Gothic Art 1140-c1450: Sources and Documents

Patricia Vervoort is an assistant professor of art history at Lakehead
University.

Gothic Art 1140-c1450 Sources and Documents is a welcome reprint from the series “Sources and Documents in the History of Art” edited by H.W. Jenson in 1971. This is a valuable collection of medieval documents not only for art historians, but for any student of the medieval period. The translated documents are arranged in chronological order and divided into three parts: Early and High Gothic, 1140 to c1270; The Gothic Period, between 1270 and 1360; and The Gothic Period between 1360 and 1450. A bibliography lists sources published between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries. There is also an index of names and topics.

The first section deals almost exclusively with architecture from Abbot Suger on the rebuilding of St. Denis to a committee report on the condition of Chartres Cathedral in 1316: “We have seen the vault over the crossing; here repair work is indeed necessary, and if it is not done within a short time there might be great danger” (p. 60). In the middle section, the documents emphasize secular records, for example, the tragedy of a 1304 May festival at San Friano: “Because of the novelty of the show many citizens had come to look. The Carraia bridge, which at the time was built on wooden pilings, was so overloaded with people that it collapsed in several places” (p. 70). In the third section, the documents relate to a wide variety of art forms such as contracts for tombs and contemporary inventories describing books and tapestries. Aesthetic issues such as the absence of unity in the measurements of Milan Cathedral or the beauty of Etruscan vases are among the concluding texts.

Each of the three sections is introduced with a succinct historical commentary which is further amplified by the editor’s remarks on the individual selections. This volume provides a means of bringing the medieval era to life again.