated by the four-centered arch, a leitmotif of the Perpendicular. There are three parallel ridge lines in the vault; only the central and outer diagonal tiercerons intersect the ridge lines. The intermediate tiercerons are stopped short by liernes, and the tiercerons on the surface of the concave indentations of the ceiling above the window heads extend to transverse ridge ribs connecting the window heads. Liernes form stars along the central ridge pole, with intermediate liernes and cusping and quatrefoils inscribed in circles providing the decorative tracery of the vault. The vaulting is of course covered with heraldic arms. Bishop Alcock’s Chapel in the northeast corner of Ely Cathedral was constructed between 1488 and 1500 and dedicated to Bishop John Alcock, Bishop of Ely 1486–1500, and Comptroller of the Royal Works and Buildings under Henry VII. It was designed by Adam Lord or Adam Vertue (according to John Harvey), or possibly Robert Janyns (according to Christopher Wilson), with whose work Alcock would have been familiar at Windsor, and features late Perpendicular fan vaulting and a canopy screen carved out of Cambridgeshire stone. The tiercerons of the fans in the vault terminate in ogival arches with trefoil cusping, with a miniature openwork pendant boss in the spandrel. The vaulting shows the influence of the vaulting of St. George’s Chapel, also by Robert Janyns. The pendant cusping may be a precedent for the pendant cusping in the vault of the Henry VII Chapel at Westminster Abbey. The canopy screen (Figure 101) is filled with niches topped by canopies with crocketed triangular gables above. The canopies are set at irregular angles to create an undulation as in the arcade of the York chapter house; they are filled with ogee arches and filigree tracery; the fili-

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gree tracery continues above in the cornice below the gables. The effect is like that of delicate, ornamental, diaphanous, filigreed linen. The filigree continues up the gables, the crockets are oversized, and additional gables are set behind and between the front row of gables, creating a forest of peaks, crockets, and filigree, much of it foliate, with trefoils inscribed in circles, etc. For the most part the vocabulary is recognizable, but the proportions and juxtapositions of the composition depart radically from any precedent, and the screen in Bishop Alcock’s Chapel is unlike anything in England, in its excess and phantasmagoric effect, with its proliferation of forms, overlappings, juxtapositions, and unexpected proportional inconsistencies. The effect is closer to what would be found in Spanish Baroque architecture, for example, and very similar to the surrealist forms of Antonio Gaudi in Barcelona in the twentieth century. The design is the most uncharacteristic and unrestrained of anything in English Gothic architecture. The vaulting of Bishop Langton’s Chantry Chapel (Figure 102) in the southeast corner of Winchester Cathedral dates from around 1500. The chapel is dedicated to Robert Langton, Bishop of Winchester from 1493 to 1500. The vault is a centralized tierceron vault with longitudinal and latitudinal ridge ribs, cusped tracery between the tiercerons, and liernes zigzagging along either side of the latitudinal ridge rib. The severies are painted blue, and the ribs and bosses are painted with the colors of the Trinity and gold for the heavens. The vaulting in the retrochoir of Peterborough Cathedral (Figure 103) was constructed between 1496 and 1509. The two-bay retrochoir or “New Building” at the east end of the cathedral was sponsored by Abbot Robert Kirkton (1496–1528) as a processional route and link between the north and south presbytery aisles. The vaulting was designed by John Wastell (according to John Harvey) as a predecessor for his vaulting in King’s College Chapel at Cambridge (Walter Leedy, in Fan Vaulting: A Study of Form, Technology, and Meaning, argues that the vaulting was not completed until 1518, and thus should not be seen as a predecessor to the King’s College Chapel vaulting). Fans are supported by thick cylindrical responds which rise to the top of the lights in the Perpendicular windows, which give way to reticulated patterns above. The steep conoid sections of the fans are decorated with tiercerons which also give way to reticulated tracery, with concentric ridge rings and trefoil tracery. Tiercerons continue into the spandrels, which have foliate pendant bosses in the centers. Thin transverse ridge lines cross the vault, providing borders for the segmented fans on each side.

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The choir or presbytery of Winchester Cathedral was remodeled by Bishop Fox beginning in around 1500. The tiercerons of the timber vault (Figure 104) spring from corbels with no responds which are placed on piers between the clerestory windows, about halfway up. There is no triforium between the arcades, with broad ogival arches with multiple archivolts set on bundles of Purbeck shafts, and unadorned spandrels, and the clerestories in the elevations. There is only a thin openwork grille at the bottom of the clerestory windows. The severies and ribs of the vault are painted white, and the intersections are covered by gilded bosses. The tiercerons in each bay consist of a major transverse central tierceron, with a major diagonal tierceron on each side, which intersects the diagonal tierceron in the next bay over to form a diamond around the intersection of the ridge pole and thin transverse ridge ribs, although they are stopped short of the ridge pole. Minor tiercerons are placed between the major tiercerons, which divide up to form reticulation towards the ridge pole, and additional tiercerons are placed on the sides which extend to the transverse ridge ribs, which in turn extend to the window heads. The reticulation on either side of the ridge pole is bordered by zigzagging liernes. The visual effect of the vault is that of an artificially constructed web or net; there is nothing in the geometry to suggest organic form, so the decorative effect borders on the purely manneristic or artificial. The vaulting is an awkward variation of Curvilinear lierne vaulting in relation to the elevations below, which also hark back to the Curvilinear formula. It is of course reminiscent of the vaulting in York Minster, but with slightly more complex and irregular patterns, which deny either an organic reading or a purely geometrical reading as a cosmological catechism or topographical map of the geometrical structure of matter. The wooden planks of the thin severies add a unique texture to the vault surface. The Henry VII Chapel, or Henry VII’s Lady Chapel, of Westminster Abbey was constructed between 1503 and 1512. The previous chapel built by Henry III was demolished in 1502. The new chapel was intended by Henry VII as a burial chapel for his uncle Henry VI, who was to be canonized, which would consolidate the position of Henry VII, but Henry VI was never canonized, and was buried at Windsor Castle instead. The chapel at Westminster Abbey contains the tombs of Henry VII and his wife, Elizabeth of York, with gold effigies by Pietro Torrigiano, an Italian sculptor who had to flee Italy after breaking Michelangelo’s nose. The vaulting was designed by Robert Janyns Junior, the master mason at Windsor Castle, who worked

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on the vaulting of St. George’s Chapel, and who was the son of Robert Janyns (fl. 1438–64, active at Oxford), and the brother of Henry Janyns (fl. 1453–83, master mason at St. George’s Chapel 1475–83). The vaulting of Henry VII Chapel at Westminster was perhaps built by Robert Vertue, who designed the choir vault at Bath Abbey, and William Vertue. The Vertue brothers, royal masons, also designed the nave vault at Bath Abbey. There is no documentary evidence actually linking them to the design or construction of the chapel at Westminster Abbey, though. William Lethaby attributed the design of the chapel to Robert Vertue, and John Harvey attributed the design of the vault to William Vertue. The chapel at Westminster Abbey, at its east end, was completed by Henry VIII and consecrated in 1516. The vault is a pendant fan vault, using the ashlar shell technique of the Gloucester cloister fan vaults. Crocketed flying ribs, or ribs with pendant cusping, rise from piers between Perpendicular windows and are terminated by the pendants, following the conceit used by William Orchard at Christ Church Oxford. Orchard’s vaults at Christ Church and the Divinity School at Oxford are the most important precedents for the vault of the Henry VII Chapel, with the transverse arches and the pendants incorporated into them, and the tracery on the outer parts of the vault. Robert Janyns was from Oxford, and would have known the vaults there well. The lines of the flying ribs in the Henry VII Chapel are continued across the surface of the vault as transverse arches only by crockets or pendant cusping, denying any structural logic of the ribs in relation to the vault. The pendant cusping shows the influence of the vault in Bishop Alcock’s Chapel in Ely Cathedral, perhaps designed by Robert Janyns. The vaulting surface is divided into bays on either side of an imaginary ridge line, each bay centered around the pendants, or fan cones. The fans and the severies of the vault surface are filled with tracery, with cusping, quatrefoils set in diamonds, and reticulated patterns. Smaller pendant fans fill the centers of the spandrels along the ridge line, and smaller fans fill the spaces above the flying ribs on the sides of the vault. The pendants are gilded. A thick transverse border divides the eastern bay from the rest of the vault. Six pendant fans are crammed into the periphery of the eastern bay, creating a “carousel effect,” with a smaller pendant fan in the center of the spandrel, aligned with the other pendant fans along the longitudinal ridge line, but surrounded in the east bay by an eight-pointed star pattern surrounded by diamonds with inset gilded carvings. It is clear that the vault here is designed to represent royalty and wealth, that whatever philosophical or

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theological conceptual structures that might be associated with the generation of the vocabulary forms are subsumed by the material display. There are ridge lines, tiercerons, liernes, fans, and pendants, but there is no geometrical catechism, and no organic metaphors, no nets or webs or topographical lines, only sumptuous surface pattern, an architectural version of regalia. The vaulting is only three and a half inches thick, the same thickness of the vaulting at Bath Abbey. The vault is supported by octagonal wall piers around the outer walls of the aisles. The presence of the piers is partially concealed by being covered by tracery extended from the windows between them. The vaulting is pure ornament, or ornamental encrustation, and the chapel is filled with more sculpture than any other chapel in England. The vaults of the nave and choir of Bath Abbey were constructed between 1504 and 1518. The Gothic building of the Benedictine abbey in Somerset was begun in 1499 by Bishop Oliver King. The designers of the vaults were Robert and William Vertue; the vaults were restored by Sir George Gilbert Scott in the 1860s, based on the original sixteenth-century design. The fan vault in the nave (Figure 105), built out of Bath stone, seventy-five feet high, seventy-two feet wide, and 106 feet long, features bays of steep conoid tierceron springer vaults (fans) rising from corbels on piers between tall Perpendicular windows, encircled by ridge rings, and segmented by transverse ribs from the window heads that stop short at the spandrels. The tiercerons in the fans are subdivided and filled with cusped tracery, as are the spandrels. The vaulting of the nave aisles features pendants in the spandrels between the fans. The spandrels run along an imaginary longitudinal ridge line defined by the tangent circumferences of the fans on either side. The vaulting in the choir (Figure 106), seventy-two feet wide and sixty-seven feet long, is the same except that the spandrels are painted. The choir aisle vaulting also features traceried pendants in the spandrels, and more elaborate tracery along the ridge rings of the fans, which are segmented along the ridge line of the vault, longitudinally, and not along the transverse lines, the opposite of the vault in the choir itself. The tracery in the choir aisle vaults involves elaborated quatrefoils inscribed in circles. The crossing vault of Bath Abbey features tiercerons springing from corner responds, forming adumbrated fans bordered by cusped ogee arches. Tiercerons from the tips of the arches and between the arches extend to a longitudinal ridge rib, and to segments of ridge rings which form a spandrel along the latitudinal ridge line, and define the clusters of tiercerons in the corners as small fragments of fans. The spandrel is occupied by a painted

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shield. The transept vaulting is perhaps the most interesting, at least the most irregular, of the vaulting at Bath Abbey, because the fans are segmented both along the longitudinal ridge line and the latitudinal transverse ridge lines, combining elements of the nave and nave aisle or choir and choir aisle vaults. Fans spring from corner responds and responds on piers between the windows; the corner fans above the end windows are segmented only along the longitudinal ridge line. The spandrels are filled with reticulated square patterns which contrast with the splaying tiercerons of the fan vaults. The fan vault of King’s College Chapel at Cambridge University (Figure 107), the largest in the world, was built between 1508 and 1515, under Henry VII. The decision to build a fan vault, rather than the original lierne vault proposed by Henry VI in 1446, was perhaps the result of the influence of the vaulting of Henry VII Chapel at Westminster Abbey, and the desire to create an architectural testament to the Tudor dynasty. The vault of King’s College Chapel is 289 feet long and forty feet wide, and eighty feet high. It was designed by John Wastell, who designed the fan vaulting of Peterborough retrochoir and Canterbury Bell Harry Tower, possibly collaborating with John Lee (fl. 1487–1522) and William Vertue as a consultant, and masons from Peterbrorough. John Lee and William Vertue were employed as royal masons, while John Wastell was not, leading to speculation about their roles as designers. The vaulting, carved from soft Cambridgeshire limestone, is divided into twelve rectangular bays separated by thick transverse arches overlapping segmented vaulting conoids. The transverse arches are at the centers of the fans, springing from full-height responds between the fullheight windows of the elevations. The fans are segmented by thin transverse ridge lines running from the window heads to a thin longitudinal ridge line which is covered by the transverse arches and pendant bosses (alternating carved roses and portcullises) in the spandrels. The circumferences of the fans are tangent at the longitudinal ridge line. The fans contain two concentric inner lines of tracery, with cusped arches and reticulation. It is believed that Reginald Ely, the builder of the elevations, intended a lierne vault, and the fan vault could only be built with the support of timber arches on timber scaffolding. When the scaffolding was removed, the load on each side of the ridge line was borne by the ridge line itself and eleven buttresses on each side of the exterior of the chapel, which also allow for the large areas of glazing in the elevations. As the load is carried by the external buttresses, the interior is free to appear as a glass cage, where the walls, windows and ceiling are unified in a continuous struc-

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ture, dominated by vertical lines, and the vault appears to be floating above the glass walls, defying gravity and the structural logic of the building. Vaulting in the aisles includes tierceron vaults on the Lincoln model, with ridge poles, transverse ribs, and foliate bosses. The vault of King’s College Chapel is the largest and most advanced example of fan vaulting, and the culminating work of English Gothic architecture. It combines the function of the vault as theological catechism with the function of the vault as nationalistic regalia, and as it defies gravity, hovering above the glass cage below, it is considered one of the great works in the history of architecture and engineering, rivaling the dome of the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. The vault at Cambridge is the epitome of the Perpendicular style in England, as the Perpendicular has been described as “the national style of England.” The fan vaulting (Figure 108) in the Dorset Aisle in the church of Ottery St. Mary north of Exeter dates from 1520 to 1530, in a chapel begun in 1504. The last fan vault of the English medieval period features fans supported by sculpted corbels placed on the outer stone wall, and on the arcade towards the nave. The fans in the five rectangular bays contain thick tiercerons divided by tracery with cusped ogee arches, bordered by the segments of polygons rather than semicircular ridge rings. The tiercerons of the fans continue to a longitudinal ridge pole and latitudinal transverse ribs, combining the conoid tierceron springer vault with the fan. The areas between the polygonal ridges and the longitudinal and transverse ridge ribs can either be seen as large canted spandrels or the upper part of the fans, which would then be seen as segmented both longitudinally and latitudinally. The vaulting thus presents a compositional ambiguity, a hybrid form, in a variety of ways. The cusped tracery continues in the “spandrels,” and openwork pendant bosses cover the intersections of the longitudinal and transverse ridge ribs. The pendant boss in the central bay is twisted into a spiral. The sculptural vaulting provides quite a contrast to the restrained, two-dimensional lierne net vaults of the nave and choir designed by William Joy in the Curvilinear style. Bishop West’s Chapel, the chapel dedicated to the Bishop of Ely from 1515 to 1534 in the southeast corner of Ely Cathedral, dates from 1539. The chapel features a “Renaissance style” ceiling carved by Italian craftsmen, with deep coffers, foliate pendants, and painted tracery patterns between the ribs of the coffers. The ceiling is a hybrid between a ribbed surface and a coffered surface, as the chapel is a hybrid between Gothic and Renaissance styles, as the last work of the Perpendicular period and the first work of the Renaissance period. In the coffering, “tierceron” ribs in “fans” give way to

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reticulated diamond patterns; the Gothic vocabulary has been appropriated in a Renaissance composition of Platonic or Euclidean geometries which refer back to purer classical aesthetics, corresponding to the cosmological conceptions of Plato in the Timaeus, the underlying polyhedral atomic substructure of matter, in contrast to the medieval cosmological conception of the refraction and rarefaction of geometries in light and matter, as conceived by Robert Grosseteste in the treatises De Lineis and Le Luce, and manifest in the fragmented geometries of the English Gothic. The Euclidean Renaissance coffers in Bishop West’s Chapel are filled with foliate tracery designs, including Green Men with faces morphing into leaves, referring to the pagan theology of the classical world, and the tracery between the ribs of the fans consists of seraphim angels, bodiless angels which are the closest in the Celestial Hierarchies to God. A canopied screen in the chapel is an explosion of Perpendicular Gothic motifs—cusped ogee arches, miniature fan vaults, openwork pendant vaults, overhanging canopies, filigree tracery, crocketing, reticulation, carved foliage—recalling the Choir Screen in Winchester Cathedral and competing with the neighboring Bishop Alcock’s Chapel in exuberance and imagination. The Perpendicular period culminates in hybrid and experimental forms, representing the exhaustion of a particular cultural identity and epistemology, and the beginning of a new set of ideas, beliefs, values, and outlooks which would be manifest in a different kind of architecture at the beginning of the sixteenth century. It has been seen that the epistemology represented throughout the development of English Gothic architecture is tied to the theological and philosophical developments at the beginning of the thirteenth century, first manifest in the architecture of Lincoln Cathedral, and in the writings of Robert Grosseteste, the first Chancellor of Oxford University and Bishop of Lincoln 1235–53. Following the argument established by Erwin Panofsky in Gothic Architecture and Scholasticism, a particular way of thinking and understanding pervaded all aspects of medieval culture in England, from the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries. The beginning of the thirteenth century, during the period of the completion of Canterbury Cathedral and the beginning of Lincoln and Wells Cathedrals, the Magna Carta and the beginning of the Franciscan School at Oxford, inspired by Grosseteste, with the growth of natural or scientific philosophy, should be seen as a period of cultural renaissance. Architectural forms in particular would be a product of that cultural epistemology or zeitgeist. It is not necessary to go so far as to establish that masons read scientific treatises, given that every citizen would have been

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immersed in thinking that pervaded the culture, from treatises of scholars to liturgical and iconographic programs devised by the clergy and made available to the public in sermons, disputations, and lectures. To review, the growing “urban professionalism” of the time played an important role, contributing to the dissemination of knowledge through professions that were connected to the church, such as the publisher or stationarius, the bookseller, booklender, bookbinder, illuminator, painter, sculptor, jeweler, and architect. All of these professionals would have access to knowledge circulating in the manuscripts and made available to the public by the clergy. The urban clerical scholars, or scholastics, devoted their careers to the dissemination of knowledge in writing and teaching, so it is easy to see how the architects would have been asked to play a role. The architects or master masons were well-educated and well-read, trained professionals, who had great social prestige, such as Henry Yevele and William Wynford, and worked directly with the bishop or the court. It has been seen that almost all the architecture throughout the Middle Ages in England is the product of the involvement of a particular bishop or abbot, and the relationship between that bishop or abbot and a particular master mason. The architects in the masons’ lodges, which were responsible for the design and construction of the building, developed plans and ideas in interaction with the bishop or abbot of the church, and any other urban professional or member of the clergy involved in the building process. The client, the clergy, and the artisans would all have shared a basic knowledge of philosophy or theology which provided a general basis for aesthetic and even structural decisions. The church was interconnected with the political and educational organizations in the society, councils and universities, which created a common sense of direction, a shared zeitgeist and epistemological structure, which resulted in unified forms of expression. There was little concept of the modern phenomenon of the individual artist or architect working for fame or individual recognition; that phenomenon was born in the Renaissance. Many of the sculpted details of the church were not even intended to be seen by human eyes, only God’s eyes, so there was little opportunity for personal fame or recognition. All individuals contributed to a culture-wide expression, the expression of shared ideas and beliefs, which resulted in the homogeneity of the vocabulary and styles throughout the Middle Ages. As the printed word was not widely disseminated, as it is by the printing press, architecture was still the primary means by which a culture expressed and represented its ideas, beliefs and values. The experience

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of visiting the cathedral was like the experience of reading a book, a text of the culture. The architecture was capable of communication to every level of initiation into the ideas represented: for the most illiterate, the simple spaces, figures and colors were enough to communicate reverence and order, while for the most literate, the architecture was capable of representing the most complex theological and philosophical ideas. That is a characteristic of all great architecture throughout history, that it can resonate with any level of initiation and sophistication on the part of the viewer or user. It has been suggested that it was not just a philosophical or theological point of view which was represented by the compartmentalization in the Scholasticism and the architecture, but the very identity of the individual in late medieval society. Individuals saw themselves less as totalities and more as parts of the whole, a universal whole to which society aspired. The universal whole was the national identity and the national religion, in the authority of the Church, as distinct from government. The architecture played an important role in the necessity of establishing and expressing such shared identities. A function of the architecture of the church was to facilitate the participation of the individual in the collective whole. In philosophical terms, the individual material intellect, nous hylikos or virtus cogitativa, was nurtured to develop towards a higher form of intellect, nous poietikos or virtus intellectiva, which was a universal intellect, a kind of collective consciousness, made possible by divine intellect, intelligentia. The individual worshipper was encouraged to climb an intellectual ladder towards God, facilitated by the liturgy and the architecture, and to develop the solertia or will of self-discipline and self-cultivation. The result of compartmentalization was the juxtaposition of the parts to the whole in the architecture; the parts are absorbed into the whole, as the material intellect (reason and logic, as in the mathematics and geometry) is absorbed into the active intellect (that part of intellect inaccessible to material intellect, as represented by the continuity in the mimesis of organic form in the architecture). The result is an artistic unity of form, meaning, style, and culture, which persisted in various permutations throughout medieval England and the development of English Gothic architecture. The manifestatio, the process of elucidation or clarification, has been seen to be the most important principle of medieval Scholasticism. The dominant agenda of medieval Scholasticism is the reconciliation of faith and reason, as in the Great Synthesis. The interweaving of philosophy and theology, the attempt to establish a philosophical basis for religious faith, and the

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attempt to establish a theological basis for natural philosophy, can be found in the writings of Grosseteste, which are a predecessor for the Franciscan School and the writings of Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas in France. Such a dominant epistemology, what passed for a world-view at the time, can be seen to explain the particular articulation of the architecture throughout the Middle Ages in England, in excess of its structural and functional exigencies, as a catechism or edificium of the cosmologies, hypostases of being, and models of human reason, in perception and intellection, which were being developed. The basic architectural vocabulary which was developed at Lincoln Cathedral during the bishopric of Grosseteste, the ridge pole, tierceron, lierne, conoid springer vault, umbrella vault, and reticulation, persisted throughout the development of English Gothic architecture, morphing into and manifested by various new forms. The epistemology connected with the architectural forms persisted as well, until it was altered by the Renaissance, at which point the architectural forms were altered along with it.

Notes 2 Precedents for the Architecture of Lincoln Cathedral 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21.

Nikolaus Pevsner and Priscilla Metcalf, The Cathedrals of England: Midland, Eastern and Northern England (Middlesex: Penguin, 1985), p. 76 Christopher Wilson, The Gothic Cathedral, The Architecture of the Great Church 1130– 1530 (London: Thames and Hudson, 1990), p. 22. Paul Frankl, Gothic Architecture (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000 [1962]), p. 41. Ibid., p. 49. Jean Bony, The English Decorated Style: Gothic Architecture Transformed 1250–1350 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1979), p. 43. Paul Frankl, Gothic Architecture, p. 49. Ibid., p. 50. Ibid., p. 295. John Harvey, The Medieval Architect (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1972), p. 23. The De Anima of Alexander of Aphrodisias, trans. Athanasios P. Fotinis (Washington, DC: University Press of America, 1979). Themistius, On Aristotle’s On the Soul, trans. Robert B. Todd (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1996), p. 113. Alfarabi, The Letter Concerning the Intellect, trans. Arthur Hyman, in Arthur Hyman and James J. Walsh, ed., Philosophy in the Middle Ages: The Christian, Islamic, and Jewish Traditions (New York: Harper and Row, 1967), pp. 218–219. Plotinus, Enneads, trans. Stephen MacKenna (London: Penguin Books, 1991). Marsilio Ficino, Commentary on Plato’s Symposium on Love, trans. Sears Jayne (Dallas: Spring Publications, 1985). Metrical Life of Saint Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln, ed. J. F. Dimock (Lincoln, 1860), lines 833–965, quoted in John Harvey, The Medieval Architect, pp. 237–239. Quoted in Gloria K. Fiero, The Humanistic Tradition, Book Three (New York: McGraw Hill, 2002), p. 32. Plato, The Republic, trans. Desond Lee (New York: Penguin Books, 1955). Nikolaus Pevsner and Priscilla Metcalf, The Cathedrals of England, Volume II: Southern England (Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1985), p. 59. David Watkin, English Architecture (London: Thames and Hudson, 1979), pp. 35–36. Pseudo-Dionysius, The Complete Works, trans. Colin Luibheid (New York: Paulist Press, 1987). The Book of Causes (Liber de Causis), trans. Dennis J. Brand (New York: Niagra University Press, 1981).

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22. John Harvey, The Medieval Architect, p. 237. 23. Proclus, A Commentary on the First Book of Euclid’s Elements, trans. Glenn R. Morrow (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1970). 24. Nikolaus Pevsner and Priscilla Metcalf, The Cathedrals of England: Midland, Eastern and Northern England, p. 207. 25. David Watkin, English Architecture, p. 40.

3 Interpretations of the Architecture of Lincoln Cathedral 1190–1250 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21.

Nikolaus Pevsner, An Outline of European Architecture (Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1943), p. 15. Albert Frank Kendrick, The Cathedral Church of Lincoln, A History and Description of Its Fabric and a List of the Bishops (London: G. Bell and Sons, 1922), p. 3. Quoted in Kendrick, The Cathedral Church of Lincoln, pp. 15–16. Ibid., p. 17. Erwin Panofsky, Gothic Architecture and Scholasticism (New York: Meridian, 1957), p. 35. Ibid., p. 58. Nikolaus Pevsner, An Outline of European Architecture, p. 121. Ibid. p. 122. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Introductory Lectures on Aesthetics (The Introduction to Hegel’s Philosophy of Fine Art, 1886), trans. Bernard Bosanquet, ed. Michael Inwood (London: Penguin Books, 1993). Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling, The Philosophy of Art (Die Philosophie der Kunst, 1859), trans. Douglas W. Stott (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1989), §107. Plotinus, Enneads, trans. A. H. Armstrong (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1966). Dalibor Vesely, Architecture in the Age of Divided Representation: The Question of Creativity in the Shadow of Production (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004), p. 110. Peter Kidson, “Architectural History,” in Dorothy Owen, ed., A History of Lincoln Minster (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), p. 34. Peter Kidson, “St. Hugh’s Choir,” in Medieval Art and Architecture at Lincoln Cathedral (The British Archaeological Association, 1986), p. 39. Paul Frankl, “Lincoln Cathedral,” in Art Bulletin Vol. 44 (New York: College Art Association, 1962), p. 32. Folke Nordström, “Peterborough, Lincoln, and the Science of Robert Grosseteste: A Study in Thirteenth Century Architecture and Iconography,” in Art Bulletin Vol. 38 (New York: College Art Association, 1955), p. 266. Peter Kidson, “St. Hugh’s Choir,” in Medieval Art and Architecture at Lincoln Cathedral, p. 32. Nikolaus Pevsner and Priscilla Metcalf, The Cathedrals of England: Midland, Eastern and Northern England (Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1985), p. 203. Ibid., p. 207. David Layzer, Cosmogenesis: the growth of order in the universe (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990), pp. 261–262. Paul Frankl, Gothic Architecture (Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1962), p. 75.

Notes

281

4 The Geometries of Robert Grosseteste and the Architecture of Lincoln Cathedral 1. 2. 3. 4.

5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

11.

12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19.

Richard William Southern, Robert Grosseteste: The Growth of an English Mind in Medieval Europe (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986), p. 3. Clare C. Riedl, “Introduction,” in Robert Grosseteste, On Light (De Luce) (Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 1942), p. 1. Arthur Hyman and James J. Walsh, ed., Philosophy in the Middle Ages: The Christian, Islamic, and Jewish Traditions (New York: Harper and Row, 1967), p. 432. Bruce Stansfield Eastwood, The Geometrical Optics of Robert Grosseteste (Ph.D. Thesis, University of Wisconsin, 1964), p. 1; Daniel Angelo Philip Callus, “The Oxford Career of Robert Grosseteste,” Oxoniensia X (1945), p. 44; J. C. Russell, “Phases of Grosseteste’s Intellectual Life,” Harvard Theological Review XLIII (1950), p. 94. James McEvoy, The Philosophy of Robert Grosseteste (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982), Appendix B. Alistair Cameron Crombie, Robert Grosseteste and the Origins of Experimental Science 1100–1700 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1953), p. 139. Roger Bacon, Opus Maius, vi. I, ed. Bridges, ii. 167–8, in Crombie, Robert Grosseteste and the Origins of Experimental Science 1100–1700, p. 141. Alistair Cameron Crombie, Robert Grosseteste and the Origins of Experimental Science 1100–1700, p. 152. Quoted in Bruce Stansfield Eastwood, The Geometrical Optics of Robert Grosseteste (University of Wisconsin, 1964), p. 88. Libellus Lincolniensis de Phisicis Lineis Angulis et Figuris per quas omnes Acciones Naturales Complentur (Nurenburge, 1503): “Nunc de actione universale et prout ad actione in material mundi contingit descendere possunt in mediu adduci que erudire possut prudeter ad maiora Omnes eni cause effectu naturale habet dari per lineas / angulos et figuras / aliter eni impossibile est sciri pter quid in illis / quod manifestatur sic Agens naturale multiplicat virtute suam a se usa in paciens sive agat in sensum sive in materiam.” Ibid.: “Que virtus aliquando vocat species: aliquado similitudo: et ide est quocuq modo vocetur. Et ide immittit in sensus et ide in materia sive cotrariu ide mittit intactu et olfactu. Non eni agit p delibe ratione et electione. Et ideo unomodo agit quicad occurrat sive sit sensus sive sit aliud sive animatum sive inanimatu sed secundu diversitatem pacientis diversificat effectus. Insensu enim ista virtus recepta facit operatione spiritualem quodamodo. Et nobiliore in contrario: sive in materia facit operatione materialem.” Robert Grosseteste, On Light (De Luce), trans. Clare C. Riedl, p. 10. Robert Grosseteste, De lineis, angulis et figuris, trans. in Bruce Stansfield Eastwood, The Geometrical Optics of Robert Grosseteste, p. 90. Plotinus, The Enneads, trans. Stephen MacKenna (London: Penguin Books, 1991). Robert Grosseteste, On the Six Days of Creation, A Translation of the Hexaëmeron, trans. C. F. J. Martin (British Academy, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), p. 227. Themistius, On Aristotle’s On the Soul, trans. Robert B. Todd (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1996), p. 120. Translated in Richard William Southern, Robert Grosseteste: The Growth of an English Mind in Medieval Europe, p. 213. Robert Grosseteste, On Light (De Luce), trans. Clare C. Riedl, p. 10. Ibid., p. 12.

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20. Bruce Stansfield Eastwood, The Geometrical Optics of Robert Grosseteste, p. 179. 21. Herbert A. Davidson, Alfarabi, Avicenna, and Averroes, on Intellect (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992), p. 19. 22. Steven P. Marrone, William of Auvergne and Robert Grosseteste: New Ideas of Truth in the Early Thirteenth Century (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983), p. 196. 23. Bruce Stansfield Eastwood, The Geometrical Optics of Robert Grosseteste, p. 183. 24. Robert Grosseteste, On Light (De Luce), trans. Clare C. Riedl, p. 12. 25. Nicolai de Cusa, De coniecturis (On Conjecture) (Hamburgi: In Aedibus Felicis Meiner, 1972), p. 37: “Sensibilis corporalisve unitas est illa, quae millenario figuratur.” 26. Ibid.: “Solida atque compositissima est haec sensibilis unitas, uti ipse millenarius. Et ut harum unitatum conceptum subintres, eas concipe differentes, quasi prima sit unitas simplicissimi puncti, secunda simplicis lineae, tertia simplicis superficiei, quarta simplicis corporis. Scies post haec clarius unitatem puncti simplicissimi omne id esse, quod in lineali, superficiali atque corporali exstat unitate; sed unitas lineae est id omne, quod in superficiali et corporali est, atque superficialis pariformiter est id omne, quod in corporali.” 27. Quoted in James McEvoy, The Philosophy of Robert Grosseteste (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982), p. 177: “Iste autem omnia creavit in numero, pondere et mensura, et iste est mensurator primus et certissimus.” 28. Plato, Timaeus and Critias, trans. Desmond Lee (London: Penguin Books, 1965). 29. Plato, The Republic, trans. Desmond Lee (London: Penguin Books, 1955). 30. Proclus, A Commentary on the First Book of Euclid’s Elements, trans. Glenn R. Morrow (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1970), 409.

Bibliography

Peter Adamson, The Arabic Plotinus: A Philosophical Study of the Theology of Aristotle, London: Duckworth, 2003. Leon Battista Alberti, On the Art of Building in Ten Books (De re aedificatoria), trans. Joseph Rykwert, Neil Leach, Robert Tavernor, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1988. ———, On Painting and On Sculpture, trans. Cecil Grayson, London: Phaidon, 1972. Alfarabi, The Letter Concerning the Intellect, trans. Arthur Hyman, in Arthur Hyman and James J. Walsh, ed., Philosophy in the Middle Ages: The Christian, Islamic, and Jewish Traditions, New York: Harper and Row, 1967, pp. 218–219. William Anderson and Clive Hicks, Cathedrals in Britain and Ireland, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1978. J. Baily, ‘St. Hugh’s Choir at Lincoln: A Review’, Architectural History, 34 (1991). Ludwig Baur, Die philosophischen werke des Robert Grosseteste, Bischofs von Lincoln, in Beiträge zur Geschichte der Philosophie und Theologie des Mittelalters, IX, Münster: Aschendorff, 1912. John Bilson, ‘Lincoln Cathedral: The New Reading’, Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects, 1911. Paul Binski, Becket’s Crown: Art and Imagination in Gothic England 1170–1300, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004. Jean Bony, The English Decorated Style: Gothic Architecture Transformed 1250–1350, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1979. Dennis J. Brand, trans., The Book of Causes (Liber de Causis), New York: Niagra University Press, 1981. Hugh Braun, English Mediaeval Architecture, London: Bracken Books, 1951. Franz Brentano, The Psychology of Aristotle: In Particular His Doctrine of the Active Intellect, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977. Daniel Angelo Philip Callus, ‘The Oxford Career of Robert Grosseteste’, Oxoniensia X (1945). Daniel Angelo Philip Callus, ed., Robert Grosseteste, Scholar and Bishop, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1955. M. T. Clanchy, From Memory to Written Record, England 1066–1307, Oxford: Blackwell, 1993. Alec Clifton-Taylor, The Cathedrals of England, London: Thames and Hudson, 1967.

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Nicola Coldstream, The Decorated Style: Architecture and Ornament 1240–1360, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1994. G. H. Cook, Portrait of Lincoln Cathedral, London: Phoenix House, 1950. Alistair Cameron Crombie, Robert Grosseteste and the Origins of Experimental Science, 1100–1700, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1953. Nicolai de Cusa, De coniecturis (On Conjecture), Hamburgi: In Aedibus Felicis Meiner, 1972. ———, De docta ignorantia (On Learned Ignorance), Lipsiae: Felicis Meiner, 1932. Richard C. Dales, ‘Robert Grosseteste’s Scientific Works’, Isis 52 (1961). Richard C. Dales, ed., Roberti Grosseteste Commentarius in VIII Libros Physicorum Aristotelis, Boulder: University of Colorado Press, 1963. Herbert A. Davidson, Alfarabi, Avicenna, and Averroes, on Intellect, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992. Jacques Derrida, Writing and Difference, trans. Alan Bass, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1978. Peter Draper, The Formation of English Gothic: Architecture and Identity, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006. Willi Drost, Romanische und gotische Baukunst (Romanesque and Gothic Architecture), Potsdam: Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft Athenaion, 1944. D. C. Dunlop, Lincoln Cathedral, London: Pitkin Pictorials, 1977. Bruce Stansfield Eastwood, The Geometrical Optics of Robert Grosseteste, University of Wisconsin Thesis, 1964. Marsilio Ficino, Commentary on Plato’s Symposium on Love (De amore), trans. Sears Jayne, Dallas: Spring Publications, 1985. ———, Platonic Theology, On the Immortality of Souls (Theologia Platonica), Paris: Humanities, 1964. Gloria K. Fiero, The Humanistic Tradition, New York: McGraw Hill, 2002. Athanasios P. Fotinis, trans., The De Anima of Alexander of Aphrodisias, Washington, DC: University Press of America, 1979. Paul Frankl, ‘The “Crazy” Vaults of Lincoln Cathedral’, Art Bulletin 35 (New York: College Art Association, 1953). ———, Gothic Architecture, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000 (1962). ———, ‘Lincoln Cathedral’, Art Bulletin 54 (New York: College Art Association, 1962). Myrna Gabbe, ‘Themistius and His Many Intellects’, Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter, 2007. Etienne Gilson, History of Christian Philosophy in the Middle Ages, New York: Random House, 1955. James R. Ginther, Master of the Sacred Page, a study of the theology of Robert Grosseteste, ca. 1229/30–1235, Aldershot, Hants, England; Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2004. Robert Grosseteste, Commentarius in Posteriorum Analyticorum Libros (Commentary on the Posterior Analytics), ed. Pietro Rossi, Florence: Olschki, 1981. ———, Libellus Lincolniensis de Phisicis Lineis Angulis et Figuris per quas omnes Acciones Naturales complentur (On Lines, Angles and Figures), Nurenburge, 1503. ———, On Light (De Luce), trans. Clare C. Riedl, Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 1942.

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———, On the Six Days of Creation (Hexaëmeron), trans. C. F. J. Martin, British Academy, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996. Michael Haren, Medieval Thought, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1985. John Harvey, English Mediaeval Architects, A Biographical Dictionary Down to 1550, Gloucester: Alan Sutton, 1954. ———, The Medieval Architect, New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1972. ———, The Perpendicular Style 1330–1485, London: B. T. Batsford Ltd., 1978. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Introductory Lectures on Aesthetics (The Introduction to Hegel’s Philosophy of Fine Art, 1886), trans. Bernard Bosanquet, ed. Michael Inwood, London: Penguin Books, 1993. Sir Francis Hill, Medieval Lincoln, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1965. Arthur Hyman and James J. Walsh, ed., Philosophy in the Middle Ages: The Christian, Islamic, and Jewish Traditions, New York: Harper and Row, 1967. A. F. Kendrick, The Cathedral Church of Lincoln, A History and Description of Its Fabric and a List of the Bishops, London: Bell and Sons, 1922. Peter Kidson, ‘Architectural History’, in Dorothy Owen, ed., A History of Lincoln Minster, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994. ———, ‘St. Hugh’s Choir’, Medieval Art and Architecture at Lincoln Cathedral, The British Archaeological Association, 1986. Peter Kidson, Peter Murray and Paul Thompson, A History of English Architecture, Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1965. David Layzer, Cosmogenesis: the growth of order in the universe, New York: Oxford University Press, 1990. Walter C. Leedy, Jr., Fan Vaulting: A Study of Form, Technology, and Meaning, Santa Monica: Arts + Architecture Press, 1980. Phillip Lindley, “The Fourteenth-Century Architectural Programme at Ely Cathedral,” in W. M. Ormrod, ed., England in the Fourteenth Century, Suffolk: Boydell Press, 1986. Kathleen Major, Lincoln Cathedral: Some Materials for its History in the Middle Ages, Lincoln: Yard Publishing, 1992. Steven P. Marrone, William of Auvergne and Robert Grosseteste: New Ideas of Truth in the Early Thirteenth Century, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983. James McEvoy, The Philosophy of Robert Grosseteste, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982. ———, Robert Grosseteste, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. ———, Robert Grosseteste, Exegete and Philosopher, Aldershot, Great Britain; Brookfield, VT: Varorium, 1994. James McEvoy, ed. and trans., Mystical Theology: The Glosses by Thomas Callus and the Commentary of Robert Grosseteste on De Mystica Theologia, Paris/Lueven/Dudley, MA: Peeters, 2003. Philip Merlan, Monopsychism Mysticism Metaconsciousness: Problems of the Soul in the Neoaristotelian and Neoplatonic Tradition, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1963. Metrical Life of Saint Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln, ed. J. F. Dimock (Lincoln, 1860), lines 833– 965, quoted in John Harvey, The Medieval Architect (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1972), pp. 237–239. Folke Nordström, ‘Peterborough, Lincoln and the Science of Robert Grosseteste’, Art Bulletin 37 (New York: College Art Association, 1955).

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Dorothy Owen, ed., A History of Lincoln Minster, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994. Erwin Panofsky, Gothic Architecture and Scholasticism, New York: Meridian, 1957. H. Parker, ‘Architectural History of St. Hugh’s Choir in Lincoln Cathedral’, Archaeologia 47 (1882). Nikolaus Pevsner, The Choir of Lincoln Cathedral, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1963. ———, An Outline of European Architecture, Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1943. Nikolaus Pevsner and Priscilla Metcalf, The Cathedrals of England: Midland, Eastern and Northern England, Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1985. ———, The Cathedrals of England: Southern England, Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1985. Plato, Philebus, trans. Robin A. H. Waterfield, New York: Penguin Books, 1982. ———, The Republic, trans. Desmond Lee, New York: Penguin Books, 1955. ———, Timaeus, trans. Desmond Lee, New York: Penguin Books, 1965. Plotinus, Enneads, trans. A. H. Armstrong, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1966. ———, Enneads, trans. Stephen MacKenna, London: Penguin Books, 1991. Proclus, A Commentary on the First Book of Euclid’s Elements, trans. Glenn R. Morrow, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1970. ———, The Elements of Theology, trans. E. R. Dodds, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963. Pseudo-Dionysius, The Complete Works, trans. Colin Luibheid, New York: Paulist Press, 1987. Clare C. Riedl, “Introduction,” in Robert Grosseteste, On Light (De Luce), Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 1942. Thomas Rickman and John Henry Parker, An Attempt to Discriminate the Styles of Architecture in England, From the Conquest to the Reformation: with a Sketch of the Grecian and Roman Orders (1881), Kessinger Publishing, 2009. J. C. Russell, ‘Hereford and Arabic Science in England about 1175–1200’, Isis 18 (1932). ———, ‘Phases of Grosseteste’s Intellectual Life’, Harvard Theological Review 53 (1950). Nigel Saul, A Companion to Medieval England 1066–1485, Stroud: Tempus Publishing, 2005. Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling, The Philosophy of Art (Die Philosophie der Kunst, 1859), trans. Douglas W. Stott, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1989. Frederic M. Schroeder and Robert B. Todd, trans., Two Greek Aristotelian Commentaries on the Intellect, Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 1990. Robert A. Scott, The Gothic Enterprise, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003. Gottfried Semper, The Four Elements of Architecture (Die Vier Elemente dur Baukunst), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989 (1851). ———, Style in the Technical and Tectonic Arts (Der Stil in der technischen und tektonischen künsten), Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2004 (1860). Dorothy E. Sharp, Franciscan Philosophy at Oxford in the Thirteenth Century, New York: Russel and Russel, 1964. Edmund Sharpe, Seven Periods of English Architecture, London: G. Bell, 1851. Richard Sorabji, ed., Aristotle Transformed: The Ancient Commentaries and Their Influence, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1990. Richard William Southern, Robert Grosseteste, The Growth of an English Mind in Medieval Europe, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986.

Bibliography

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Francis S. Stevenson, Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln, London: MacMillan and Co., 1899. Charles James Stranks, Durham Cathedral, London: Pitkin Pictorials, 1971. Alfred E. Taylor, Platonism and Its Influence, New York: Cooper Square Publishers, 1963. Nicholas Temple, Disclosing Horizons: Architecture Perspective and Redemptive Space, London, New York: Routledge, 2007. Themistius, On Aristotle’s On the Soul, trans. Robert B. Todd, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1966. Dalibor Vesely, Architecture in the Age of Divided Representation: The Question of Creativity in the Shadow of Production, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004. Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc, Lectures on Architecture (Entretiens sur l’architecture), New York: Dover Publications, 1987 (1859). Vitruvius, On Architecture (De architectura), trans. Frank Granger, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1931. Clarence Ward, Mediaeval Church Vaulting, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1915. David Watkin, English Architecture, London: Thames and Hudson, 1979. Julius Weinberg, A Short History of Medieval Philosophy, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1967. David Welander, The History, Art and Architecture of Gloucester Cathedral, Phoenix Mill: Alan Sutton, 1991. Philip Wheelwright, ed., The Presocratics, Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Educational Publishing, 1960. Elspeth Whitney, Medieval Science and Technology, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2004. Christopher Wilson, The Gothic Cathedral, The Architecture of the Great Church 1130–1530, London: Thames and Hudson, 1990. ———, “Henry VII’s Chapel,” in Christopher Wilson, et al., Westminster Abbey, London: Bell and Hyman, 1986. ———, et al., Westminster Abbey, London: Bell and Hyman, 1986. Heinrich Wölfflin, The Principles of Art History, New York: Dover Publications, 1950. Francis Woodman, The Architectural History of Canterbury Cathedral, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1981. ———, “The Gothic Campaigns,” in Ian Atherton, et al., ed., Norwich Cathedral: Church, City and Diocese, 1096–1996, London: Hambledon Press, 1996.

Illustrations

Illustrations

291

Figure 1. Durham choir vault

Figure 2. Durham nave vault

292

Architecture as Cosmology

Figure 3. Lincoln, St. Hugh’s Choir, vault

Figure 4. Lincoln, Bishop’s Eye

Illustrations

293

Figure 5. Lincoln, Dean’s Eye

Figure 6. Canterbury, Becket’s Crown

294

Architecture as Cosmology

Figure 7. Canterbury choir

Figure 8. Canterbury presbytery

Illustrations

295

Figure 9. Lincoln nave

Figure 10. Canterbury presbytery north aisle

296

Architecture as Cosmology

Figure 11. Canterbury presbytery south aisle

Figure 12. Canterbury north transept

Illustrations

297

Figure 13. Lincoln southeast transept

Figure 14. Gloucester nave vault

298

Architecture as Cosmology

Figure 15. Lincoln chapter house

Figure 16. Lincoln west front central portal

Illustrations

299

Figure 17. Lincoln west front central portal

Figure 18. Lincoln Consistory Chapel

300

Architecture as Cosmology

Figure 19. Lincoln crossing

Figure 20. Lincoln Angel Choir

Illustrations

301

Figure 21. Lincoln northeast transept

Figure 22. Wells nave

302

Architecture as Cosmology

Figure 23. Bristol chapter house

Figure 24. Ely Galilee Porch arcade

Illustrations

303

Figure 25. Hereford retrochoir

Figure 26. Lincoln north choir aisle

304

Architecture as Cosmology

Figure 27. Winchester retrochoir

Figure 28. Lincoln northeast transept

Illustrations

305

Figure 29. Canterbury presbytery north aisle

Figure 30. Beverley northwest transept

306

Architecture as Cosmology

Figure 31. Peterborough nave aisle

Figure 32. Chester cloister, east walk

Illustrations

307

Figure 33. York south transept elevation

Figure 34. York south transept vault

308

Architecture as Cosmology

Figure 35. Worcester retrochoir

Figure 36. Worcester choir

Illustrations

309

Figure 37. Salisbury nave elevation

Figure 38. Salisbury west front

310

Architecture as Cosmology

Figure 39. Southwell choir

Figure 40. Ely presbytery vault

Illustrations

311

Figure 41. Ely choir vault

Figure 42. Wells cloister south walk

312

Architecture as Cosmology

Figure 43. Salisbury cloister

Figure 44. Gloucester nave north arcade

Illustrations

313

Figure 45. Tewkesbury nave

Figure 46. Westminster cloister east walk

314

Architecture as Cosmology

Figure 47. Westminster cloister west walk

Figure 48. Hereford north transept east elevation

Illustrations

315

Figure 49. Wells chapter house stairs

Figure 50. Beverley nave elevation

316

Architecture as Cosmology

Figure 51. York chapter house arcade

Figure 52. York chapter house vault

Illustrations

317

Figure 53. Exeter retrochoir vault

Figure 54. Chester choir elevation

318

Architecture as Cosmology

Figure 55. Southwell chapter house arcade

Figure 56. Southwell chapter house vault

Illustrations

319

Figure 57. Wells chapter house

Figure 58. Norwich cloister east walk

320

Architecture as Cosmology

Figure 59. Bristol choir aisle

Figure 60. Bristol choir vault

Illustrations

321

Figure 61. Bristol nave vault

Figure 62. Bristol, Berkeley Chapel antechamber

322

Architecture as Cosmology

Figure 63. Wells crossing

Figure 64. Gloucester nave north aisle

Illustrations

323

Figure 65. Southwell pulpitum

Figure 66. Wells retrochoir / Lady Chapel

324

Architecture as Cosmology

Figure 67. Ely Lady Chapel arcade

Figure 68. Ely Lady Chapel vault

Illustrations

325

Figure 69. Ely crossing

Figure 70. St. Mary Redcliffe North Porch

326

Architecture as Cosmology

Figure 71. Gloucester south transept / crossing

Figure 72. Wells choir vault

Figure 73. St. Mary Redcliffe nave vault

Figure 74. St. Mary Redcliffe choir aisle vault

Illustrations 327

328

Architecture as Cosmology

Figure 75. Ottery St. Mary nave vault

Figure 76. Exeter nave vault

Illustrations

329

Figure 77. Chester south transept vault

Figure 78. Gloucester cloister south walk

330

Architecture as Cosmology

Figure 79. Gloucester cloister west walk

Figure 80. York nave vault

Illustrations

331

Figure 81. Winchester west front portal

Figure 82. York retrochoir vault

332

Architecture as Cosmology

Figure 83. Norwich presbytery

Figure 84. Durham Prior’s Kitchen

Illustrations

333

Figure 85. Worcester southwest transept vault

Figure 86. Worcester northeast transept

334

Architecture as Cosmology

Figure 87. Tewkesbury choir vault

Figure 88. Tewkesbury crossing vault

Illustrations

335

Figure 89. Winchester nave

Figure 90. Tewkesbury Founder’s Chantry

336

Architecture as Cosmology

Figure 91. Canterbury cloister vault

Figure 92. Tewkesbury Beauchamp Chantry

Illustrations

337

Figure 93. Worcester cloister west walk

Figure 94. Norwich nave vault

Figure 95. Sherborne choir vault

Figure 96. Sherborne nave vault

338 Architecture as Cosmology

Illustrations

339

Figure 97. Chester nave vault

Figure 98. York crossing vault

340

Architecture as Cosmology

Figure 99. Oxford Divinity School

Figure 100. Christ Church Oxford, choir

Illustrations

341

Figure 101. Ely, Bishop Alcock’s Chapel

Figure 102. Winchester, Bishop Langton’s Chapel

342

Architecture as Cosmology

Figure 103. Peterborough retrochoir vault

Figure 104. Winchester choir vault

Illustrations

343

Figure 105. Bath Abbey nave

Figure 106. Bath Abbey choir vault

344

Architecture as Cosmology

Figure 107. King’s College Chapel vault

Figure 108. Ottery St. Mary, Dorset Aisle vault

Index

Abbey Church of Notre Dame, 33 Abbey Church of St. Denis, 4, 23, 26, 49, 53, 54, 80, 137, 175, 177, 186, 247 Abbot Serlo, 173 Abbot Simeon, 155 Abbot Suger, 4, 8, 26, 53, 137 Libellus alter de consecratione ecclesiae sancti dionysii, 4 Academia Verlag, 22 Accademia di San Luca, 37, 56 Adam of Eynsham, 75 Magna Vita, 75 Adam of Staunton, 231 Alan of Walsingham, 16, 216, 219 Alberti, Leon Battista, 23, 27, 35, 37, 91, 115, 122, 126, 141, 149, 196, 222 De re aedificatoria, 35, 149, 222 Albertus Magnus, 9, 35, 79, 121, 278 Alcock, John, 268 Alexander of Aphrodisias, 34, 39, 92, 149, 222 De anima, 34, 39, 92 Alexander the Mason, 12, 60, 76, 83, 114, 162, 163, 170, 171 Alfarabi, Abu Nasr, 34, 39, 117, 142 Risala (De intellectu), 39, 117 Algazel, 117 Metaphysica, 117 Alhambra, 217, 244 Alhazen (Ibn al-Haytham), 121, 122 Opticae, 122 Alkindi, 117, 121, 130 De aspectibus, 130

De Intellectu, 117 Allegory of the Cave, 55, 230 Amiens Cathedral, 176, 177, 189, 247 Anaximander, 57, 191 Angel Choir (Lincoln), 12, 13, 59, 60, 62, 74, 101, 156, 158, 163, 168–171, 180, 182, 184–189, 193, 195, 197 anima rationalis, 37, 41, 44, 56, 57, 186, 237, 239 Anselm of Canterbury, 7, 33, 47, 51, 52, 54–56 Monologion, 7, 54 Oratio ad sanctum Nicolaum, 7, 55 Aquablanca, Peter, 181 Aquinas, Thomas, 9, 35, 54, 79, 117, 278 Summa Theologica, 54 Arabic, 8, 57, 89, 92, 93, 117–119, 149, 222 Aristotle, 4, 5, 9, 10, 25, 31, 33, 34–36, 40, 42, 79, 89, 92, 93, 98–100, 117– 123, 125, 127, 129, 130, 133, 135– 137, 141, 142, 145, 149, 151, 201, 216, 222, 228 De anima, 5, 10, 34, 89, 92, 93, 99, 100, 125, 130, 133, 137, 142, 149, 151, 222 De Animalibus, 118 De Caelo, 117, 118, 145, 151 De Generatione et Corruptione, 118 De Sensu, 118 Metaphysics, 117, 129 Meteorologica, 118 Physics, 117, 123, 129, 130

346 Posterior Analytics, 117, 121, 123, 135 Rhetoric, 201 Athens, 119 Augustine of Canterbury, 47, 48 Augustine of Hippo, 4, 43, 94, 118, 132, 146 De Civitate Dei, 43, 118, 132, 135, 146 De Musica, 146 De Trinitate, 146 Avendeath, John, 117 Averroes (Ibn Rushd), 34, 92, 120, 121, 137, 142, 216 Long Commentary on the De anima, 92, 130 Physics, 121 Avicebron (Solomon Ibn Gabirol), 117 Fons Vitae, 117 Avicenna (Ibn Sina), 34, 92, 117, 120, 121, 142, 216 De anima, 117 De Caelo, 117 Liber Naturalis, 92 Metaphysica, 117, 133 Avon River, 164 Bacon, Roger, 9, 79, 121, 122, 145, 188, 240 Communia Mathematica, 121 Communium Naturalium, 121 De Multiplicatione Specierum, 121 Opus Maius, 121, 122 Opus Minus, 121 Opus Tertiam, 121 Baily, John, 7, 71, 72 Baptistery of the Orthodox, 84, 178, 215, 223, 251 Barcelona, 269 Baroque, 31, 86, 87, 110, 165, 166, 179, 194, 269 Bartholomew the Englishman, 123, 139, 141 De proprietatibus rerum, 123, 139, 141

Architecture as Cosmology Bath Abbey, 20, 21, 271–273 Beauchamp Chantry (Tewkesbury Abbey), 18, 256–258 Beauchamp, Richard, 256 Beaufort, Henry, 241, 262 Becket’s Crown (Canterbury), 46, 59, 165 Becket, Thomas, 46, 47, 50, 53, 75, 193 Bede the Venerable, 47 Bekynton, Thomas, 172, 262 Bell Harry Tower (Canterbury), 21, 273 Benedictine, 47, 81, 155, 161, 173, 174, 195, 259, 262, 272 Bennett, Nicholas, 1 Berchman, Robert, 22 Conversations Platonic and Neoplatonic: Intellect, Soul, and Nature, 22 Berkeley Castle, 225 Berkeley Chapel (Bristol), 15, 210, 213, 233 Berkeley, George, 128, 129 Bethlehem, 43 Beverley Minster, 11, 14, 38, 69, 101, 159–162, 164, 165, 168, 172, 190, 194, 245, 254–256, 259 Bilson, John, 102 Binski, Paul, 103 Becket’s Crown, 103 Bishop Alcock’s Chapel (Ely), 20, 267– 269, 271, 275 Bishop Alexander of Lincoln, 59, 74, 82 Bishop Audley’s Chapel (Hereford), 267 Bishop Britton of Exeter, 195, 197 Bishop Conrad of Canterbury, 47 Bishop Eborard of Norwich, 242 Bishop Eustace of Ely, 156 Bishop Fox of Winchester, 270 Bishop Lanfranc of Canterbury, 46, 47, 54 Bishop Langton’s Chapel (Winchester), 20, 267, 269 Bishop Leofric of Exeter, 195 Bishop Reynelm of Hereford, 156 Bishop’s Eye (Lincoln), 6, 43, 44, 80, 96, 97, 113, 139, 143, 159, 167

Index Bishop Stansbury’s Chapel (Hereford), 267 Bishop Waynflete’s Chapel (Winchester), 267 Bishop West’s Chapel (Ely), 21, 247, 274, 275 Black Death, 195, 203, 233, 255, 264 Bloet, Robert, 59, 73 Blois, William de, 82, 163 Blomfield, Sir Arthur, 235 Blomfield, Charles, 235 Blomfield, Charles James, 235 Blunt, Henry, 173 Bodleian Library, 20, 236, 265 Boethius, 118, 129, 135 Arithmetic, 129 De Consolatione Philosophiae, 118, 135 Bond, Francis, 102, 204 Bony, Jean, 25, 29, 171, 215 The English Decorated Style, 29 Borromini, Francesco, 86, 87 Botticelli, Alessandro, 27 Bourges Cathedral, 49 Bradford, William, 259 Brayford Pool, 73 Bredon, Thomas, 173 Bridport, Giles de, 164 Bristol, 204, 205, 217, 224, 260 Bristol Cathedral, 14, 15, 19, 26, 54, 155, 179, 206–210, 212–215, 228, 233, 234, 257, 263, 266 Britain, 160 British Archaeological Association, 1 British Library, 123 Bronescombe, Walter, 195 Brunelleschi, Filippo, 180 Brunyng, Robert, 259 Burgo, Gilbert de, 114, 156 Burton, Simon de, 205 Bury St. Edmunds, 117 Byzantine, 8, 43, 44, 51, 58, 84, 148, 149, 178, 221–223, 251 Caen, 47, 212

347 Calcidius, 99 Callus, Daniel Angelo Philip, 9 Cambio, Arnolfo di, 221 Cambrensis, Giraldus, 74 Cambridgeshire, 155, 262, 273 Cambridge University, 18, 20, 38, 103, 257, 260, 261, 269, 273 Canterbury, 47, 122, 242 Canterbury Cathedral, 6, 7, 11, 14, 17–19, 21, 46, 48–52, 58–63, 66, 68, 74–77, 97, 112, 113, 153, 154, 157, 159, 161, 162, 165, 166, 172, 173, 177, 186, 189, 196, 200, 206, 215, 229, 243, 253, 255–257, 263, 273, 275 Cantilupe, Thomas de, 163 Canynges, William, 260 Capet, Hugh, 174 Capetian, 174, 176 Caribbean Hut, 33 Carilef, William de, 24 Carthusian, 59, 74 Cathedral of San Marco, 44 Catholic, 4, 31, 38, 66, 74, 79, 86, 99, 103, 109, 111, 229 Celestial Hierarchies, 12, 84, 181, 223, 244, 250, 275 Chapel of the Nine Altars (Durham), 12, 180, 243, 244 Chapman, John, 19, 259 Chartres Cathedral, 76 Chaucer, Geoffrey, 47 Canterbury Tales, 47 Cheshire, 160 Chester, 119 Chester Cathedral, 11, 13, 14, 17, 160, 161, 163, 183, 193, 198, 235, 245, 264 Chichester Cathedral, 50, 104 Chillenden, Thomas, 253, 256 Christ, 20, 39, 82, 97, 103, 126, 143, 149, 160, 161, 175, 193, 206, 213, 215, 220, 224, 233, 251, 261, 266 Christ Church (Oxford), 18, 20, 257, 266, 271 Christ Church College, 266, 267

348 Christian, 8, 10, 18, 23, 43, 47, 84, 118, 119, 215, 249, 252 Church of Sant’Apollinare in Classe, 44 Cistercian, 33, 48, 160, 161, 168 Clayton, John Richard, 198 Clayton and Bell, 115, 198, 231 Clipsham, 216 Cluny, 24 Clyve, John, 244 Colchester, William, 241 Coleridge, John, 232 Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 232 Consistory Chapel (Lincoln), 11, 83, 104, 156, 157, 168, 183 Cook, George Henry, 7, 71, 102, 115 Portrait of Lincoln Cathedral, 102 Córdoba, 17, 214, 243 Correggio, Antonio, 166 Counter Reformation, 31, 86, 162 Crombie, Alistair Cameron, 4, 9, 121 Robert Grosseteste and the Origins of Experimental Science 1100–1700, 4 Crown of Thorns, 175 Crystal Palace, 33 Curvilinear, 3, 14–16, 18, 19, 153, 179, 181, 193, 198, 202–214, 218–221, 225–228, 230–235, 238–243, 245– 248, 254, 261, 264, 270, 274 Cusanus, Nicolas, 7, 56, 145, 149, 222 De circuli quadratura, 149, 222 De coniecturis, 56, 145 De docta ignorantia, 56 Dean’s Eye (Lincoln), 6, 43, 44, 76, 80, 96, 97, 113, 114, 139, 143, 159, 167 Decorated, 3, 12, 14, 15, 29, 59, 63, 153, 178, 179, 181–187, 192–194, 196, 197, 199, 200, 202, 203, 208–210, 213, 216–218, 240, 246, 254, 257, 263 Delphi, 116 Democritus, 121 Derrida, Jacques, 100 Derwell, Seth, 235

Architecture as Cosmology Despenser, Edward Lord, 255 Despenser, Eleanor le, 227, 248 Despenser, Hugh, 227, 248 Despenser, Isabella, 256 Devon, 195, 225, 232, 234 dianoia, 10, 34, 92, 136 Divinity School (Oxford), 18, 20, 257, 265–267, 271 Dodgson, Charles Lutwidge (Lewis Carroll), 267 Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 267 Through the Looking-Glass, 267 Dome of the Rock, 215 Dominican, 111 Dorchester-on-Thames, 59 Dorset, 60, 259 Dorset Aisle (Ottery St. Mary), 21, 274 Draper, Peter, 7, 38, 71, 73, 101, 103, 105 The Formation of English Gothic: Architecture and Identity, 38, 101 Drost, Willi, 6, 33 Romanesque and Gothic Architecture, 33 Duns Scotus, 9, 120, 121 Dunstable Annals, 83 Durham Cathedral, 6, 7, 11, 12, 14, 17, 18, 23–25, 27, 29, 32, 46, 48–50, 52– 54, 59, 61–63, 67, 68, 103, 157, 160, 173, 180, 211, 214, 243, 244, 247, 261 Early English, 3, 11–14, 28, 153, 156, 165, 168, 171, 173, 174, 180, 182, 184–186, 188, 189, 191, 193, 194, 196, 198, 200, 205, 206, 208, 211, 213, 216, 218, 234, 235, 240–243, 245, 246, 257, 263, 265 East Anglia, 155, 169 Easter Sepulcher (Lincoln), 14, 207, 210, 211, 213, 235, 257 Eastwood, Bruce Stansfield, 123 The Geometrical Optics of Robert Grosseteste, 123 Eboraco, Nicholas de, 164

Index Eboracum, 160 edificium, 9, 10, 12, 16, 19, 22, 28, 68, 73, 93, 95, 100, 106, 110, 137, 144, 181, 183, 200, 250, 251, 257, 258, 278 Edington, William, 262 Edward I, 177, 183, 184, 247 Edward II, 225, 227, 235, 248 Edward III (the Confessor), 82, 175, 177, 195, 203, 220, 225, 267, 268 Edward IV, 260, 267, 268 Edwin of Northumbria, 161 Egypt, 44, 70, 135 eidos, 9, 65, 98, 108, 125, 141, 257 Eleanor of Castile, 184 Elias of Dereham, 11, 164, 219 Elizabeth of York, 270 Ely Cathedral, 11–17, 20, 21, 38, 101, 155, 156, 158, 168–172, 183, 185, 196, 197, 205, 211, 216–227, 235, 243, 247, 267, 268, 271, 274 Ely, Reginald, 19, 260, 262, 273 England, 1, 3, 5, 9, 11, 21, 25, 26, 28, 29, 32, 46–51, 59, 66–69, 74, 75, 77, 78, 83, 96, 99, 100, 110, 111, 114, 118, 119, 140, 149, 158, 162, 174, 176, 177, 179, 189, 192, 195, 200, 205, 207, 215, 216, 218, 221, 222, 241, 245, 247, 250, 253, 254, 256, 259, 261, 266, 268, 269, 272, 274–278 English Gothic architecture, 1–9, 11, 14, 17, 18, 20–22, 24, 28–30, 35, 50, 51, 53, 54, 59, 63, 66–68, 75–77, 99, 100, 123, 153, 178, 179, 183, 184, 193, 198, 201, 202, 212, 213, 218, 222, 225–227, 234, 235, 243, 245, 247, 252, 255, 257–259, 261–263, 265, 269, 275, 277, 278 Epicurus, 121 Essex, 175 Essex, James, 210, 220 Euclid, 23, 27, 121, 123, 130, 151, 261, 275 Catoptrics, 130 Elements of Geometry, 130, 151

349 Europe, 66, 158, 179, 189 Everard, Robert, 19, 243, 260, 262, 264 Exeter, 225, 232, 274 Exeter Cathedral, 13–15, 17, 26, 77, 82, 88, 89, 184, 185, 189, 195–198, 201, 206, 209–211, 215, 232, 234, 250, 256 Farleigh, Richard, 234 Farley, William, 263 Ferrey, Benjamin, 155 Ficino, Marsilio, 6, 41, 45 De amore (Commentary on the Symposium of Plato), 41 Finamore, John, 22 Conversations Platonic and Neoplatonic: Intellect, Soul, and Nature, 22 FitzHamon, Robert, 212, 255 Fitzharding, Robert, 207 FitzThomas, William, 13, 189, 192 Florence, 99, 180, 221 Focillon, Henri, 87 The Life of Forms in Art, 87 Foliot, Henry, 173 Fontenay, 33 Fordham University, 22 Founder’s Chantry (Tewkesbury Abbey), 18, 255, 256 Fountains Abbey, 160, 180 France, 4, 23–25, 27, 46, 49, 50, 60, 61, 76, 80, 174–176, 188, 189, 268, 278 Francesca, Piero della, 23, 27 Franciscan, 4, 9, 26, 78, 79, 111, 119, 120, 122, 188, 208, 216, 240, 250, 275, 278 Frankl, Paul, 6–8, 14, 24–27, 29–31, 33– 36, 65, 71, 72, 77, 81, 82, 93, 102, 110, 111, 113, 171, 203 Gothic Architecture, 25, 203 Freud, Sigmund, 108, 133 Froucester, Walter, 236 Galilee Porch (Ely), 155, 156

350 Galilee Porch (Lincoln), 7, 11, 59, 81, 97, 114, 115 Gaudi, Antonio, 269 Geometrical, 28, 63, 69, 72, 73, 83, 176, 179, 203, 213 Gerard of Cremona, 57, 93, 117, 119 Gervase of Canterbury, 6, 26, 46, 50, 52 Gilbert, Bishop of Limerick, 38, 103, 104 De statu ecclesiae (De usu ecclesiastico), 38, 103 Giotto, 194 Giza, 44 Gloucester Cathedral, 11, 12, 14, 16, 17, 19, 26, 54, 67, 171, 173, 174, 203, 204, 211, 225, 226, 230, 231, 234, 236, 238, 240, 247, 248, 252, 257– 260, 262, 263, 265, 271 Gloucestershire, 173, 212 God, 3, 5, 37, 42, 44, 46, 53, 55, 56, 82, 84, 126, 135, 136, 165, 174, 180, 181, 199, 221, 223, 224, 232, 244, 249, 250, 275–277 Godelee, John, 233 Goldwell, James, 243, 264 Gorleston Psalter, 215 Gothic, 21, 23, 25, 27, 28, 33, 34, 36, 48, 50, 54, 57, 61, 66, 71, 75, 80, 81, 87, 95, 99, 100, 103, 105, 107, 113, 126, 137–139, 154, 156, 160–164, 166, 169, 171, 174–177, 188, 193, 194, 197, 198, 200, 207, 213, 215, 229, 232, 234, 236, 240, 243, 257, 265– 267, 272, 274, 275 Gothic architecture, 4, 6, 23, 24, 26, 31, 33, 36, 64, 79, 81, 99, 104, 116 Gothic Revival, 26, 27, 99, 260 Granada, 217 Grandisson, John, 195, 232, 234 Gray, Walter de, 12, 161, 168 Great Fire, 181, 203 Great Synthesis, 4, 9, 79, 88, 139, 252, 277 Greece, 116 Greek, 8, 34, 92, 119, 135, 149, 222 Gregory I, 47, 104, 118, 136, 251

Architecture as Cosmology Moralia in Job, 104, 118, 136, 251 Grosseteste, Robert, 1–4, 6–10, 12, 14– 16, 21–23, 27, 35–45, 54–58, 60, 63, 64, 68, 69, 71–75, 77–85, 87–89, 92– 94, 96–102, 104, 107–111, 114, 115, 117–129, 131–148, 151, 152, 161, 165, 168, 174, 180, 181, 186, 188, 190, 191, 200, 208, 211, 216, 219, 223, 224, 228–232, 235, 238–240, 244, 248–252, 258, 260, 261, 275, 278 Calendarium, 118 Commentary on the Physics, 146 Commentary on the Posterior Analytics, 4, 6, 9, 35, 41, 56, 64, 92, 107, 119, 120, 125, 128, 132, 134–136, 142, 229, 258 Computus I, 118, 231 Computus Correctorius, 118, 231 Computus Minor, 118, 231 De Artibus Liberalibus, 118 De Calore Solis, 119, 231 De Colore, 119, 231 De Generatione Sonorum, 118, 127 De Generatione Stellarum, 118, 231 De Impressionibus Elementorum, 118, 120, 231 De Iride, 41, 119, 120, 135, 140, 141, 144, 145, 231 De Libero Arbitrio, 38, 43, 143, 144 De lineis, angulis et figuris (On Lines, Angles and Figures), 3, 9, 15, 35, 56, 85, 92, 94, 97, 98, 110, 115, 118–120, 122–125, 127, 129–132, 135, 137, 138, 140, 161, 165, 191, 216, 231, 252, 260, 261, 275 De Luce (On Light), 9, 35, 56, 57, 80, 94, 97, 98, 110, 85, 87, 118–120, 122, 125, 135, 137–139, 145, 146, 148, 161, 165, 190, 231, 260, 275 De Motu Corporali et Luce, 119, 124, 231 De Motu Supercaelestium, 119, 124, 231

Index De Natura Locorum, 15, 120, 216, 252 De Sphaera, 118, 124 Ecclesia Sancta, 64 Epistolae, 38, 43, 44, 144 Hexaemeron, 9, 35, 56, 57, 92, 120, 127, 128, 133, 136 Guisborough, 104 Gundissalinus, Domenicus, 117 Hades, 44 Hagia Sophia, 84, 251, 274 Hall of the Abencerrajes, 217, 244 Hampshire, 158 Hanley, Richard, 263 Harvey, John, 6, 7, 14, 36, 71, 72, 114, 163, 203–205, 236, 242, 267–269, 271 English Medieval Architects, 72, 242 The Medieval Architect, 6, 36 The Perpendicular Style 1330–1485, 203 Hawksmoor, Nicholas, 190, 246, 254 Hedon, Hugh de, 241 Hegel, George Wilhelm Friedrich, 26, 88, 108, 234, 258 Introductory Lectures on Aesthetics, 88, 235 Hendrix, John, 22 Robert Grosseteste: Philosophy of Intellect and Vision, 22 Henry II, 47, 51, 74 Henry III, 74, 164, 169, 174–177, 181, 183, 185, 245, 270, 271 Henry V, 241, 262 Henry VI, 260, 267, 270, 273 Henry VII, 268, 270, 273 Henry VII Chapel (Westminster Abbey), 20, 257, 268, 270, 271, 273 Henry VIII, 47, 160, 173, 207, 260, 262, 266, 267 Henry of Avranches, 43, 44, 73, 251 Metrical Life of Saint Hugh, 6, 43–45, 60, 69, 73, 75, 76, 82, 97, 104, 114, 115, 251

351 Henry of Reyns, 12, 59, 175–177, 245, 267 Hereford Cathedral, 11, 12, 156–158, 163, 181, 183, 189, 191, 196, 236, 267 Herefordshire, 156 Herland, Hugh, 220, 254 Honnecourt, Villard de, 26 Hoo, Thomas, 18, 253 Horton, Thomas de, 241 Hotham, John de, 218 Hoton, William de, 241 Hugh of Avalon, 6, 7, 43, 59, 60, 71, 73– 78, 81, 82, 97, 101, 117, 154, 184, 187, 251 Hugh of Northwold, 12, 168 Hugh of Saint-Victor, 104, 251 Didascalicon, 104, 251 Hugh of Wells, 69, 81, 82, 113, 114, 156 Hulle, Robert, 19, 255, 259, 262 Humanism, 27, 41, 44, 45, 86, 94, 113, 121, 136, 200 Hurley, William, 16, 220, 223 Innocent IV, 120 intellectus in habitu, 10, 34, 92, 93, 136 intelligentia, 5, 31, 41–45, 56, 58, 64, 65, 67, 167, 181, 186, 222, 230, 237, 240, 249, 258, 277 International Society for Neoplatonic Studies, 22 Ireland, 38, 103 irradiatio spiritualis, 41, 43, 57, 58, 143 Isfahan, 17, 243 Isle of Wight, 158, 241 Istanbul, 274 Italy, 99, 194, 201, 221 James of Venice, 41, 117, 119, 135 Janyns, Henry, 267, 271 Janyns, Robert, 20, 268, 270, 271 Jerusalem, 43, 215 Jocelin, Reginald Fitz (Lombardus), 153– 155 John, Abbot of Peterborough, 83

352 Peterborough Chronicle (Laud Manuscript), 83 John of Basingstoke, 119 John of Dalderby, 97 John of Evesham, 236 John of Gaunt, 241, 262 John of Gloucester, 12, 175, 176, 182 John of Wisbech, 216 Joseph Master, 188 Joy, William, 15–17, 167, 210, 211, 214, 228, 232–234, 245, 267, 274 Kallikrates, 116 Kendrick, Albert Frank, 7, 71, 82 The Cathedral Church of Lincoln, 82 Kidson, Peter, 7, 71, 72, 97, 100, 102, 112, 237 King, Oliver, 272 King’s College Chapel (Cambridge), 18, 20, 21, 257, 260, 261, 263, 269, 273, 274 Kirkton, Robert, 269 Knowle, Edmund, 208, 209 Langton, Robert, 269 Langton, Walter, 157 Laon Cathedral, 48, 49, 59 Latin, 26, 41, 57, 93, 99, 119, 123, 135 Laugier, Marc-Antoine, 6, 32, 227 Essai sur l’architecture, 32 Layzer, David, 108 Cosmogenesis: the growth of order in the universe, 108 Lee, John, 273 Leedy, Walter, 269 Fan Vaulting: A Study of Form, Technology, and Meaning, 269 Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm, 90 Leicester, 119 L’Enginour, Richard, 198 Lesyngham, Robert, 236, 252, 255 Lethaby, William, 271 Lethe, 44 Lewyn, John, 17, 243 Liber de Causis, 4, 57, 89, 93, 99, 117

Architecture as Cosmology Lichfield Cathedral, 11, 13–16, 157, 158, 185, 189, 192, 196, 206, 211, 225, 235 Lincoln, 59, 73, 76, 77, 81, 115, 117, 119, 120, 123, 200, 216, 232, 250, 251, 275 Lincoln Academy, 1, 22 Lincoln Cathedral, 1–4, 6, 7, 9, 11–19, 21, 22, 25, 29, 32, 35, 38, 43, 44, 46, 49–52, 58–63, 66–69, 71–82, 86–91, 93, 95, 96, 98–100, 104, 107, 110, 111, 113, 115–117, 125, 126, 129, 131, 132, 135, 139, 140, 143, 145, 147–150, 152–198, 200–202, 204– 211, 213–215, 219, 220, 225, 229, 231, 234–236, 238, 243, 245–252, 254, 257, 260, 262, 263, 274, 275, 278 Litlyngton, Nicholas, 245 Lock, Adam, 154 London, 33, 47, 181, 198, 203, 204, 223, 225, 227, 247, 253 London Bridge, 253 London Court Style, 203, 225, 247, 248 Lord, Adam, 20, 268 Losinga, Herbert de, 242, 260 Lote, Stephen, 18, 253, 256 Louis IX, 174 Lucy, Godfrey de, 160 lumen spiritualis, 3, 10, 41, 43, 45, 54, 55, 58, 67, 142, 143, 165, 190, 191, 199, 215, 219, 221, 230, 249 lux spiritualis, 3, 5, 8, 10, 12, 13, 16, 38, 43, 45, 55–58, 67, 135, 138, 139, 141–144, 151, 161, 165, 167, 169, 186, 190, 192, 199, 215, 219, 221, 237, 249 Lyhart, Walter, 260 Lyons, 136 Maderno, Carlo, 196 Magna Carta, 96, 190, 275 Malton, William de, 16 Malvern Hills, 161

Index manifestatio, 8, 10, 19, 21, 30, 73, 75, 79– 81, 98, 104, 138, 139, 250, 251, 257, 277 Mansfield, 199 Marchia, William de, 206, 215 Mary Magdalene, 73, 83 Mausoleum of Santa Costanza, 84, 252 McEvoy, James, 9 McLees, A. D., 253 Metcalf, Priscilla, 23, 199 The Cathedrals of England: Midland, Eastern and Northern England, 23 Meyland, Roger de (Bishop Longespree), 189, 192 Michael of Canterbury, 14, 204, 223, 225 Michael the Mason, 113, 156 Michelangelo, 194, 270 Middle Ages, 3, 4, 6, 99, 153, 161, 245, 266, 276, 278 Middlesex, 174 Mies van der Rohe, Ludwig, 36 Montacute, Simon de, 216 Montfort, Simon de, 163 Montgomery, Eborard de, 260 Negative Theology, 55 Neoplatonism, 4, 23, 36, 44, 75, 89, 99, 109, 117, 118, 144, 165 Nettleham, 72 New Orleans, 22 Nicholas of Ely, 11, 164 Nordström, Folke, 7, 71–73, 102, 109, 110, 140 Norman, 25, 46, 48, 50–53, 59, 62, 73, 74, 76, 82, 83, 113, 155, 158, 161, 164, 168, 174, 176, 179, 185, 200, 207, 212, 219, 235, 236, 242–244, 260, 266 Norman Conquest, 47, 59, 73, 75, 83, 111, 162 Normandy, 27, 47 Norreys, Thomas, 154, 155 Northamton, 119 North Porch (St. Mary Redcliffe), 16, 17, 224, 231, 241, 244

353 Norton, John, 260 Norwich Cathedral, 14, 17, 19, 225, 242, 260, 262, 264, 265 Notre Dame, 48, 49, 51, 62, 107, 176, 178, 247 Nottinghamshire, 168 nous hylikos, 5, 10, 27, 34, 42, 44, 92, 181, 186, 277 nous pathetikos, 5, 10, 92, 142, 167, 230, 237, 258 nous poietikos, 5, 10, 27, 34, 44, 64, 92, 142, 167, 181, 186, 237, 258, 277 Noyers, 60 Noyers, Geoffrey de, 7, 8, 12, 14, 17, 51– 53, 59, 61, 62, 71, 74–78, 102, 103, 105, 106, 110, 112, 113, 154, 156, 157, 159, 163, 171, 186, 187, 194, 200, 207, 243, 245, 257, 267 Noyon Cathedral, 49, 76 oculus mentis, 5, 10, 38, 41, 43, 55, 58, 122, 133, 135, 142–144, 230, 237, 248 Old St. Paul’s, 181, 191, 203, 204, 227, 247, 253 Orchard, William, 20, 265, 271 Ormesbury Psalter, 215 Ottery St. Mary, 14, 17, 21, 225, 232, 233, 274 Oxford School, 2, 4 Oxfordshire, 59, 265 Oxford University, 4, 9, 20, 35, 37, 56, 79, 118–120, 122, 123, 132, 135, 145, 163, 174, 188, 200, 211, 216, 236, 241, 244, 254, 265, 266, 271, 275 Palterton, John, 245 Panofsky, Erwin, 8, 10, 30, 32, 36, 71, 73, 78–81, 98, 107, 109, 138, 275 Gothic Architecture and Scholasticism, 8, 10, 30, 71, 78, 109, 138, 275 Pantheon, 95 Paris, 48, 49, 51, 53, 54, 62, 107, 118, 176, 178, 189, 247, 260

354 Paris, Matthew, 81, 83, 119, 177, 219 Historia Anglorum (Chronica Majora), 81, 83 Parker, J. H., 7, 72, 77, 101, 102 Parker, Thomas, 255 Parliament, 177 Parma Cathedral, 166 Patrington, Robert de, 241 Paulinus, 161 Pazzi Chapel, 180 Peasant’s Revolt, 253 Peckham, John, 9, 121, 122 Perspectiva Communis, 122 Percy, Thomas, 242 Percy Tomb (Beverley), 16 Perpendicular, 3, 13, 14, 16, 18–21, 63, 81, 153, 158, 167, 172, 203, 204, 210, 225–227, 231, 232, 242, 244–248, 255–257, 259–265, 268, 269, 271, 272, 274, 275 Peterborough, 94 Peterborough Cathedral, 11, 19, 20, 140, 160, 183, 261, 262, 269, 273 Pevsner, Nikolaus, 7, 8, 23, 67, 68, 71, 72, 75, 77, 80, 81, 84, 86, 88, 102, 105–107, 111–113, 115, 163, 179, 188, 197, 199, 221 Buildings of England: North Somerset and Bristol, 179 The Cathedrals of England: Midland, Eastern and Northern England, 23, 179 Leaves of Southwell, 199 An Outline of European Architecture, 71 phantasia, 39, 42, 43, 129, 133, 134, 149 Pico della Mirandola, Giovanni, 44, 45 Oration on the Dignity of Man, 44 Pilgrim’s Way, 47 Plantagenet, 174, 176, 177, 256 Plato, 7, 9, 10, 15, 23, 27, 33, 34, 38, 40, 42, 44, 45, 54, 55, 57, 99, 100, 118, 121, 126, 127, 130, 145–150, 191, 214, 223, 225, 230, 249, 261, 275 Republic, 45, 55, 56, 149, 150, 230

Architecture as Cosmology Timaeus, 9, 34, 45, 54, 99, 100, 118, 126, 130, 145–148, 151, 191, 225, 249, 261, 275 Plotinus, 6–8, 37, 40, 41, 45, 46, 56–58, 87, 89–92, 99, 107, 108, 117, 122, 124, 125, 127, 128, 134, 135, 137, 141, 144, 145, 150, 151, 223, 224, 248, 249 Enneads, 37, 40, 41, 45, 46, 58, 87, 90–92, 107, 108, 117, 124, 125, 127, 128, 134, 137, 141, 144, 150, 223 Pont L’Evêque, Roger de, 241 Poore, Richard, 164, 180 Pre-Raphaelites, 26 Price, William, 246 principia conoscendi, 65, 141, 142 principia essendi, 65, 141 Prior’s Kitchen (Durham), 17, 214, 243, 244 Prior Wilbert, 50 Proclus, 57, 63–65, 89, 93, 99, 117, 151, 152 Commentary on the First Book of Euclid’s Elements, 63, 64, 151 Elements of Theology, 57, 93, 117 Provisions of Oxford, 66 Pseudo-Dionysius, 4, 7, 8, 17, 53–55, 80, 84, 86, 92, 120, 137, 223, 232, 250 Celestial Hierarchy, 84, 92, 120, 128, 223, 250 Divine Names, 54, 55 Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, 120 Mystical Theology, 55, 92 Ptolemy, 121 Pythagorean (Pythagoras), 33, 99, 115, 121, 126, 127, 151 Quivil, Peter, 13, 184, 195, 197 Ramsam, Peter, 265 Ramsey, John, 15, 206, 216, 218 Ramsey, Walter, 227 Ramsey, William, 16, 157, 203, 206, 218, 225, 231, 248

Index Ravenna, 43, 84, 178, 215, 223, 251 Rayne, 175 Rediche, William, 264 Reims, 175 Reims Cathedral, 49, 175, 176, 188 Remigius, 7, 59, 73, 74, 155, 185, 235 Renaissance, 4, 21, 23, 27, 31, 36, 37, 41, 44, 45, 86, 94, 99, 110, 111, 121, 122, 126, 136, 148, 149, 162, 165, 166, 179, 180, 194, 196, 200, 202, 222, 274–276, 278 Rhode Island School of Design, 1 Richard II, 220, 245 Richard the Mason, 59, 72 Richard of Stowe, 13, 170, 184, 210 Rickman, Thomas, 3, 14, 153, 203, 225, 247 Attempt to Discriminate the Style of Architecture in England, 3, 153, 203, 247 Ripon Cathedral, 48, 49 Robert of Beverley, 12, 175, 176, 182, 183 Robert of Cricklade, 266 Robert de Lisle Psalter, 215 Roche Abbey, 48 Roches, Peter des, 158, 166 Rochester Cathedral, 50 Roger of Exeter, 197, 209 Romaine, John de la, 199 Roman, 26, 27, 51, 70, 115, 160 Romanesque, 23, 25, 28, 29, 31, 33, 34, 36, 53, 79, 104, 137, 154, 160, 173, 174, 184, 198, 207, 208, 225 Romanticism, 26 Rome, 37, 47, 84, 86, 95, 99, 222, 242, 252 Rouen Cathedral, 76 Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 33 Discours sur les sciences et les arts, 33 Rufus, Adam, 37, 41 Sack of Rome, 162 St. Albans, 219

355 St. Andrew, 47, 52, 153, 228, 234, 262 St. Andrew’s Chapel, 226 St. Chad, 157 St. Cuthbert, 180 St. Ethelbert, 47, 156 St. Etheldreda, 155, 169, 170, 220 St. Frideswide, 266 St. George, 268 St. George’s Chapel (Windsor), 20, 257, 267, 268, 271 Saint Hugh’s Choir (Lincoln), 7, 12, 29, 38, 51, 59, 61, 62, 65, 67, 72, 74, 76, 79, 81, 82, 85, 87, 90, 91, 94, 98, 100–105, 107–110, 112–115, 143, 146–148, 150, 157, 168, 171, 172, 178, 186, 188, 190, 197, 207, 251 St. John, 159 St. Martin, 159 St. Mary Redcliffe, 14–17, 19, 204, 205, 208, 212, 217, 224, 230, 231, 235, 240, 241, 244, 259–262 St. Mary Undercroft, 14, 16, 204, 218, 223, 225, 226 St. Oswald, 162 St. Paul, 158, 262 St. Peter, 158, 161, 174, 195, 262 St. Peter’s Cathedral, 196 St. Stephen’s Chapel, 14, 16, 204, 205, 208, 218, 220, 222, 223, 225, 226, 247, 248, 261 St. Swithun, 158 St. Thomas of Canterbury, 46 St. Wulfstan, 161, 162 Sainte Chapelle, 54, 175–177, 189, 260 Salisbury Cathedral, 11, 13, 14, 20, 77, 160, 162, 164–167, 171–173, 176, 177, 180, 184, 185, 190–192, 194– 196, 202, 211 Salvin, Anthony, 214, 228 San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, 86 Sant’Andrea in Mantua, 196 Schelling, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von, 88, 89, 91, 258 The Philosophy of Art, 88, 89

356 Scholasticism, 3, 5, 6, 7, 10–13, 16, 17, 19, 21, 30, 36, 41, 47, 54, 63, 66, 68, 69, 75, 80, 88, 89, 94–96, 98, 104, 110, 113, 138, 148, 159, 161, 173, 198, 229, 250–252, 257, 277 Scott, Sir George Gilbert, 7, 21, 76, 163, 178, 190, 192, 211, 220, 244, 254, 264, 266, 272 Sebrok, Thomas, 262 Semper, Gottfried, 6, 32, 33, 227 The Four Elements of Architecture, 32 Style in the Technical and Tectonic Arts, 32 Senlis Cathedral, 49, 76 Sens, 47, 60, 76 Sens Cathedral, 49, 50, 53 sensus communis, 128, 133 Severn River, 161 Seynesbury, Richard de, 235 Sharpe, Edmund, 14, 203 Seven Periods of English Architecture, 203 Sherborne Abbey, 19, 20, 259, 261, 262, 265–267 Siena Cathedral, 221 Simon the Mason, 205 Smirke, Sir Robert, 238, 241 Smirke, Sydney, 238 Smyth, William, 20, 211, 265, 267 Socrates, 46 solertia, 5, 41, 64, 135, 230, 277 Somerset, 153, 272 Southern, Richard William, 9, 37, 136 Robert Grosseteste: The Growth of an English Mind in Medieval Europe, 136 Southwell Minster, 11–15, 162, 168, 195, 196, 199–202, 205, 211, 213, 214, 235 species, 9, 65, 98, 120, 122, 125–128, 130–133, 136, 137, 139–145, 152, 223, 260 species apprehensibilis, 5, 8, 10, 35, 38– 40, 43, 45, 46, 57, 58, 92, 93, 122,

Architecture as Cosmology 125, 127–134, 140–144, 152, 208, 224, 229, 231, 239, 240, 242, 248 species sensibilis, 4, 10, 35, 38–40, 45, 57, 58, 92, 122, 125, 127–130, 132– 135, 140–144, 152, 208, 224, 229, 231, 239, 240, 242, 248 Sponlee, John, 225, 244, 267 Staffordshire, 157 Stapledon, Walter, 195, 209 Stow Langtoft, 117 Stradbroke, 117 Street, George Edmund, 207, 209 Structural Rationalism, 33, 99 Stukeley, William, 236 Sudbury, Simon, 253 Suffolk, 117 summa, 8, 21, 30, 63, 69, 138, 250, 252 Temple, Nicholas, 1 Tewkesbury Abbey, 14, 15, 18, 173, 174, 208, 211–213, 217, 227, 228, 231, 248, 249, 255–258 Themistius, 34, 39, 42, 119, 130, 142, 149, 222 Paraphrase of the De anima, 39, 130 Theology of Aristotle, 4, 40, 89, 99, 117 Thirsk, Simon, 12, 13, 60, 170, 184 Thokey, John, 211 Thomas of Bayeux, 161 Thomas of Cambridge, 17, 231, 236 Thomas of Canterbury, 14, 204, 225 Thomas II of York, 168 Thornhill, James, 246 Torrigiano, Pietro, 270 Trinity, 44, 67, 84, 94, 95, 100, 106, 143, 155, 166, 173, 181, 191, 193, 207, 233, 248, 250, 269 Trinity Chapel (Canterbury), 46, 47, 53, 54, 58, 60, 75 Trondheim Cathedral, 112 True Cross, 175 Tudor, 265, 273 Tully, Robert, 19, 262 Turbe, William de, 242

Index University of Lincoln, 1, 22 University of Wisconsin, 123 Urchfont, 212, 224, 233 Vasari, Giorgio, 166, 194 Venables, Edmund, 7, 74, 76, 77, 81, 105 Venice, 44 Vertue, Adam, 20, 268 Vertue, Robert, 20, 21, 271, 272 Vertue, William, 20, 21, 268, 271–273 Vesely, Dalibor, 96 Vézelay Cathedral, 49 via negativa, 55, 57, 232 Victorian, 190, 254, 259, 262, 264 Vinci, Leonardo da, 45 Vitruvian Man, 45 Viollet-le-Duc, Eugène-Emmanuel, 6, 7, 33, 76, 100 Entretiens sur l’architecture, 33 Virgin Mary, 156, 157, 160, 161, 164, 168, 170, 188, 193, 195, 212, 216, 259, 261, 268 virtus, 10, 16, 98, 124, 125, 127–132, 137, 139, 140, 143, 145, 216, 223, 224, 231 virtus cogitativa, 5, 10, 16, 42, 44, 45, 56, 63, 167, 186, 222, 223, 230, 237, 258, 277 virtus intellectiva, 5, 8, 10, 16, 41, 44, 55–58, 63–65, 93, 107, 129, 130, 132–136, 140–142, 144–146, 148, 149, 151, 152, 167, 186, 222, 229, 230, 237, 239, 258, 277 virtus scitiva, 10, 65 Viterbo, 122 Vitruvius, 37, 115, 126 De architectura, 37 Walkelin, William, 158 Wallace, Thomas, 197 Warelwast, William, 195 Wastell, John, 20, 21, 269, 273 Watkin, David, 182 Watkins, W., 102 Welander, David, 174

357 Welbourne, John, 82, 105, 235 Weldon, 216 Wells Cathedral, 11–17, 20, 77, 82, 153– 155, 158, 159, 162, 164–167, 171– 173, 176, 179, 183, 184, 191, 204– 206, 208, 211, 212, 214, 215, 228– 230, 232–234, 238, 253, 254, 262, 265, 267, 275 Westminster Abbey, 11–14, 18, 20, 54, 59, 67, 70, 77, 164, 171, 174–179, 181, 182, 185, 186, 188–192, 194, 196, 197, 202, 206, 240, 242, 245, 246, 253, 257, 268, 270, 271, 273 Westminster Hall, 220, 254 Westminster Palace, 14, 204, 218, 220, 247, 253, 261 Wilcocks, Joseph, 246 William I (the Conqueror), 59, 73, 82, 158, 162, 185, 195, 212, 235, 267 William II (William Rufus), 158, 242 William of Edington, 240 William the Englishman, 7, 17, 46, 47, 50, 52–54, 60, 74, 157, 159, 172, 186, 196, 200, 243, 257 William the Geometer, 207 William of Moerbeke, 122 William of Sens, 6, 7, 46–48, 50–53, 58– 60, 62, 74 William of Wykeham, 240, 254, 262, 267 Wilson, Christopher, 7, 14, 24, 68, 71, 86, 174, 203 The Gothic Cathedral: The Architecture of the Great Church 1130– 1530, 24, 203 Wiltshire, 164, 212, 224 Winchester Cathedral, 11, 14, 17, 19, 20, 50, 158, 161, 162, 165, 166, 176, 186, 211, 240, 243, 254, 255, 259, 260, 262, 267, 269, 270, 275 Winchester College, 241, 254 Windsor Castle, 18, 20, 220, 225, 244, 254, 257, 267, 270 Witelo, Erasmus, 121, 122 Perspectiva, 122 Witney, Thomas, 15, 211, 214, 215, 267

358 Wodehirst, Robert, 242 Wölfflin, Heinrich, 6, 31 Principles of Art History, 31 Wolrich, John, 260 Woodman, Francis, 253 The Architectural History of Canterbury Cathedral, 253 Worcester Cathedral, 11, 14–19, 67, 69, 160–165, 168, 172, 194, 211, 235, 238, 244, 245, 259 Worcestershire, 161 Wren, Christopher, 181, 202, 246 Wyatt, James, 192 Wycliffe, John, 9, 121 Wygmor, John, 225 Wykeham Chapel (Sherborne Abbey), 267 Wyle, Walter de la, 173, 191 Wynford, William, 244, 254, 262, 276 Yevele, Henry, 18, 183, 245, 246, 253, 254, 256, 276 York Minster, 11, 13, 14, 16–20, 68, 73, 159–162, 164, 168, 172, 176, 179, 193–195, 199, 201, 202, 204, 205, 221, 235, 238–241, 257, 259, 264, 268, 270 Yorkshire, 48, 159, 161

Architecture as Cosmology

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Architecture as Cosmology

John Shannon Hendrix is Professor of Architectural History at the University of Lincoln. His previous books include Architecture and Psychoanalysis, Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Spirit, Platonic Architectonics, and Architectural Forms and Philosophical Structures, all published by Peter Lang, and The Relation Between Architectural Forms and Philosophical Structures in the Work of Francesco Borromini in Seventeenth-Century Rome and Robert Grosseteste: Philosophy of Intellect and Vision.

HENDRIX

Architecture as Cosmology examines the precedents, interpretations, and influences of the architecture of one of the great buildings in the history of architecture, Lincoln Cathedral. It analyzes the origin and development of its architectural forms, which were to a great extent unprecedented and were very influential in the development of English Gothic architecture and in conceptions of architecture to the present day. Architecture as Cosmology emphasizes the relation of the architectural forms to medieval philosophy, focusing on the writings of Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln (1235–53). The architecture is seen as a text of the philosophy, cosmology, and theology of medieval English culture. This book should be useful to anyone interested in architecture, architectural history, architectural theory, Gothic architecture, and medieval philosophy.

P E T E R

L A N G

Architecture as Cosmology LINCOLN CATHEDRAL AND ENGLISH GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE

PETER LANG

JOHN SHANNON HENDRIX