Gothic cathedrals like Chartres were built in a discontinuous process by groups of
masons using their own local knowledge, measures, and techniques. They had neither
plans nor knowledge of structural mechanics. The success of the masons in building such
large complex innovative structures lies in the use of templates, string, constructive
geometry, and social organization to assemble a coherent whole from the messy heterogeneous practices of diverse groups of workers. Chartres resulted from the ad hoc
accumulation of the work of many men.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Ackerman, J.1949. "Ars sine scientia nihil est." Gothic theory of architecture at the cathedral of Milan. Art Bulletin32:84-111.
2.
Adams, Henry.1931. The education of Henry Adams. New York : New York Modern Library.
3.
Addis, W.1983. A new approach to the history of structural engineering . History of Technology8:1-13.
4.
Andrews, Francis B. [1925] 1976. The mediaeval builder and his methods. Wakefield and Ottowa: EP Pbl and Roman & Littlefield .
5.
Bachelard, Gaston.1985. The new scientific spirit. Boston: Beacon.
6.
Barnes, Barry.1982. The science-technology relationship: A model and a query . Social Studies of Science12:166-71.
7.
Baxandall, Michael.1972. Painting and experience in fifteenth century Italy . Oxford: Oxford University Press .
8.
Becker, H.S.1982. Art worlds. Berkeley: University of California Press.
9.
Bernal, J.D.1965. Science in history, vol. 1. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin.
10.
Billington, David P.1977. History and esthetics in suspension bridges. Journal of the Structural Division, Proceedings of the American Society of Engineers130:1655-72.
11.
—. 1985. The tower and the bridge: The new art of structural engineeringPrinceton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
12.
Billington, David P., and Robert Mark.1984a. The cathedral and the bridge: Structure and symbol. Technology and Culture25:37-52.
13.
—. 1984b. In response to "Another view of the cathedral and the bridge. Technology and Culture25:595-601.
14.
Blomfield, Reginald.1912. Architectural drawing and draughtsmen. London: Cassell.
15.
Bony, Jean.1980. The genesis of Gothic: Accident or necessity? Australian Journal of Art2:17-31.
16.
Branner, Robert.1963. Villard de Honnecourt, Reims and the origin of Gothic architectural drawing. Gazette des Beaux-Arts61:129-46.
17.
—. 1965. Gothic architecture. New York : Braziller.
18.
Bucher, F.1968. Design in Gothic architecture: A preliminary assessment . Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians27:49-71.
19.
—. 1979. Architector: The lodgebooks and sketchbooks of medieval architects, vol. 1. New York : Abaris.
20.
Burford, Alison.1972. Craftsmen in Greek and Roman society. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
21.
Callon, Michel, John Law, and Arie Rip.1986. Mapping the dynamics of science and technology: Sociology of science in the real world. London : Macmillan.
22.
Cambrosio, Alberto, and Peter Keating.1988. "Going monoclonal": Art, science, and magic in the day-to-day use of hybridoma technology. Social Problems35:244-60.
23.
Cartwright, Nancy.1983. How the laws of physics lie. Oxford : Clarendon Press.
24.
Chambers, David W., and David Turnbull.1989. Science worlds: An integrated approach to social studies of science teaching. Social Studies of Science19:155-79.
25.
Collins, Harry.1985. Changing order: Replication and induction in scientific practice. London: Sage.
26.
Condit, Carl.1964. The Chicago school of architecture: A history of commercial and public buildings in the Chicago area, 1875-1925. Chicago : University of Chicago Press.
27.
—. 1984. Another view of "The cathedral and the bridge." Tchnology and Culture25:589-94.
28.
Crombie, A.C.1959. Medieval and early modem science. Vol. 1, Science in the Middle Ages, V-XIII centuries. New York: Doubleday.
29.
Frankl, P.1960. The Gothic: Literary sources and interpretations through 8 centuries. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
30.
Geoghegan, Arthur T.1945. The attitude towards labour in early Christianity and ancient culture. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press.
31.
Gimpel, Jean.1961. The cathedral builders. New York: Grove.
32.
—. 1977. The medieval machine: The industrial revolution of the Middle Ages. London: B. T. Victor Gollancz.
33.
Harvey, John.1972. The medieval architect. London : Wayland.
34.
—. 1974. Cathedrals of England and Wales. London : Batsford.
35.
—. 1975. The mediaeval craftsmen. London : Wayland.
36.
Heyman, Jacques.1966. The stone skeleton. International Journal of Solids and Structures2:249-79.
37.
Hindle, Brooke.1981. Emulation and invention. New York: New York University Press.
38.
Hoch, Paul.1990. Institutional mobility and the management of technology and science. Technology Analysis and Strategic Management2:341-56.
39.
Holton, Gerald.1984. Do scientists need a philosophy? Times Literary Supplement, 2 November, 1231-34.
40.
James, John.1979. The contractors of Chartres. 2 vols. Wyong: Mandorla.
41.
—. 1984. An investigation into the uneven distribution of early Gothic churches in the Paris basin, 1140-1240. Art Bulletin66:15-46.
42.
—. 1985. Chartres: The masons who built a legend. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
43.
—. 1989. The template-makers of the Paris basin. Leura: West Grinstead Nominees.
44.
Jantzen, H.1962. High Gothic. London: Constable.
45.
Knorr-Cetina, Karen.1979. Tinkering towards success: Prelude to a theory of scientific practice. Theory and Society8:347-76.
46.
—. 1981. The manufacture of knowledge: An essay on the constructivist and contextual nature of science. Oxford: Pergamon.
47.
—. 1983. The ethnographic study of scientific work. In Science observed: Perspectives on the social study of science, edited by Karen Knorr-Cetina and Michael Mulkay, 115-40. London: Sage.
48.
Kostof, Spiro.1977. The architect: Chapters in the history of the profession . New York: Oxford University Press .
49.
—. 1985. A history of architecture: Settings and rituals . New York: Oxford University Press .
50.
Latour, Bruno.1986. Visualization and cognition. Knowledge and Society: Studies in the Sociology of Culture Past and Present6:1-40.
51.
—. 1987. Science in action: How to follow scientists and engineers through society. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
52.
Lave, Jean.1988. Cognition in practice: Mind, mathematics and culture in everyday life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
53.
Law, John.1987. Technology and heterogeneous engineering: The case of Portuguese expansion. In The social construction of technological systems: New directions in the sociology and history of technology, edited by W. Bijker, T. Hughes, and T. Pinch, 111-34. Cambridge : MIT Press.
54.
Layton, Edwin T., Jr. 1987. Through the looking glass, or the news from Lake Mirror ImageTechnology and Culture28:594-607.
55.
Long, Pamela O.1985. The contribution of architectural writers to a "scientific" outlook in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies15:265-98.
56.
Mark, Robert.1972. The structural analysis of Gothic Cathedrals. Scientific American227:90-99.
57.
—. 1982. Experiments in Gothic structure. Cambridge : MIT Press.
Mark, Robert, and David P. Billington.1989. Structural imperative and the new form. Technology and Culture30:300-29.
60.
Mulkay, Michael.1979. Knowledge and utility: Implications for the sociology of knowledge. Social Studies of Science9:63-80.
61.
Murray, S.1981. Contractors of Chartres [review]. Art Bulletin63:149-52.
62.
—. 1987. Building Troyes Cathedral: The late Gothic campaign . Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
63.
O'Neill, Bill.1991. Bridge design stretched to the limits. New Scientist132:28-35.
64.
Pacey, Arnold.1974. The maze of ingenuity: Ideas and idealism in the development of technology. London: Allen Lane .
65.
Polanyi, Michael.1958. Personal knowledge. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
66.
Pugin, A.W.1841. The true principles of pointed or Christian architecture . London.
67.
Rosenberg, Gerhard.1936. The functional aspect of the Gothic style. Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects43:273-90, 364-71.
68.
Rouse, Joseph.1987. Knowledge and power: Toward a political philosophy of science. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
69.
Sanabria, Sergio Luis.1989. From Gothic to Renaissance stereotomy: The design methods of Philibert de l'Orme and Alonso de Vandelvira. Technology and Culture31:266-99.
70.
Scheller, R.W.1963. A survey of Medieval model books. Haarlem, The Netherlands: De Erven F. Bohn.
71.
Shelby, Lon R.1965. Medieval masons' tools, II. Compass and square . Technology and Culture6:236-48.
72.
—. 1971. Medieval masons' templates. Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians30:140-52.
73.
—. 1972. The geometric knowledge of the medieval master masons . Speculum47:395-421.
74.
—. 1977. Gothic design techniques: The fifteenth century design booklets of Mathes Roriczer and Hans Schmuttermayer. Carbondale : Southern Illinois University Press.
75.
—. 1981. The contractors of Chartres [review]. GESTA20:173-78.
76.
Simson, Otto Von.1956. The Gothic cathedral. New York : Pantheon.
77.
Star, Susan Leigh.1989. Regions of the mind: Brain research and the quest for scientific certainty. Stanford, CT: Stanford University Press.
78.
—. 1990. The sociology of the invisible: The primacy of work in the writings of Anselm Strauss. In Social organization and social processes: Essays in honor of Anselm Strauss, edited by Maines David.New York: Aldine de Gruyter.
79.
Staudenmaier, John M.1985. Technology's storytellers: Reweaving the human fabric . Cambridge : MIT Press.
80.
Stoddard, Whitney S.1972. Art and architecture in medieval France. New York: Harper & Row.
81.
Suchman, Lucy.1987. Plans and situated actions: The problem of human-machine communication. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
82.
Touraine, Alain.1973. Production de la société. Paris : Le Seuil.
83.
Turnbull, David.1991. Technoscience worlds. Geelong, Victoria , Australia: Deakin University Press.
84.
—. 1992. Local knowledge and comparative scientific traditions . Paper presented at 4S/EASST conference, Gothenburg, Sweden.
85.
Turnbull, David, and Terry Stokes.1990. Manipulable systems and laboratory strategies in a biomedical research institute. In Experimental inquiries: Historical, philosophical and social studies in science, edited by Homer Le Grand, 167-92. Dordrecht : Kluwer Academic.
86.
Van derMuelen, J.1967. Recent literature on the chronology of Chartres Cathedral . Art Bulletin49:152-72.
87.
Vasari, Giorgio. [1550]. 1963. The lives of the painters, sculptors and architects, vol. 1. New York : Everyman's Library.
88.
Vincenti, Walter G.1990. What engineers know and how they know: Analytical studies from aeronautical history. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
89.
Watkins, Sian. Aug 18, 1990. Sky-high jigsaw. Age, 18 August (Melbourne).
90.
White, Lynn, Jr. 1978. The medieval roots of modem technology and science . In Medieval religion and technology: Collected essays, 75-92. Berkeley : University of California Press.
91.
Wilson, R.R.1979. The humanness of physics. In Being human in a technological age, edited by Donald M. Borchert and David Stewart, 25-36. Athens, OH.
92.
Wren, Christopher. [ 1750] 1903. Life and works of Sir Christopher Wren from the parentalia or memoirs by his son Christopher. London .
