The Gothic Enterprise: A Guide to Understanding the Medieval Cathedral

Robert A Scott surveys the great Gothic cathedrals of Europe monuments that are among the most astonishing achievements of Western culture A traveler s companion or an engrossing source of knowledge for the armchair enthusiast The Gothic Enterprise explores why medieval people built Gothic cathedrals how they built them what conception of the divine lay behind their creation and how religious and secular leaders used cathedrals for social and political purposes Book jacket The great Gothic cathedrals of Europe are among the most astonishing achievements of Western culture Evoking feelings of awe and humility they make us want to understand what inspired the people who had the audacity to build them This engrossing book surveys an era that has fired the historical imagination for centuries In it Robert A Scott explores why medieval people built Gothic cathedrals how they built them what conception of the divine lay behind their creation and how religious and secular leaders used cathedrals for social and political purposes As a traveler s companion or a rich source of knowledge for the armchair enthusiast The Gothic Enterprisehelps us understand how ordinary people managed such tremendous feats of physical and creative energy at a time when technology was rudimentary famine and disease were rampant the climate was often harsh and communal life was unstable and incessantly violent While most books about Gothic cathedrals focus on a particular building or on the cathedrals of a specific region The Gothic Enterpriseconsiders the ideaof the cathedral as a humanly created space Scott discusses why an impoverished people would commit so many social and personal resources to building something so physically stupendous and what this says about their ideas of the sacred especially the vital role they ascribed to the divine as a protector against the dangers of everyday life Scott s narrative offers a wealth of fascinating details concerning daily