AVISTA Studies in the History of Medieval Technology, Science, and Art
AVISTA Studies in the History of Medieval Technology, Science, and Art is published by Brill. For more information about purchasing or submitting a proposal, please see the AVISTA MTSA Brill page here.
AVISTA Studies in the History of Medieval Technology, Science, and Art is a wide-ranging and multi-disciplinary book series publishing scholarly work on a variety of aspects of technology, science, art, and architecture of the Middle Ages. The series publishes works that emphasize the interrelationship of these fields. In doing so, the series aims to promote a cross-disciplinary perspective, and submissions are encouraged from any field of study, including (but not limited to) history, art and architectural history, manuscript studies, literature, and history of science. Studies with a closer focus or works examining wider contexts and global developments are equally welcomed. The series publishes monographs, thematic edited volumes, and, on occasion, text editions and translations. All proposals from early career projects to those from established scholars are invited.
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Volume Editor: Robert Bork, Professor of Art History, University of Iowa
AVISTA Studies in the History of Medieval Technology, Science, and Art, Volume: 18
This book chronicles the contributions of American scholars to the study of European Gothic architecture. It traces this history through a series of biographical case studies of major figures ranging from Arthur Kingsley Porter to Robert Branner and Jean Bony to Caroline Bruzelius, calling attention to their influence as mentors and to the character of their professional networks. These biographical chapters are supplemented by thematic essays and a roundtable discussion of current issues in the field. Altogether, the book explains how working from overseas presents both significant challenges and valuable perspectives, allowing American scholars to enrich dialog in the field.
Contributors: Robert Bork, Caroline Bruzelius, Meredith Cohen, S. Diane Daussy, Jennifer M. Feltman, Erin Hulbert, Maile Hutterer, Matthew Reeve, Lisa Reilly, Rebecca Smith, Zachary Stewart, Kyle Sweeney, Kristine Tanton, Sarah Thompson, Arnaud Timbert, and Joseph Williams.
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Author: Katherine Baker, Associate Professor of Art History, Arkansas State University
AVISTA Studies in the History of Medieval Technology, Science, and Art, Volume: 17
While we sometimes think about the past as distant and dusty, portals that can shoot through centuries exist. The estate inventory of Chicart Bailly is one of those gateways, and through its many pages we are transported back into an entirely different material culture – Paris at the turn of the 16th century.
Chicart, whose death in June 1533 led to the creation of the document, was part of a legacy of working with ivory, bone, and precious woods as a tabletier. This transcription and annotated translation of the inventory provides a key for new insights into this previously understudied profession — the objects made, the varied media used, and the world of the Paris’ tabletiers.
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Volume Editors: Alice Isabella Sullivan, Assistant Professor, History of Art and Architecture, Tufts University
Kyle G. Sweeney, Assistant Professor of Art History, Winthrop University
AVISTA Studies in the History of Medieval Technology, Science, and Art, Volume: 16
How have the concepts of “lateness” and “modernity” inflected the study of medieval and early modern architecture? This volume seeks to (re)situate monuments from the 14th—16th centuries that are indebted to medieval building practices and designs within the more established narratives of art and architectural history.
Drawing on case studies from Cyprus to the Dominican Republic, the book explores historiographical, methodological, and theoretical concerns related to the study of medieval architecture, bringing to the fore the meanings and functions of the Gothic in specific contexts of use and display. The development of local styles relative to competing traditions, and instances of coexistence and hybridization, are considered in relation to workshop practices and design theory, the role of ornament, the circulation of people and knowledge, spatial experiences, as well as notions of old and new.
Contributors: Jakub Adamski, Flaminia Bardati, Costanza Beltrami, Robert Bork, Jana Gajdošová, Maile S. Hutterer, Jacqueline Jung, Alice Klima, Abby McGehee, Paul Niell, Michalis Olympios, Zachary Stewart, Alice Isabella Sullivan, Kyle G. Sweeney, and Marek Walczak.
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Volume Editors: George Brooks, Professor of Humanities, Medieval Studies, History of Science & Technology, Valencia College
Maile Hutterer, Associate Professor, Department of the History of Art and Architecture, University of Oregon
AVISTA Studies in the History of Medieval Technology, Science, and Art, Volume: 15
This book charts the past, present, and future of studies on medieval technology, art, and craft practices. Inspired by Villard’s enigmatic portfolio of artistic and engineering drawings, this collection explores the multiple facets of medieval building represented in this manuscript (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS Fr 19093).
The book’s eighteen essays and two introductions showcase traditional and emergent methods for the study of medieval craft, demonstrating how these diverse approaches collectively amplify our understanding about how medieval people built, engineered, and represented their world. Contributions range from the analysis of words and images in Villard’s portfolio, to the close analysis of masonry, technological marvels, and gothic architecture, pointing the way toward new avenues for future scholarship to explore.
Contributors: Mickey Abel, Carl F. Barnes Jr., Robert Bork, George Brooks, Michael T. Davis, Amy Gillette, Erik Gustafson, Maile S. Hutterer, John James, William Sayers, Ellen Shortell, Alice Isabella Sullivan, Richard Alfred Sundt, Sarah Thompson, Steven A. Walton, Maggie M. Williams, Kathleen Wilson Ruffo, and Nancy Wu.
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Volume Editor: Robert Bork, Professor of Art History, University of Iowa
AVISTA Studies in the History of Medieval Technology, Science, and Art, Volume: 14
The essays in this volume reflect on and build on the remarkable legacies of Robert Mark and Andrew Tallon, who pioneered the application of high-technology research methods to the study of Gothic architecture.
Combining personal reminiscences and historiographical discussions with meticulous geometrical and structural analyses based on photogrammetric and laser-scanned building surveys, this book offers valuable new perspectives not only on Mark and Tallon themselves, but also on major churches including the abbeys of Saint-Denis and Alcobaça, Santa Maria Novella in Florence, Notre-Dame in Paris, and the cathedrals of Clermont, Reims and Wells.
Contributors: Sheila Bonde, Robert Bork, Lindsay S. Cook, Michael Davis, James Hillson, Kyle Killian, Peter Kurmann, Clark Maines, Ethan Mark, Stephen Murray, Sergio Sanabria, Dany Sandron, Ellen Shortell, Elizabeth B. Smith, Rebecca Smith, Arnaud Timbert, Stefaan Van Liefferinge, and Nancy Wu.
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Volumes 1–13
Prior to 2022, the AVISTA book series was published by Routledge (formerly Ashgate).
Volume Editor: Steven A. Walton, Associate Professor of History, Michigan Technological University
AVISTA Studies in the History of Medieval Technology, Science, and Art, Volume: 13
This volume brings together a series of papers at Kalamazoo as well as some contributed papers inspired by the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Lynn White Jr.’s, Medieval Technology and Social Change (1962), a slim study which catalyzed the study of technology in the Middle Ages in the English-speaking world. While the initial reviews and decades-long fortune of the volume have been varied, it is still in print and remains a touchstone of an idea and a time. The contributors to the volume, therefore, both investigate the book itself and its fate, and look at new research furthering and inspired by White’s work. The book opens with an introduction surveying White’s career, with a bibliography of his work, as well as some opening thoughts on the study of medieval technology in the last fifty years. Three papers then deal explicitly with the reception and longevity of his work and its impact on medieval studies more generally. Then five papers look at new cast studies areas where White’s work and approach has had a particular impact, namely, medieval technology studies and medieval rural/ ecological studies.
Contributors: Constance H. Berman, George Brooks, Chantal Camenisch, C.R.J. Currie, Christie Peters, B.B. Price, Steven A. Walton, and Elspeth Whitney.
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Volume Editors: Jennifer M. Feltman, Associate Professor of Art History, Department of Art and Art History, University of Alabama
Sarah Thompson, Associate Professor of Art History, School of Art, Rochester Institute of Technology
AVISTA Studies in the History of Medieval Technology, Science, and Art, Volume: 12
Traditional histories of medieval art and architecture often privilege the moment of a work’s creation, yet surviving works designated as "medieval" have long and expansive lives. Many have extended prehistories emerging from their sites and contexts of creation, and most have undergone a variety of interventions, including adaptations and restorations, since coming into being. The lives of these works have been further extended through historiography, museum exhibitions, and digital media. Inspired by the literary category of biography and the methods of longue durée historians, the introduction and seventeen chapters of this volume provide an extended meditation on the longevity of medieval works of art and the aspect of time as a factor in shaping our interpretations of them. While the metaphor of "lives" invokes associations with the origin of the discipline of art history, focus is shifted away from temporal constraints of a single human lifespan or generation to consider the continued lives of medieval works even into our present moment. Chapters on works from the modern countries of Italy, France, England, Spain, and Germany are drawn together here by the thematic threads of essence and continuity, transformation, memory and oblivion, and restoration. Together, they tell an object-oriented history of art and architecture that is necessarily entangled with numerous individuals and institutions.
Contributors: Nicola Camerlenghi, Meredith Cohen, William J. Diebold, Amanda W. Dotseth, Jennifer M. Feltman, Elisa A. Foster, Lynley Anne Herbert, Cathleen Hoeniger, Laura Jacobus, Matilde Mateo, Charles R. Morscheck, Maeve O’Donnell-Morales, Emily N. Savage, Kyle G. Sweeney, Imogen Tedbury, Sarah Thompson, Catherine Emma Walden, and Nancy Wu.
Volume Editor: Jennifer M. Feltman, Associate Professor of Art History, Department of Art and Art History, University of Alabama
AVISTA Studies in the History of Medieval Technology, Science, and Art, Volume: 11
This interdisciplinary volume in the AVISTA series is the first book to focus solely on the north transept of Reims Cathedral, the portion of the gothic building that served as the canons' primary entrance to the cathedral from their adjoining cloister in the thirteenth century. Despite the importance of its sculpture and stained glass, as well as its ritual use by the canons, the north transept remains one of the least understood portions of the cathedral—in part because its sequence of construction is so complex, even improvised. Until recently, important archaeological evidence of the transept’s substructures was unavailable. This is, however, no longer the case. The current volume presents this new subterranean evidence alongside careful studies of the stones above ground, analysis of the geometry used in the transept's design, iconographic and stylistic studies of its sculpture and glass, and extant medieval documents, which record events bearing upon its construction. Essays by international specialists of the cathedral's archaeology, architecture, sculpture, and stained glass address issues of the north transept’s evolving design and visual programs, thereby significantly clarifying and revising the building’s chronology. Essays also consider the meaning of its visual programs in light of architectural adaptation and contemporary socio-historical events—whether royal coronations or the infamous revolts of the local burghers. In addition to presenting a readily accessible state of the research on the north transept, the volume also provides a model for interdisciplinary and international collaboration in the study of medieval buildings.
Contributors: Barbara Abou-El-Haj, Sylvie Balcon-Berry, Walter Berry, Robert Bork, Jennifer M. Feltman, Lindsey Hansen, Iliana Kasarska, Meredith Parsons Lillich, and Nancy Wu.
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Volume Editors: Barbara S. Bowers, Independent Scholar
Linda Migl Keyser, Medica: The Society for the Study of Healing in the Middle Ages
AVISTA Studies in the History of Medieval Technology, Science, and Art, Volume: 10
This volume challenges and redefines the traditional distinction made between the sacred and the secular in medieval healing, medical practice, and theory as evidenced in the historic, text record, and by material culture (sites and objects). The studies here are interdisciplinary and are grouped into two parts. The first focuses on secular and religious texts, demonstrating how the language of sacred and secular healing blurs and merges in both Latin and vernacular textual traditions. Chapters critically examine how medieval English literature draws directly from medical discourse when representing the physical and moral consequences of wrath; the reasons why empirical experience in medical education is central to the writings of Valesco de Tarenta; the narrative significance of Bede’s representation of plague in his eighth-century prose Life of Cuthbert; and the implications of distinctions between late medieval religious sermons and secular discourse on plague. Authors also discuss how secular medicine and religious faith intersect in two, recorded, late medieval English miracles and present the largely unexplored impact of access to food on people’s everyday health. The second part investigates how the concepts of the sacred and the secular are seen in material culture. Chapters explore how the practice of lapidary medicine by early practitioners and midwives used the protective and healing properties ascribed to gemstone amulets, eagle-stones, and lodestones. At pilgrimage sites, the dynamic nature of cure and spiritual interaction is evidenced in art and artifact. One type of object, pilgrim badges from English sites, is used to explore statistically the wider social context of faith and healing.
Contributors: Barbara S. Bowers, James Bugslag, Leigh Ann Craig, Ottó Gecser, Nichola E. Harris, Lindsay Jones, Linda Migl Keyser, Genevra Kornbluth, Virginia Langum, Michael Lewis, Iona McCleery, William H. York, and Michelle Ziegler.
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Volume Editors: Kathleen Nolan, Professor Emerita of Art History, Hollins University
Dany Sandron, Professor of Art and Archaeology, Université de Paris-Sorbonne and Centre André-Chastel
AVISTA Studies in the History of Medieval Technology, Science, and Art, Volume: 9
The touchstones of Gothic monumental art in France—the abbey church of Saint-Denis and the cathedrals of Chartres, Reims, and Bourges—form the core of this collection dedicated to the memory of Anne Prache. The essays reflect the impact of Prache’s career, both as a scholar of wide-ranging interests and as a builder of bridges between the French and American academic communities. Thus the authors include scholars in France and the United States, both academics and museum professionals, while the thematic matrix of the book, divided into architecture, stained glass, and sculpture, reflects the multiple media explored by Prache during her long career. The essays employ a varied range of methodologies to explore Gothic monuments. The chapters in the architectural section include an intensive archeological analysis of the foundations of Reims Cathedral, the close reading of a late medieval literary text for a symbolic understanding of Paris, and essays that explore the medieval use of practical geometry in designing entire buildings and their components. Saint-Denis, Reims, and Chartres, all monuments studied by Prache, are discussed in the next part, on stained glass. These chapters demonstrate how old problems can be clarified by new evidence, whether from the accessibility of previously unknown archival information, for Reims, or through revelations that arise from restoration, at Chartres. These essays also include a study showing the complexity of making attributions for the storied glass of Saint-Denis. The final set of essays likewise takes different approaches to sculpture, whether constructing links to the liturgy at Reims, or discussing the meaning of a sculptural ensemble studied by Prache early in her career, the cloister of Notre-Dame-en-Vaux in Châlons-en-Champagne, or scrupulously examining the façade sculpture at Bourges Cathedral for insights into the design process.
Contributors: Sylvie Balcon-Berry, Walter Berry, William W. Clark, Michael W. Cothren, Michael T. Davis, Fabienne Joubert, Claudine Lautier, Charles T. Little, Philippe Lorentz, Kathleen Nolan, Gérard P. Prache, Nicolas Reveyron, Dany Sandron, Ellen M. Shortell, Susan Leibacher Ward, and Nancy Wu.
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Volume Editors: Robert Bork, Professor of Art History, University of Iowa
William W. Clark, Former Professor of Art History, Queens College, CUNY
Abby McGehee, Independent Scholar
AVISTA Studies in the History of Medieval Technology, Science, and Art, Volume: 8
This collection of essays presents the exciting and innovative work being done in the field of medieval architectural history by scholars affiliated with AVISTA, one of the most active sponsors of such research in the Anglo-American scholarly community. These studies constitute a snapshot of the range of new interpretive strategies being deployed by researchers in the reassessment of previous scholarship and identification of new modes of inquiry. In recent years, the study of medieval architecture has been transformed by the emergence of new critical perspectives and new technologies. The contributors to this book are among those at the forefront of these developments. Several of the essays present dramatic reinterpretations of canonical monuments including the Abbey of Saint-Denis, Beauvais Cathedral and Notre-Dame in Paris. Others consider broader methodological issues such as the applications of geometry, workshop practice, and the shaping of historical narratives. Still others demonstrate how high-tech scanning and visualization methods can enhance our understanding of construction methods and the behavior of buildings. The publication of this collection of pioneering essays should foster further exploration by clarifying the state of research, by establishing specific historical arguments, and by providing models of inquiry to inspire emerging scholars.
Contributors: Carl F. Barnes, Jr., Robert Bork, Nicola Camerlenghi, William W. Clark, Michael T. Davis, Mark Everett, Nigel Hiscock, Chad Keller, Stefaan Van Liefferinge, Vasileios Marinis, Abby McGehee, Stephen Murray, Vivian Paul, Matthew M. Reeve, Lisa Reilly, Ellen Shortell, Janet E. Snyder, Andrew J. Tallon, Harry Titus, Edward Triplett, Suwimon Udphuay, Thomas G. Waldman, and Robert Warden.
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Volume Editor: Vibeke Olson, Professor Emerita of Art History, University of North Carolina Wilmington
AVISTA Studies in the History of Medieval Technology, Science, and Art, Volume: 7
This new volume in the AVISTA series focuses on the study of medieval limestone. As the principal building material in the Middle Ages and a prized medium for architectural sculpture, limestone played a significant role in medieval artistic manufacture. The choice of material inherently informed the final product, thus understanding the material and its uses gives insight into the medieval creative process and the production-driven choices that were made by masons and sculptors. Quality limestone was a highly sought-after commodity that was often shipped across great distances; yet in other instances, masons made do with locally available resources. Through an intensive study of medium, many broader topics can be addressed, for instance the economics of medieval construction, the artistic process, or the application of modern technology in understanding and preserving medieval buildings and sculpture. The papers collected in this volume present the depth and scope of recent scholarship in the field, through a wide-ranging overview of the state of the discipline of medieval stone studies. They address such methodological approaches to the study of limestone as the use of neutron activation analysis to determine quarries of origin, issues of labor and transportation, as well as issues faced in the cleaning and conservation of limestone. This volume is the first comprehensive study in English that investigates limestone as an essential component of large-scale medieval artistic production, and as such, it is a valuable resource for both students and scholars in the field.
Contributors: Walter Berry, Annie Blanc, William W. Clark, Jean-Pierre Gély, Garman Harbottle, Nigel Hiscock, Lore L. Holmes, Jonathan Hoyte, Vibeke Olson, Thomas E. Russo, Roger Stalley, Janet Snyder, Georgia Sommers Wright, Nancy Wu, and Michaël Wyss.
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Volume Editors: Robert Bork, Professor of Art History, University of Iowa
Andrea Kann
AVISTA Studies in the History of Medieval Technology, Science, and Art, Volume: 6
This sixth volume in the AVISTA series considers The Art, Science, and Technology of Medieval Travel. In recent years, scholarship has increasingly emphasized the importance of travel and intercultural exchange in the Middle Ages. The notable medieval phenomena of pilgrimage and crusade obviously involved travel, while the growth of international commerce contributed decisively to the emergence of Europe as a major force in the world. Medievalists in all fields thus have good reason to consider this issue. The contributors here explore medieval travel from a variety of interdisciplinary perspectives, placing the physical practice of transportation into the larger context of medieval thought about the world and its meaning. The four sections move in focus from the practical to the theoretical, and back. The first section deals with medieval vehicles and logistics, considering Carolingian military planning, Venetian ship design, the origin of the coach, and trade-offs between land and water transport. In the second section, the authors look at ways in which medieval artists responded to travel in creating city gates, representations of earthly travel, and devotional images based on the idea of spiritual pilgrimage. The next papers deal with maps and their meanings, opening with an argument for the importance of Platonic symbolism for medieval mapmakers, followed by studies on the Hereford Mappa Mundi, the Gough Map, and Petrarch's travel guide to the Holy Land. The final section discusses the history of navigational instruments in the Middle Ages. Together, these papers constitute important explorations of how the practical and theoretical concerns of medieval travelers intersected, from the early Middle Ages to the dawn of the Renaissance.
Contributors: Bernard S. Bachrach, Robert Bork, John E.. Dotson, Evelyn Edson, Nigel Hiscock, Michelle Duran-McLure, Andrea Kann, David H. Kennett, Annette Lermack, Anne McClanan, Nick Millea, Julian Munby, Richard A. Paselk, Sara Schechner, and Dan Terkla.
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Volume Editors: Jean A. Givens, Professor Emerita of Art History, University of Connecticut
Karen M. Reeds, Independent Scholar in the History of Science and Medicine
Alain Touwaide, Scientific Director, Institute for the Preservation of Medical Traditions
AVISTA Studies in the History of Medieval Technology, Science, and Art, Volume: 5
Images in medieval and early modern treatises on medicine, pharmacy, and natural history often confound our expectations about the functions of medical and scientific illustrations. They do not look very much like the things they purport to portray; and their actual usefulness in everyday medical practice or teaching is not obvious. By looking at works as diverse as herbals, jewelery, surgery manuals, lay health guides, cinquecento paintings, manuscripts of Pliny’s Natural History, and Leonardo’s notebooks, Visualizing Medieval Medicine and Natural History, 1200-1550 addresses fundamental questions about the interplay of art and science from the thirteenth to the mid-sixteenth century: What counts as a medical illustration in the Middle Ages? What are the purposes and audiences of the illustrations in medieval medical, pharmaceutical, and natural history texts? How are images used to clarify, expand, authenticate, and replace these texts? How do images of natural objects, observed phenomena, and theoretical concepts amplify texts and convey complex cultural attitudes? What features lead us to regard some of these images as typically “medieval” while other exactly contemporary images strike us as “Renaissance” or “early modern” in character? Art historians, medical historians, historians of science, and specialists in manuscripts and early printed books will welcome this wide-ranging, interdisciplinary examination of the role of visualization in early scientific inquiry.
Contributors: Monica Azzolini, Piers D. Britton, Jean A. Givens, Cathleen Hoeniger, Peter Murray Jones, Sarah Blake McHam, Karen M. Reeds, Claudia Swan, and Alain Touwaide.
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Volume Editors: Robert Bork, Professor of Art History, University of Iowa
Scott Montgomery, Professor of Art History, University of Denver
Carol Neuman de Vegvar, Professor Emerita of Fine Arts, Ohio Wesleyan University
Ellen Shortell, Professor Emerita of Art History, Massachusetts College of Art and Design
Steven A. Walton, Associate Professor of History, Michigan Technological University
AVISTA Studies in the History of Medieval Technology, Science, and Art, Volume: 4
De Re Metallica brings together a wide variety of perspectives on metal use in the Middle Ages, a topic that has received less systematic scholarly attention than it deserves, given its central importance for medieval culture. Because of its strength, beauty, and prestige, metal figured prominently in many medieval contexts, from the military and utilitarian to the architectural and liturgical. Metal was a crucial ingredient in weapons and waterpipes, rose windows and reliquaries, coinage and jewelry. The 23 essays presented here, from an international team of scholars, explore the production and use of such objects, from the early Middle Ages to the sixteenth century, and from the British Isles, Iceland, and Scandinavia, to France, Germany, Spain and Italy. This thematic, chronological, and geographical scope will make this volume into a valuable resource for historians of art, technology, and culture.
Contributors: Jennifer S. Alexander, Elisabeth Antoine, Carl F. Barnes, Jr., Karen Blough, Robert Bork, John Cherry, Sally J. Cornelison, Julian Lea-Jones, Sabine Lepsky, Norbert Nussbaum, Gale R. Owen-Crocker, A. Ri, Michael Ryan, Kevin P. Smith, Michèle Hayeur Smith, David Starley, Gabor Thomas, Niamh Whitfield, and Nancy L. Wicker.
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Volume Editor: Barbara S. Bowers, Independent Scholar
AVISTA Studies in the History of Medieval Technology, Science, and Art, Volume: 3
Using an innovative approach to evidence for the medieval hospital and medical practice, this collection of essays presents new research by leading international scholars in creating a holistic look at the hospital as an environment within a social and intellectual context. The research presented creates insights into practice, medicines, administration, foundation, regulation, patronage, theory, and spirituality. Looking at differing models of hospital administration between 13th century France and Spain, social context is explored. Seen from the perspective of the history of Knights of the Order of Saint Lazarus, and Order of the Temple, hospital and practice have a different emphasis. Extant medieval hospitals at Tonnerre and Winchester become the basis for exploring form and function in relation to health theory (spiritual and non-spiritual) as well as the influence of patronage and social context. In the case of the Ospedale Maggiore in Milan, this line of argument is taken further to demonstrate aspects of the building based on a concept of epidemiology. Evidence for the practice of medicine presented in these essays comes from a variety of sources and approaches such as remedy books, medical texts, recorded practice, and by making parallels with folk medicine. Archaeological evidence indicates both religious and non-religious medical intervention while skeletal remains reveal both pathology and evidence of treatment.
Contributors: Anne Van Arsdall, Renzo Baldasso, Barbara S. Bowers, James W. Brodman, Lynn T. Courtenay, Maria A. D’Aronco, Geoff Egan, Peregrine Horden, Rafaël Hyacinthe, Piers D. Mitchell, John M. Riddle, Bruno Tabuteau, Alain Touwaide, Theresa M. Vann, William White, and M.K.K. Yearl.
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Volume Editor: Marie-Thérèse Zenner
AVISTA Studies in the History of Medieval Technology, Science, and Art, Volume: 2
Villard’s Legacy is in memory of the celebrated iconoclastic historian, Jean Gimpel, and represents a fundamental contribution to the new AVISTA series with Ashgate Publishing. AVISTA was the brainchild of Gimpel, a genius at making the right people meet to advance knowledge through a confluence of ideas drawn equally from the practical and scholarly domains. Sixteen papers and a tribute to Gimpel underscore this confluence of technology, science and art within medieval culture. Appropriately, six papers offer new interpretations on aspects of Villard de Honnecourt's portfolio, which Gimpel rightly recognized and promoted as a unique and precious record of pre-modern technology and culture. This thirteenth-century manuscript is now known to a wider public as the earliest testimony left by a master builder in Gothic Europe. Of particular significance, for the first time in eight centuries, a Compagnon du Devoir, initiated in the same oral tradition as Villard, opens the door to interpreting these remarkable drawings. Three papers address previously ignored aspects in the construction of French and English Gothic churches, from the engineering of aerodynamic spires, to the elastic materials of vault webbing, to the social conventions of formal design. Three other contributors treat essential elements of a broader technological culture, such as the horse harness and the minting of coins, as well as the applicability of medieval technology to the modern world, in particular third world countries, a project pioneered by Gimpel. Four papers conclude the volume by treating the sciences of measure and their cultural expression in medieval Europe, embracing both the concepts of space and time, geometry as a mathematical discipline, and the graphic expression of scientific data. These interdisciplinary studies are comprehensive in chronological and geographic range, extending from the 8th to 15th centuries, from Ireland across Europe.
Contributors: Jennifer S. Alexander, Carl F. Barnes, Jr., Roland Bechmann, Renaud Beffeyte, Robert Bork, William W. Clark, Paul J. Gans, Nigel Hiscock, Stephen C. McCluskey, John North, Janet Snyder, Alan M. Stahl, Charles Stegeman, Wesley M. Stevens, Robert D. Stevick, Malcom Thurlby, and Marie-Thérèse Zenner.
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Volume Editor: Nancy Y. Wu, Educator Emerita, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
AVISTA Studies in the History of Medieval Technology, Science, and Art, Volume: 1
The purpose of the project is to provide the most up-to-date survey on issues dealing with practical geometry and how it might have been applied in the design of medieval architecture. Chronologically, the topics cover a wide span—from early Medieval through Late Gothic. Geographically, the monuments under discussion range from Early Medieval Florence through Carolingian Germany, Crusader Cyprus, Romanesque France and Gothic England. The applications of both geometry and metrology are considered in this volume, often with illustrations generated by computer-assisted design (CAD) software. The project therefore offers recent scholarship in the field, as well as cutting-edge technology which helps propel the pursuit of such studies. To this end, the project is the first of its kind both in terms of its focus and its comprehensiveness. Such a project is sorely needed to introduce this highly specialized discipline to other historians of art, history, and science of the Middle Ages, as well as historians in most humanistic areas.
Contributors: James Addiss, Robert Bork, William W. Clark, Michael T. Davis, Eric C. Fernie, Nigel Hiscock, Stephen Murray, Alpay Özdural, Vivian Paul, Warren Sanderson, Ellen M. Shortell, Nancy Y. Wu, and Marie-Thérèse Zenner.
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