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Universe of Stone: A Biography of Chartres Cathedral

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For anyone who has stood in awe of the splendid architecture of Notre Dame de Paris, Saint Denis, or Chartres itself, this is a delightful book. In his engaging and smooth prose, Philip Ball guides the reader through the religious, social, and philosophical milieu that produced the quintessentially Gothic cathedral at Chartres.

The essence of Gothic architecture is hotly disputed (Ball navigates neatly through the variety of scholarly opinion), but it certainly incorporated into a unified whole a number of different elements that had previously existed--all for the purpose, it seems, of achieving a soaring height and lightness inside, heaven on earth. Contrary to what the name suggests, Gothic was really a French style, and Ball discusses Chartres in the context of the nearby and near-contemporary cathedrals, especially St Denis, Sens, Soissons, and Strasbourg. (He occasionally brings up the adaptations of the Gothic style further afield.)

Like many other important churches, Notre Dame de Chartres was erected on an even more ancient sacred site: a sacred well (not a druidic temple, which is a Renaissance misinterpretation of Caesar's writing). The earliest churches that stood over Chartres's sacred well (which can still be seen in the crypt beneath the cathedral) were wooden and burnt down repeatedly: rebuilding was undertaken in 743, 858, 1020 (at which point the bishop Fulbert decided to make it an impressive Romanesque cathedral), 1134, and finally in 1194. At this point, it was decided to rebuild in the new Gothic style--a style introduced in the west front and choir of St Denis that had been completed a half-century before.

In a long middle section reminiscent of Ross King's Brunelleschi's Dome, Ball keeps the reader waiting to find out the answers to some key questions: Who built it? How long did it take? He explains thoroughly the intellectual context of the Gothic cathedral and its material features in alternating sections not in chronological order.

The monastic trends of the era are pointed out, together with the structure of the cathedral's ministry (and the tension between Chartres's and the local bishop); and the cathedral's original interior colors, ochre and white, are revealed. The Aristotelian, Platonic, and Augustinian foundations of medieval philosophy and theology are laid; and important figures such as Bernard of Clairvaux and Peter Abelard are profiled. The state of the art in medieval science is discussed, and its incarnation at the cathedral school in Chartres; and Geoffrey of Leves and Bernard and Thierry of Chartres are profiled. The roles of architects, masters, and builders are discussed, together with their building materials (chiefly limestone in the Isle-de-France); Villard de Honnecourt and his drawings are discussed, as are the uses of military technology in building projects. The engineering challenges of a Gothic cathedral are presented, including forces and stability, cracking and buttressing. (It seems that the argument over whether to buttress or to vault first was never really settled.) And in a chapter reminiscent of Ross King's on pigments in Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling, the making of colored glass is discussed, and it is revealed why blue and red were the dominant colors in medieval stained-glass windows.

In the second-to-last chapter, Ball describes the actual building of the cathedral at Chartres, and he debunks the legend of the townspeople putting their shoulders to carts of stones in a frenzy of enthusiasm. As for the cost of the project, Ball estimates that perhaps 5% of the total cost (around 4000 livres) came from the town; maybe another 5% from the French king; a little could be expected from pilgrims who came to see the town's prized relic, the Blessed Virgin's Sancta Camisa; but most of the funds probably came from the bishop's own salary and the rents on church lands. Ball addresses the age-old question of the order of construction--east to west? west to east?--amusingly, observing as evidence against the west-to-east theory that "the nave doesn't so much join up with the west end as crash into it." The question hasn't been settled, but in any case it seems that the architects had thought they would be able to replace Bishop Fulbert's two western towers. (Just one remains--the southwest, less elaborate one.) But funds ran out, and it was in retrospect a happy accident, because it forced the architects to simplify the design (nine spires were originally planned), thereby unifying it and providing a template for the great cathedrals that followed. One wonders how things might have turned out otherwise--would the great Gothic cathedrals all be like the colossal Duomo in Milan?

This was a very enjoyable book, filled with great pictures and diagrams (unfortunately not indexed, though) and eventually answering those key questions: No one knows who the masters or architects were, but there were probably a number of them. And it took just 26 years to build, much less than the century or so needed for Amiens or Reims. This is a great book for the traveler--armchair or otherwise--who is interested in Chartres or medieval architecture.

I have always had a special place in my heart for Gothic cathedrals: Notre Dame, Chartres, and though technically not a cathedral (because it's an Episcopal church, but very Gothic nonetheless), St. Thomas Church in New York City. With a trip planned to Paris in the fall, I thought it would be fun to dive deeply into the ideas behind these architectural masterpieces that affect my senses so deeply.

The book is well organized, and attempt to really provide a full telling of the story, including the religious, political, philosophical, cultural, and economic contexts that ultimately shaped the Gothic design. And it provides for me a much more sensible preamble to the renaissance than the simplistic (and somewhat self-congratulatory) stories that emanated from the renaissance actors themselves.

The book also reads very nicely: the editing is superb, and each chapter moves with purpose through an extraordinary amount of research. The book definitely delivers everything it promises on its cover!

The author sets the bar high: a book that describes the design and building of the cathedral at Chartres while putting it into the context of medieval philosophy, theology, technology, science, politics and economy. In theory a laudable goal, but in practice a muddle. This reader was alternately bogged down in overly-long and involved chapters discussing the differences between scholastic Platonists and Aristotelians and disappointed that there wasn't more about the cathedral itself. Ball is a journalist who has obviously done his homework -- there's an extensive, multi-page bibliography and he quotes from dozens of experts -- but in the end this feels like a well-written overview of other people's writings on the subject, rather than an original look by a writer with any strong convictions himself. About halfway through this book I had the nagging thought I would have done better by re-reading Thomas Cahill's lively "Mysteries of the Middle Ages" and my nephew's illustrated copy of David Macaulay's "Cathedral." There's no shortage of wonderful books on Chartres and the building of the cathedrals and the curious reader should consider them seriously before investing in this book.

UNIVERSE OF STONE really piqued my interest in Gothic architecture, medieval history, and Chartres in particular. That is no small accomplishment for a single book. Ball has hit upon a fascinating topic. That being said, I have the following quibbles: (1) I found Ball's written prose to be cumbersome, digressive in a way better suited to the lecture hall than the written page; (2) I would have appreciated more--and more helpfully labelled--diagrams to explain the architectural concepts Ball describes; and (3) it is a crime that there is only one exterior photograph of the cathedral, and it shows only the western facade and towers; having finished the boook, I still don't really know what Chartres actually looks like; the same could be said for interior shots: there is one excellent picture of the nave, but that's it; for a subject whose grandeur is the focus, to have but two pictures illustrating that grandeur seems a shame.

Why would someone write a biography of a BUILDING? Well, if you've ever been to Chartres Cathedral about 45 miles south-west of Paris, you'd know why. Chartres continues to provoke us with its emotive power, and its place in the history of Gothic architecture is firmly secured at "page 1" in our texts. That's why it was so exciting when we found out that there was a new treatment of Chartres being released this summer, and many reviewers, including those at The Economist and The Financial Times, took time to present the book to their reading audiences worldwide.

Ball's treatise on Chartres is a truly wonderful additional to the evolving library of Gothic. As a person who is familiar with the literature, I can easily say that his work here will make possible the introduction of this topic to an entirely new generation of people who are captivated by this most evocative of art forms. Ball has done what can be classified as nothing less than a superb job of collating, digesting, and then restating in clear, meaningful words the voluminous amount of material that is available on the subject. And this is no small task: the topic is the subject of attention of everyone from mechanical engineers, masonry experts, art historians, medieval historians, and even education historians. Most of these works are undeniably fascinating and tremendously enjoyable to read. But you will find yourself having to put on your "engineer's hat" to read Heyman's The Stone Skeleton: Structural Engineering of Masonry Architecture, then put on your "art historian's hat" to read Coldstream's Medieval Architecture (Oxford History of Art), and your "photographer's hat" to read Schultz's Great Cathedrals. There are dozens and dozens more books still on the open market just like these, and they all play an important role in helping us further understanding this fascinating topic. But Ball's book deftly summarizes and explicates many of the major themes of this content, and allows us to absorb it all in one text. I must confess that the book exceeded any expectations I had, and I am thoroughly impressed.

Ball's book covers far more than the physical elements of Chartres cathedral. We peer into the world of medieval scholasticism and Platonic thought in the cathedral schools of the 12th century to investigate what role, if any, such thought had on the development of the Gothic style. We read about Chartres' predecessor building, St. Denis basilica, just north of Paris, and the impact Suger had on this form there, and consider the potential linkages between these structures. We also take a quick course on medieval construction techniques, and listen to some of the hypotheses which engineering architects have devised to explain how such buildings could be constructed without electricity or power tools. We see how stained glass was manufactured, why the blue windows of Chartres are so unusual, and even hypothesize that "Chartres blue" may have been imported from other glass foundries outside of France. We also review the varying theories of the sequence of Chartres' construction that may explain its physical irregularities (for example, was the building constructed from east-to-west, or from west-to-east, and why are there "mismatches" between sections of the structure?).

There is much, much more. But all along the way, we are provided a wonderful, comprehensive introduction to the times, history, and settings of that "vulgar style called 'Gothic,'" which is regarded as one of the pinnacles of architectural and artistic achievement. If you are a Gothic enthusiast, get this book to enjoy and savor, the first new book on the subject in some time. But also buy a copy for a friend. There is probably no better way to introduce Chartres cathedral and Gothic architecture to a new generation of enthusiasts.

I've taught an interdisciplinary course entitled "Cathedrals and Other Great Churches of Medieval Europe" a dozen times (twice in England), had Malcolm Miller as a guest lecturer (and tour guide at Chartres in one of my three visits there) and Peter Gibson of the York Minster Stained Glass Workshop as a guest lecturer (and tour guide at York Minster twice), visited more than a hundred medieval and renaissance great churches, and read at least parts of more than half of the books and articles listed in the seven-page bibliography of this book, and, in my judgment, no other book comes close to this one in providing real insight into understanding the great medieval churches. For my course, I used a reader I developed comprising excerpts from dozens of different books to give my students the breadth of ideas, opinions and knowledge needed to understand these great churches. Like many other compilations it suffered from wide variations in the "voices" of the various authors and from unevenness in coverage of the diverse subjects that students needed to grasp the significance of these monuments. I dreamed that some day I would have the time and energy to assemble a coherent anthology -- maybe one with a title like: "Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Medieval Churches . . ." but, alas, retirement reared its ugly head and the motivation to do so disappeared. Now, however, Philip Ball has fulfilled my dream, and although he has done so in the context of a single great church, much of what he has written is applicable to most of them. His book makes me wish I hadn't retired so I could use it as a text. Not every reader will understand all of the nuances of the many subjects Ball covers in this book, but every reader with any interest in medieval churches will find this wonderfully well-written book to be not only a fascinating read but also a great addition to his or her library.

Philip Ball's "Universe of Stone: A Biograpahy of Chartres Cathedral" seeks to explore and explain the philosophical roots of a society and culture that produced Chartres Cathedral, an archtypical masterpiece of Gothic architecture. Balls himself admits the hurdles he faced: "Arguably, then, it is a foolhardy eneavour to say anything about 'why' Chartres Cathedral was built, which in the end what this book attempts to do. But to my mind, it is only by confronting that question that we can fully experience what this most extraordinary, most inspiring building has to offer."

Ball is inevitably limited in his efforts by the lack of extensive detailed records from that distant era, as well as by the profound differences in our perceptions of the world than those held by people of the 11th and 12th centuries.

The first half of "Universe of Stone" is especially challenging to the reader as the author lays out the background to the medieval mind: Aristotle and Plato and Augustine and Bernard of Clairvaux and Peter Abelard and the rise of Neo-Platonist philosophy with its emphasis on rational order. The pace of the book's narrative picks up when practical matters of design and finance and construction are considered, with the author citing records of numerous other Gothic building projects to explain what must have happened at Chartres. Along the way, Ball addresses and discards many popular myths, such as the design of the Cathedral incorporating mystical knowledge and that cathedral-building was a manifestation of popular civic enthusiasm.

The attentive reader of "Universe of Stone" will be rewarded with a better understanding of the medieval mind as well as the practical realities of constructing such marvelous buildings.

The Crusade of European Christians to overtake Jerusalem and Constantinople is famous. There was another crusade at the time, though, a "cathedral crusade" between the mid eleventh and fourteenth centuries. In France alone over eighty cathedrals were built, not to mention large and small churches. Arguably the greatest of all the cathedrals is the one at Chartres, beneath the vaults of which, according to Napoleon, even the atheist would feel uneasy. To examine just how Chartres works and how it can impress anyone with a sense of reverential awe is the purpose of _Universe of Stone: A Biography of Chartres Cathedral_ (Harper) by Philip Ball. Ball, who has written about diverse subjects like Renaissance medicine, water, and the history of pigment making, says that understanding Chartres is made difficult by all the centuries that have laid on since its construction and all the different academic and philosophical views that have often made confusing issues even less clear. Ball writes, "It is only by embedding the church in the culture of the twelfth century - its philosophies, its schools and its politics, its trades and technologies, its religious debates - that we can begin to make sense of what we see (and what we feel) when we pass through the Royal Portal of the west front." His book accomplishes this goal, clearly laying out spiritual, social, and technological trends of the era in a thoughtful and entertainingly discursive book of architectural history.

There is much we do not know about how the cathedral was built. We do know that it was built quickly, in the first 26 years of the thirteenth century. We don't know the architect who planned it all out, or if an architect actually did so, nor how educated the planners and builders were. There are no plans or models. We do know that it represented a change from Romanesque to Gothic architecture. Romanesque builders piled stones for the chief purpose of having them not fall down, and their resulting vast walls and narrow windows were a reflection of darkness and monastic seclusion. Chartres was in the vanguard of Gothic construction, changing the way the church regarded itself. It is not likely that the builders had in mind a celebration of the light of reason, but it is not far-fetched to imagine that the increase of light and banishment of the old gloom both reflected and inspired a process from fearing God to investigating with wonder God's works. Most of the hundreds of stone carvings in Chartres were done by masons who knew the stones would then be hoisted to a high nook where human eyes could never again see them. Only upon the invention of powerful spyglasses, tools the masons could never have imagined, were these sculptures seen again. The erection of the cathedral was not always so idealistic, however. Ball makes clear that those who worked on it expected to get paid, and that the those who got paid did not like the idea of volunteers doing the work for free in religious ecstasy. There is a legend of the "cult of the carts", whereby spontaneous fervor caused laymen to harness themselves to bring stones from far away, but much more likely is that any such show was organized by the clerics. Certainly, surviving accounts show that all unskilled manual work went for a fee, despite any bouts of fervent free labor.

Ball writes that Chartres is "nearly a pristine document, miraculously preserved from a distant world, bearing a message that is barely diluted." There has been a bit of remodeling and a huge baroque sculpture of the Assumption in the choir, and it is alarming that what Ball calls "the arrogance of eighteenth-century artistic chauvinism" permitted the interior to be completely whitewashed. The building never did get finished according to original intentions, because it got only two spires rather than the nine that were proposed, but it still has a unity and a clarity that few structures of the time can claim. It was also a showpiece for the era's understanding of flying buttresses, pointed arches, and ribbed vaulting, all of which are pictured and diagrammed here, along with illustrations of what might go wrong if stresses on the structures were not in balance. If you can't get there to see the cathedral itself, Ball's book is the perfect vehicle for informed armchair traveling.

Just finished reading it for the second time. I think Ray "A Reader's" review covers all the bases for me so I'll not restate. The amount of reserach that Ball had to put into this project is mind blowing as topics covered range from the philosophical-religious-economic-climate and other factors that created the "proper mix" for the great cathedral building campaign of the 13th century to a myriad of specifics, such as the difference in the chemical composition of the types of glass used at Chartres. Well organized and lucidly written, a real tour de force by someone whose IQ must be off the charts.

Although not shown above, a paperback version of this text does exist at about half the price. It doesn't show because the sub-title is slightly different, but a comparison of the detail shows it is the same. The book is entitled "Universe of Stone: Chartres Cathedral and the Invention of the Gothic."

Sometimes these two books are shown as part of a "Frequently Bought Together" package. Purchasers who opt for this will receive two copies of the same book. I'm informing Amazon, but in the meantime I offer this as a warning.

I do genuinely award this book five stars, but not for any reason not covered in other reviews except that those of my students (college) to whom I have recommended it have been enthusiastic about its content, style, and helpfulness

Universe of Stone: Chartres Cathedral and the Invention of the Gothic.