 |
 |
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Steve, this is a late and general contribution to an interesting thread, but I liked very much Margaret Visser's book, The Geometry of Love: Space, Time, Mystery and Meaning in an Ordinary Church (2000), which is a sort of thick description of the (mostly 7th-c.) church of S. Agnese fuori le Mura in Rome. It's a bit prolix, I suppose, but explains a lot about a lot: from saints to cosmatesque pavement, mosiac technique, the liturgical year, baptismal fonts, incense, use of spolia, bells, the cult of relics, etc., etc. I don't know of anything else that is quite so directly relevant to your original query. There are links to some reviews on her website. -- Paul Chandler 2009/7/26 Steve Cartwright <[log in to unmask]> > medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture > Colleagues, > > Every year I teach a survey course on the history of western humanities, > from the ancient world through the Middles Ages--sort of Western Civ without > the politics, economics, etc. I get to spend three precious weeks on > medieval arts, ideas, and culture. This includes discussing medieval church > architecture, particularly church architecture. For years I've been > discussing the differences between Romanesque and Gothic, and showing > pictures of the various styles, the stained glass, the sculptures, etc., and > putting them into the context of the allegorical world view of medieval > Europeans. But I've always felt something has been missing, namely, just how > all the bits and pieces of a medieval church--the sculptural program, the > stained glass program, the layout, the sacred geometry, etc., all fit > together into an ultimate combination of form and function. > > What I want to discuss with my students is just how a medieval church > building "functioned," or worked, namely, when a medieval churchgoer or > pilgrim entered a church and saw the whole thing, what did s/he think? How > did the building *as an integrated whole* function to teach or inspire a > worshipper? I'm going for the Gestalt here. I already discuss such things > as the "mysticism of light," the church building as a microcosm of the > universe, an allegory of salvation, and a foretaste of heaven. I want to > discuss more fully how that entire, complex form functioned, how it all > affected the medieval churchgoer. > > Thanks for any suggestions you might have about this! > > Steve Cartwright > Western Michigan University > ********************************************************************** To > join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: > [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: > [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: > leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report > problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: > [log in to unmask] For further information, visit > our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html -- Paul Chandler, O.Carm. | Institutum Carmelitanum via Sforza Pallavicini, 10 | 00193 - Roma | Italy tel: +39-06-6810.0849 | fax: +39-06-6830.7200 [log in to unmask] | carmelitana.blogspot.com which is here, near St Peter's and Castel S. Angelo: < http://tinyurl.com/42wgk2> (A marks the spot) ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html