Universe of Stone
Chartres Cathedral and the Invention of the Gothic
HarperCollins · Print & ebook · March 17, 2009
“A lively, open-ended study of the building of Chartres Cathedral. . . .
We earn from qualifying purchases.
- Who it’s for
- Explore how Chartres Cathedral’s height and luminous spaces reflect medieval ways of seeing the world.
- Themes
- Gothic cathedral architecture, Medieval thought and worldview, Twelfth-century culture
- Genres
- Medieval Architecture, Medieval History, Medieval Art History
Nearest books
Matched by what the books are about, then ordered by what their readers also loved.
Joan of ArcHelen Castor44% matchShares Medieval History
From Dawn to Decadence: 1500 to the PresentJacques Barzun41% match
A Distant MirrorBarbara Wertheim Tuchman, Barbara W. Tuchman44% matchShares Medieval History
The Feud That Sparked the RenaissancePaul Robert Walker, Simon Vance54% match
For younger readers: Cathedral, The History of Western Art in Comics Part One: From Prehistory to the Renaissance, They Changed the World: Copernicus-bruno-galileo
Start with three books, and this one can be the first.
Members get a new edition every morning: a route out from their books to essays, research and talks, with the reason for each.
Start with this bookAbout this book
“A lively, open-ended study of the building of Chartres Cathedral. . . . Ball puts the fun back in medieval scholasticism.” —Los Angeles Times Chartres Cathedral, south of Paris, is revered as one of the most beautiful and profound works of art in the Western canon. But what did it mean to those who constructed it in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries—and why was it built at such immense height and with such glorious play of light, in the soaring manner we now call Gothic?
Continue reading
In this eminently fascinating work, author Philip Ball makes sense of the visual and emotional power of Chartres and brilliantly explores how its construction—and the creation of other Gothic cathedrals—represented a profound and dramatic shift in the way medieval thinkers perceived their relationship with their world. Beautifully illustrated and written, filled with astonishing insight, Universe of Stone embeds the magnificent cathedral in the culture of the twelfth century—its schools of philosophy and science, its trades and technologies, its politics and religious debates—enabling us to view this ancient architectural marvel with fresh eyes.
Stone and Light
Explore how Chartres Cathedral’s height and luminous spaces reflect medieval ways of seeing the world.
Come here for
- Architecture and ideas meeting in the story of a Gothic cathedral
- A close look at Chartres in its twelfth-century cultural world
Expect
- Thoughtful connections among philosophy, science, craft, politics, and faith
- A richly layered account of medieval art and architecture
Where it sits
| Medieval Architecture | 97% |
|---|---|
| Medieval History | 49% |
| Medieval Art History | 36% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Religious Buildings
- European Art
- Medieval Art History
- French History
- Authors
- Philip Ball
- Publisher
- HarperCollins
- Published
- March 17, 2009
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Theme
- Gothic cathedral architecture · Medieval thought and worldview · Twelfth-century culture
- Reading lane
- Religious Buildings