medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
To complement the book, perhaps, there is an album of S. Agnese f.l.M. on the medrelart share site.
MG
Marjorie Greene
http://medrelart.shutterfly.com/
--- On Sat, 8/1/09, Paul Chandler <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
From: Paul Chandler <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: [M-R] How did medieval churches function?
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Saturday, August 1, 2009, 1:40 AM
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
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--
Paul Chandler, O.Carm. | Institutum Carmelitanum
via Sforza Pallavicini, 10 | 00193 - Roma | Italy
tel: +39-06-6810.0849 | fax: +39-06-6830.7200
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which is here, near St Peter's and Castel S. Angelo: <http://tinyurl.com/42wgk2> (A marks the spot)
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