Gothic Cathedrals: A Guide to the History, Places, Art, and Symbolism

This book gives a sweeping over view of the places where cathedrals were built. The sensibilities of the people coming out of the dark age into an enlightened time is revealed in numerous ways. Karen Ralls seems to know where the interesting and wonderful connections are hidden in the past and she brings them to us in her writing.This book illuminates any person whether of religion or of none religious life views.

While it has some good illustrations, I expected more depth to Dr. Rall's writing. I felt I was reading a TV script rather than a scholarly work.

Extensive study of Medieval life focusing on the cathedral. Emphasizes the social context over architecture. Filled with interesting details. Well-illustrated.

Ha, I haven't actually read this yet. I saw Karen on a TV special and thought she was adorable, so I got one of her books.

Karen Ralls is the best and her books are beautiful to look at as well as very educational.

In my opinion, this is Dr. Ralls’ best book so far. However, I caution the reader that it is not a book about the architecture of Gothic cathedrals. There are plenty of those. Instead, it is a comprehensive look at exactly what the author says in her subtitle: It is a guide fit for would-be travelers and those interested in history, art, and symbolism describing what you would want to know if you were engaged in a pilgrimage to any or several of these magnificent places---a pilgrimage that may be an actual physical journey or that may be a journey in one’s mind and spirit, or both.As always, very thorough in her research with plenty of references for those who choose to go deeper and with maps and locations of sites to visit, Ralls begins by investigating for us how allowing light into the inner darkness of the new cathedrals began as the idea of Abbot Suger at the abbey church of Saint-Denis outside of Paris. It was, as she says, “an extraordinarily experimental project…its unusual features and beauty stunned everyone present at its unveiling---with its pointed arches, bejeweled stained glass windows, and other unique features never seen before.” Completed in 1144, it was the first truly western Gothic building. Suger described his vision and his intention as exhibiting “continuous light.”Our author traces the development of the great cathedrals that followed, with their high naves, flying buttresses on the outside that support the structure, pointed arches, rib-vaulted ceilings, stained glass windows, and intricate stone carvings. She particularly emphasizes the process of how these giant edifices were built as a component of medieval society and how they were subsequently used, both inside and outside, not just as great houses of worship but also as community centers, market places, concert halls, and settings for pageants, festivals and feasts. Being both an accomplished musician and an academic herself, Dr. Ralls explains how these cathedrals influenced the development of music and of education at that time.She spends time writing about the importance of the various building tradesmen and their craft guilds---the stonemasons, sculptors, carpenters, metal workers, glass makers, painters---and their progression from apprentices to journeymen to masters who “guarded their trade secrets, special techniques, and initiation rituals very closely.” We begin to see the real importance of the knowledge the Knights Templar brought back from their crusades in the East in terms of building techniques and how it spurred a revival of interest in the numerical and geometric philosophies of Pythagoras and Plato. It is no wonder that the Cistercian spiritual head of the Templars, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, a prominent rival to Abbot Suger, would refer to God in a geometric sense, often to the displeasure of the Church in Rome. Chapter 5 further emphasizes the importance of geometry by taking us on a tour of the use of mazes and labyrinths on both the Continent and the British Isles inside Gothic cathedrals as well as outside.In a later chapter, we see the importance of the ancient Vesica Piscis geometric symbol as a “form generator” of the pointed Gothic arch. We learn how the great cathedrals were used as solar observatories and how Roger Bacon, the medieval philosopher, scientist, alchemist, and astronomer was eventually condemned to prison by his fellow Franciscans because his scientific interests were anathema to the Church. We can appreciate how Bacon set the mode for “underground” philosophers and scientists to ingeniously encode their knowledge into Gothic cathedrals using geometric principles and elements of Neo-Platonic philosophy.A good deal of text and some dramatic color photographs of stained glass windows further emphasize the theme of Lux Lucet in Tenebris: “Light shines in Darkness.” But, as Ralls reminds us, the Light is not just what we see shining down inside the church from the vivid colors of glass above. It is the light of Wisdom itself---a reflection of the possibility for inner illumination and truth. And, she adds, “Such connections are available to anyone in the world who can visit and appreciate the beauty of a Gothic building---whether the person is spiritually inclined or not.”Dr. Ralls has assembled in this book some of the most beautiful photographs of both interior and exterior art, architecture, and sculpture taken by a variety of photographers, including the author, herself. It is a fine piece of visual artistry as well as an illuminating text. But, perhaps the most intriguing part of the book comes in the last two chapters. Here I was given information which was new to me, detailed information about the journeys of religious pilgrims to see the various relics, shrines, and tombs at many of the cathedral sites---the preparation, the costs, the dangers and difficulties of travel in medieval times. Fascinating!We are reminded that we, ourselves, are constantly on our own pilgrimage---the pilgrimage of life itself. We can, perhaps, more easily travel than those faithful of centuries ago, but the results on our psyche and on our being will most likely be similar. And, this volume stands as a fitting tribute to those who were responsible for construction and use of those grand buildings we can still visit. As one who has had the fortunate opportunity to experience many of them, I can readily agree with Dr. Ralls when she says, “Pilgrimage is a journey to the center. It is to travel to a sacred place for inspiration and wisdom, to re-connect with the wonder and awe of the Universe, however you choose to define it.”First reviewed in New Dawn magazine, Issue No. 153

This book presents a good deal of information on medieval life at large and a big section is reserved to pilgrimage uses in this epoch. I was interested mainly in gothic architecture and building techniques, so it did not correspond to my expectations.

A delight to read. Covers both the dual architectural and spiritual splendor.

Let's first put one thing straight: I have nothing against a book that covers both the conventionally “academic” aspects of a subject, and those one might call its “new age” aspects — even though some not-so-unconspicuous hints to that most disreputable of all bestsellers, the DaVinci misery, seem to indicate from the start that we're in for some low-grade popularising. There's nothing wrong about popularising either, when it's done properly. Not every writing on a specific subject has to be a piece of academic research. Nonetheless, I shouldn't expect at least 25% (pp. 235-316) of a book entitled "Gothic Cathedrals" to be dedicated to Black Madonnas, Mary Magdalene, Green Men, pilgrimages, Santiago de Compostela etc.What I seriously object to, however, is sloppiness. This book is a masterpiece of sloppiness.I bought it because I was led to believe that some maps were included in it (fair enough, this didn't appear in the book's description on this page). Well, yes, Appendix I presents a map formatted with some rather silly fonts, and entitled “Map of the Primary Cities in Europe with Gothic Cathedrals.” Curiously, the same map shows up again two pages later with a different, yet no less silly layout. I doubt either one would be accepted for publication in a school book for 12-year olds: conspicuously absent are such places of lesser renown as Reims, Strasbourg, Soissons, Auxerre, Laon, Cologne, Liège (no longer extant), Tournai, Milan, to name only the first ones that come to mind, whereas the metropolises of Guiting, Dinsley, Cressing, Cowley, Shipley (pace their gentle denizens!) and Boulogne throne in evidence.There are a good number of illustrations throughout the book. Yet, strangely, many of them are barely related, if at all, to the surrounding text. Not to mention those that are either plainly absent (p. 215: “this image at Boston, Lincolnshire”, also p. 216 — could have been interesting; p. 218) or downright out-of-place, like the photograph of a street seller's jewellery booth at Edinburgh Festival (p. 31), some pictures of modern "art" (pp. 42, 220, 228, 313), a picture of a "Goddess Venus statue in a garden in California" (p. 133), a photograph of a couple of roses, renamed a “bouquet” for the circumstance (ibid.), or a photograph of a swimming pool at a resort on Malta (p. 258). The quality of the photographs varies quite a bit, most of those taken by the author being rather amateurish, and even horrifyingly blurry (e.g. stained glass from Chartres cathedral, p. 187, Sainte-Chapelle, p. 291), whereas most of the better ones were (generously) picked up from the Wikimedia Foundation's archives.That was for starters. Let's get a bit deeper into the matter. It is claimed that Ms. Ralls is a “medieval historian who obtained her doctorate from the University of Edinburgh", along with a distinguished-looking CV. I do know Edinburgh a little, indeed a fine city, and I should have thought that its university was a fine establishment of learning too. Well, after reading such majestic pearls as these, I might have second thoughts about recommending to a young person to pursue their studies there:"Simply put, ‘polyphony’ was music that was not *monosyllabic*, i.e., like a Gregorian chant." (p. 49)“In about [sic] the twelfth century, a three-note chord (…) For example, on a *piano*, these notes could be (…)” (p. 51)“(St.) Augustine asks (…) ‘… if he learns to play the *guitar* (…)’ ” (p. 54)“As early as the fifth century, the Church's official attitude (…) ‘… If a lector learns to play the *guitar* (...)’ ” (p. 55)"(…) before the catastrophic Black Death *(1349-51)*" (p. 67)“(…) the bells (…) were melted down in 1792 during the *Napoleonic wars* (...)” (p. 127)“(…) after the Church had *burned Galileo*, and others” (p. 173)“Bernard Silvestris, *later to become Pope Sylvester*” (p. 200)“Rosslyn Chapel was built in late medieval times, begun in *1446* (…)” (p. 232)"(…) the Guanches—the ancient *Berber kings* who ruled [Tenerife]" (p. 294)"Cathedrals of *Germany* (…) - Heiligenkreuz"Following these samples of the talents of our Doctor (who, it is claimed, has her own “award-winning website”), I had considered listing some examples of the logical nonsense, non-sequiturs, anachronisms and cultural prejudice her book is pullulating with. But there's just so much of it, and... I'm not getting paid for this! So if anyone wants to take me to task here is a list of some of the culprit pages: pp. 24, 50, 53, 99, 111, 112, 122-123, 128, 134, 152, 153, 155, 159, 182, 184, 193, 217, 221, 247-248, 253, 260, 261, 266, 277, 283, 292, 314, 323, 325/328. I promise to refrain from throwing the book away for a reasonable amount of time.There is another thing I do have a problem with, and that's the handling of foreign languages. It is well-known that French words and their spelling, when quoted in books written in another language, are particularly subject to being mistreated. Accents in particular are not recognized as often reflecting a different pronunciation and get dropped haphazardly on the vowels, as best befits the author's short memory span. Our good Doctor has simplified all the hassle and simply done away with all diacritics. Maybe printing shops in Florida charge extra for the effort of putting accents on words, or, who knows, book editors have become too expensive these days (the book's price wouldn't lead us to suspect anything of the sort, though). French "references", proper nouns or else: pp. 43, 131, 263, 264, 270, 284, 291, 293, 303.Not that German escapes a similar fate (*Lubeck*, p. 323), and neither does Portuguese (*Paul [sic] Coehlo [re-sic]*). As for Spanish and Galician, it took me a long research to figure out that *Sant Eloa at Luho* (p. 277) was intended to designate the Abbey of Santa Maria de Loyo, aka. Santa María de Loio.Should anyone be tempted to excuse the above as petty mistakes, I might propose the following samples of Ms. Rall's use of the English language:"However, but not all of these were (…)" (p. 67)"By ensuring that crushed stones from an earlier (...) site were to be carefully included within the design of their new one is also (...) acknowledging an inherent ‘power of place’ at that particular location” (p. 107)"The twelfth century, complex techniques (...) had evolved has remained quite constant up to the present day" (p. 180)"(...) famous fairs, like those held annually at Troyes or Champagne" (p. 250)"The trials and tribulations of Gerald's case are not all that unusual (...)" (p. 253)OK, some of these fall possibly under the editors-don't-come-cheap category. In the end, though, it's me that has paid for this… "Guide to the History etc."