'The Gothic Cathedral is the most stimulating and comprehensive work on the subject to date. . . . If the cathedrals are to be understood, Mr. von Simson rightly declares, they must be seen not in the light of twentieth-century esthetic observation, but of twelfth-century religious experience, through which the supernatural permeated every aspect of human existence. . . . The resulting interpretation of the monuments is a critical tour de force.' --Allan Temko, The New York Times Book Review 'Not since Mont-St.-Michel and Chartres has so poetic and so evocative a study of the Gothic movement been published. . . . The Gothic Cathedral is based on a wide factual as well as intuitive knowledge, transformed by the author's illuminating style into a text both formidable and pleasurable.'--The Virginia Quarterly Review
'The cathedral meant to medieval man what it does not mean to us,' writes Otto von Simson in his introduction. While the term, Gothic cathedral, may conjure in the modern imagination gargantuan spires amidst European cities, von Simson maintains that we are 'curiously blind' to this structure's most essential nature. Cathedrals of the Middle Ages were experienced 'not as a pale commonplace but as fearful reality.' To the people of the Middle Ages the cathedral sanctuary was literally the threshold to heaven. In von Simson's words, 'the cathedral gazed down upon the city and its population, transcending all other concerns of life as it transcended all its physical dimensions.' Von Simson confines his study to the first period of Gothic art, beginning with the conception and construction of the Abbey Church of St.-Denis and culminating with the cathedral of Chartres. His discussions of Gothic form and the importance of measure and light are lucent yet formidable, his historical exposition of 'The Palace of the Virgin' at Chartres elucidating. Von Simson aims to understand Gothic architecture as image-the representation of supernatural reality-and he succeeds, illuminating his subject with (to quote one reviewer) 'factual as well as intuitive knowledge.' Included in this edition is new material on the rose windows of Chartres, over fifty pages of black and white plates, an extensive bibliography and helpful index. 282 pp.
'The cathedral meant to medieval man what it does not mean to us,' writes Otto von Simson in his introduction. While the term, Gothic cathedral, may conjure in the modern imagination gargantuan spires amidst European cities, von Simson maintains that we are 'curiously blind' to this structure's most essential nature. Cathedrals of the Middle Ages were experienced 'not as a pale commonplace but as fearful reality.' To the people of the Middle Ages the cathedral sanctuary was literally the threshold to heaven. In von Simson's words, 'the cathedral gazed down upon the city and its population, transcending all other concerns of life as it transcended all its physical dimensions.' Von Simson confines his study to the first period of Gothic art, beginning with the conception and construction of the Abbey Church of St.-Denis and culminating with the cathedral of Chartres. His discussions of Gothic form and the importance of measure and light are lucent yet formidable, his historical exposition of 'The Palace of the Virgin' at Chartres elucidating. Von Simson aims to understand Gothic architecture as image-the representation of supernatural reality-and he succeeds, illuminating his subject with (to quote one reviewer) 'factual as well as intuitive knowledge.' Included in this edition is new material on the rose windows of Chartres, over fifty pages of black and white plates, an extensive bibliography and helpful index. 282 pp.
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