Amazon.com
Filippo Brunelleschi's design for the dome of the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence remains one of the most towering achievements of Renaissance architecture. Completed in 1436, the dome remains a remarkable feat of design and engineering. Its span of more than 140 feet exceeds St Paul's in London and St Peter's in Rome, and even outdoes the Capitol in Washington, D.C., making it the largest dome ever constructed using bricks and mortar. The story of its creation and its brilliant but "hot-tempered" creator is told in Ross King's delightful Brunelleschi's Dome.
Both dome and architect offer King plenty of rich material. The story of the dome goes back to 1296, when work began on the cathedral, but it was only in 1420, when Brunelleschi won a competition over his bitter rival Lorenzo Ghiberti to design the daunting cupola, that work began in earnest. King weaves an engrossing tale from the political intrigue, personal jealousies, dramatic setbacks, and sheer inventive brilliance that led to the paranoid Filippo, "who was so proud of his inventions and so fearful of plagiarism," finally seeing his dome completed only months before his death. King argues that it was Brunelleschi's improvised brilliance in solving the problem of suspending the enormous cupola in bricks and mortar (painstakingly detailed with precise illustrations) that led him to "succeed in performing an engineering feat whose structural daring was without parallel." He tells a compelling, informed story, ranging from discussions of the construction of the bricks, mortar, and marble that made up the dome, to its subsequent use as a scientific instrument by the Florentine astronomer Paolo Toscanelli. --Jerry Brotton, Amazon.co.uk
Book Description
Ross King has a knack for explaining complicated processes in a manner that is not only lucid but downright intriguing. . . . Fascinating." (Los Angeles Times)
By all accounts, Filippo Brunelleschi, goldsmith and clockmaker, was an unkempt, cantankerous, and suspicious man-even by the generous standards according to which artists were judged in fifteenth-century Florence. He also designed and erected a dome over the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore-a feat of architectural daring that we continue to marvel at today-thus securing himself a place among the most formidable geniuses of the Renaissance. At first denounced as a madman, Brunelleschi literally reinvented the field of architecture amid plagues, wars, and political feuds to raise seventy million pounds of metal, wood, and marble hundreds of feet in the air. Ross King's captivating narrative brings to life the personalities and intrigue surrounding the twenty-eight-year-long construction of the dome, opening a window onto Florentine life during one of history's most fascinating eras.
Customer Reviews:
Just what I needed on the Dome in Florence.......2007-08-27
This slim volume contains a lot of detailed information - both on the construction of the dome, and on the politics and rivalries behind the scenes. It is well presented and makes for an absorbing read.
The drawings of the unique hoisting equipment developed by Brunelleschi showed that he was as much an engineer as an architect.
I'll be visiting the dome this fall and now have a wealth of information to make my tour more meaningfull.
A Thinker's Book.......2007-07-23
Some books are for cruising,easy reading with the mind in overdrive, even serious books like King's Judgement of Paris, the reading of which brought me to this book. Yes I know it should have been the other way around. I had picked this text up a few times in my bookstore strolls, but always was tempted elsewhere. Then I read that fine work on the birth of Impressionism and its Hercules like incunabula strangulation of the python of Beaux Arts . It was a wowser!! and I wanted a bit more of this author's breezy erudition. Kind of like a great graduate class with that perfect professor; so I went back and bought the "Dome." Well, it was no smoothie. Yes this earlier book has the artists achieving grand feats, there is the rivalry of big egos, there is even the conflict(inevitable) of creative minds mostly in agreement. But it does not have all the same zip as Paris. Maybe because with the passage of time the bits and pieces of these rivalries have been obscured , darkened like Michaelangelo's chapel by all the years smudges and wisps of smoke until when we clean them up, they no longer are what we have come to treasure. The physical difficulty, the inventiveness, the sheer bravado of construction at great height are a big part of this book. To me the tools are so many large ratchets and socket wrenches. Then too, there is the amor loci of architecture. How many copies of the Parthenon have we seen, and yet they are just not the Acropolis. So the Duomo. It is difficult to envision the redtiled Florentine skyline elsewhere. But the objects of Manet, Degas, Cezanne are transportable and have become loved items. Certainly the physical achievement of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Flowers far surpasses that of The Alba Madonna, but Raphael is after all with us and as has been said the near dear drives off the distant beloved. So I guess the subject cannot carry all the discussion of the mechanical wow. I am glad I took the course, learned a lot, but would be cautious in whom I would tell to just go ahead, you'll love it.
Can culture be thrilling?.......2007-06-27
I find books about engineering, art and architecture more interesting when they are written as cliff-hangers. 'Brunelleschi's Dome' by Ross King is one of them. As are his 'Michelangelo and the Pope's ceiling' and King's latest 'The Judgement of Paris'.
Superbly documented and written with great speed, they kept me reading instead of looking at the real thing. Coming back to the real things I find myself looking through different eyes!
If you like this type of reading, be sure to look for 'The Lighthouse Stevensons' by Bella Bathurst (HarperCollins, 1999) and 'St Peter's' by Keith Miller (Profile Books, 2007)!
great read.......2007-05-14
a well researched and very readable account of a staggering masterpiece, which at the time was considered impossible to build and of its creation and creator.
Read this book before you go to Firenze!.......2007-05-13
I often give a copy of this book to friends planning a trip to Italy... A quick read and a marvelous story about the intrigue...everything about renaissance Italy was an intrigue!... and history surrounding the building of the dome for il Duomo...I could almost feel Brunellschi climbing the stairs to the top dome with me...
This, and "Michaelangelo, The Popes Ceiling" also by Ross King, ought to be required reading for any student of history or anyone going to Italia... they breath life into Italian history.
Average customer rating:
- Calculations are only as good as your numbers
- Pants on fire?
- Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed.
- Very Interesting
- History as Science Fiction
|
History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
Anatoly Fomenko
Manufacturer: Mithec
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They Cast No Shadows: A Collection of Essays on the Illuminati, Revisionist History, and Suppressed Technologies
ASIN: 2913621058 |
Book Description
Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.
Customer Reviews:
Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03
Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.
Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19
Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.
Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09
There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.
For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.
Very Interesting.......2007-03-07
It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.
History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10
Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.
I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.
Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.
Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.
I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.
This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.
Average customer rating:
- Another Thought-provoking treatise
- An Urgent Wake Up- A Must Read
- Important subject, important writer, mediocre book
- The US and Europe - common problems, common interests
- EUROPE: ALL IS NOT LOST, YET
|
The Cube and the Cathedral: Europe, America, and Politics Without God
George Weigel
Manufacturer: Basic Books
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0465092667
Release Date: 2005-04-05 |
Book Description
One of America's foremost public intellectuals argues that Europe's abandonment of its spiritual and cultural roots raises urgent questions about democracy's future around the world - including the United States
Why do Europeans and Americans see the world so differently? Why do Europeans and Americans have such different understandings of democracy and its discontents in the twenty-first century? Contrasting the civilization that produced the starkly modernist "cube" of the Great Arch of La DŽfense in Paris with the civilization that produced the "cathedral" of Notre-Dame, George Weigel argues that Europe's embrace of a narrow secularism has led to a crisis of morale that is eroding Europe's soul and threatening its future-with dire lessons for the rest of the democratic world.
Weigel traces the origins of "Europe's problem" to the atheistic humanism of the nineteenth-century European intellectual life, which set in motion a historical process that produced two world wars, three totalitarian systems, the Gulag, Auschwitz, the Cold War-and, most ominously, the Continent's de-population, which is worse today than during the Black Death. And yet, many Europeans still insist-most recently, during the debate over a new EU constitution-that only a public square shorn of religiously-informed moral argument is safe for human rights and democracy. Precisely the opposite, Weigel suggests, is true: the people of the "cathedral" can give a compelling account of their commitment to everyone's freedom; the people of the "cube" cannot. Can there be any true "politics"-any true deliberation about the common good, and any robust defense of freedom-without God? George Weigel makes a powerful case that the answer is "No," because, in the final analysis, societies are only as great as their spiritual aspirations.
Customer Reviews:
Another Thought-provoking treatise.......2007-08-31
George Weigel has written another well thought out counter to the prevailing mindset. His argument was well thoughtout, well reasoned and fair. I am a great admirer of Weigel and this book has done nothing to reduce my opinion of him and his work. The book has an important point and is well worth reading and I recommend it for anyone who wants a proper view of Europe and where it has been and where is going.
An Urgent Wake Up- A Must Read.......2007-05-30
Weigel, a brillant researcher and biographer, pens a text here that reads like a novel. Unfortunaely for us, it is all true.
With a master's stroke Weigel lays out the case explaining with smart examples, how Europe has surrendered it's moral center while it's soul is being digested piecemeal by a new wave of evangelization- ISLAM.
The civilization that gave us libraries, universities and the Cathedral of Notre Dame as examples of greatness bestowed on man by God, has crumbled into the society that refuses to acknowledge their Christian past. Hence, the cube- France's modern answer to the Cathedral.
Declining birth rates,mass attendance and increasing abortion and euthenasia give way to millions of devoted believers with families of six and immigration from the Middle East in record numbers. While one side refuses to push their God on anyting, the other invokes Him as the reason for everything.
By the conclusion of Weigels book, the reader will understand how there will be more practicing Sunnis in Amsterdam then Christians and referendums for Sharia to replace common law without the Xenophobic label many hide behind.
Important subject, important writer, mediocre book.......2007-03-15
This is another book about how Europe is committing suicide by not having children. It is written by one of the most important American Catholic writers of our time. Weigel's general argument is that, by rejecting the Church, Europe is destroying itself.
I am a great fan of Weigel's other books. His bio of John Paul II is a classic, which contributed a great deal to bringing me back to the Church. I also tend to agree with the thesis of this book. I think that Europe is going to hell, because of its aggressive secularism.
Nonetheless, this book was disappointing to me. The argument is lightweight. I agree with it, because I agreed with the thesis BEFORE I read the book. If I was a skeptic, though, he would not have persuaded me. He does not show the connections between the loss of religion and the ways that Europe is falling apart. He basically just reviews how Europe is falling apart, note that they have rejected God recently, and says, bingo. Not a very persusaive way to argue.
On this subject, Mark Steyn's book, America Alone, is far better. Steyn is much more of an unbalanced bomb-thrower than the carefully responsible Weigel, but, on this one at least, Steyen did his homework and thought his argument through better.
The US and Europe - common problems, common interests.......2006-11-24
The US-European dispute over Iraq masks more than it reveals
On September 12, 2001, the front-page headline of Le Monde famously read `Nous sommes tous americains'. Four years later, such sentiments sound either quaint or ironic, as the Atlantic Ocean seems to have widened considerably since. But did the often painful debate over the war in Iraq really result from the fact that Europe and America have fundamentally parted ways strategically, and even ideologically and culturally? More and more, a wide swath of Americans and Europeans would answer, yes. In many ways, the very publication of George Weigel's The Cube and the Cathedral is an indication of this. The volume is aimed a wide educated audience, and is representative of a new le divorce sub-genre of American non-fiction (most of which consists of worthless exercises in France-bashing).
A flashpoint of this debate has been the rather unfortunate terminology set down in Robert Kagan's Of Paradise and Power (2003): basically, 'Americans are from Mars, Europeans are from Venus'. Kagan argues that the 'power gap' between America and Europe arises as both a cause and consequence of an 'ideological gap.' Put simply, Europe believes that all the world's problems can be solved by a World Court, economic redistribution, and collective security organizations; America does not. This premise is accepted not only by American Republicans, but also by the blithest of Euro-philes (e.g., Mark Leonard, who argues for `the power of weakness').
George Weigel, an American Roman Catholic theologian and biographer of Pope John Paul II, seems to have been spurred to write The Cube and the Cathedral after most of Western Europe refused to support Operation Iraqi Freedom. But then, unlike his neoconservative colleagues (including Kagan), Weigel has a far more passionate attachment to the continent, and calls up much of his inspiration from western European and Slavic thinkers. Weigel criticizes contemporary Europe in an effort to inspire them - and America - to reconnect with what he most admires of their shared European past.
Weigel conceives his critique through the architectural metaphors of Paris' Notre Dame (1260-1345) and La Grande Arche de la Défense (1982-1989), a minimalist cube in the corporate district large enough to contain Notre Dame in its hollow inner-sanctum. Weigel first asks, who were the Frenchmen who built `the cathedral'? What constituted this culture whose central monument emphasized communal worship and the contrasts of stone and glass, support and lightness, unity and hierarchy? Weigel then looks across town, and asks, who are the Parisians who constructed the Grand Arch? What constitutes this culture which builds a 'monument to human rights' as a kind of über-corporate headquarters? (The Arch, by the way, was dedicated on the bicentennial of the French Revolution by François Mitterand.)
Weigel's more central question is, despite the Grand Arch's pretensions, `which culture would better protect human rights? Which culture would more firmly secure the moral foundations of democracy?' The question cuts right to the heart of the faith that it is only after tradition and religion have been abandoned that ethical societies can be forged and individuals inspired to flourish. Of course, Weigel's architectural metaphor is flawed within the context of the book. For what is `the cube' but a French attempt to outdo American corporate culture? Put another way, what is about, say, the architectural landscape of Huston, Texas, that leads it to be the stronghold of the 'faith-based' values - in typical Republican dumb-speak - which Weigel so admires?
This quibble aside, Weigel's critique is most piquant in his look at Europe's fundamental failure to create a vital culture on the most basic of levels, as expressed by, in the words of Niall Ferguson, the greatest `sustained reduction in European population since the Black Death'. As of 2004, no western European nation comes close to replacing its population: Germany's birth rate is 1.3 children per woman; Catholic Italy and Spain, 1.2 and 1.1 respectively; France's is slightly better by dint of its expanding immigrant population. This genocide is tragic in that it is both silent and entirely self-inflicted. It might be tempting to blame it all on feminism, self-absorbed consumerism, the welfare-state tax burden or careerism, but all of these explanations are insufficient. What one witnesses in post-war Europe is a culture that, for all of its undeniable achievements, simply does not believe in its future.
Writers like the American environmentalist, Bill McKibben, cogently argue that a reduction in population is beneficial in that less people offers the prospect of smaller communities with lightened ecological impact. But such arguments collapse in the face of the reality that not only do modern economies and social programmes rely on sustained populations, but that, in Weigel's words, `Demographic vacuums do not remain unfilled'. As of today, 20 million Muslims reside in Europe - most of them having arrived legally. The question must be asked, how European will Europe be when, for example, the majority of teenagers of the coming Dutch generation will be of Middle Eastern ancestry?
Many would dismiss this discussion as `racist', and claim that these new Europeans will become valued citizens (and there is no reason why this could not be the case). However, Muslim immigrants who entered Europe en masse in the second half of the twentieth-century have on the whole lacked inclination towards assimilation and espouse little in the way of loyalty towards their host nation. Weigel expresses appropriate alarm at these developments, but then, any kind of real definition of what modern European citizenship should be is seriously lacking, and deserves to be fleshed out here. As citizenship based solely on race is equally impossible and undesirable - would exclude Arabs who seriously want to become European -, it is all the more important for conservatives to base citizenship on allegiance to a nation. Such distinctions allow the Right to avoid the Scylla and Charybdis of, on the one hand, hateful racism and, on the other, the "citizens of the world" globalarchy expressed by free-marketers, liberals, and Europhiles alike.
In this line, Weigel is certainly justified in excoriating the EU-constitution writers who avoided even facing this problem. Leaving the door open for Turkish EU-membership, they instead indulged in a concept 'tolerance' which amounts to little more than indifference. Could the EU constitution, which does not acknowledge the continent's Christian heritage, truly `give an account of why Europeans should be tolerant and civil[?] Why not?' [my emphasis] The point is well made, but the obvious counter-example is the remarkably secular Declaration of Independence and United States Constitution, and, in the end, it is difficult to fully accept that a nation must avow Christian faith to act ethically.
Still, viewed within its proper context, Weigel's Catholic tinged notion of a kind of 'Christian Union' seems to reveal a crucial historical aspect of the EU overlooked in the current Euro-phile/Euro-skeptic debate. Whatever kinds of reconstructed Trotskyites support the EU now, one must not forget that the devout Catholics Konrad Adenauer and Robert Schumann were two of the most important in envisioning the project. It should thus be less surprising that Pope John Paul II actively supported Poland's membership in the EU. For them, a European union, on a very basic level, represented a new Christendom - certainly a Christendom in tune with secular modernity, but a Christendom nonetheless. The current state of the EU is all the more depressing in that such sentiments are now completely absent in the way that `Europe' is conceived by supporters and detractors alike.
Unfortunately, Weigel is less insightful in his discussions of twentieth-century European culture and current foreign affairs. In Weigel's analysis, Europe's catastrophes arose from a deep and lasting cultural breakdown at the gateway to the twentieth-century: `World War I, the Great War, was the product of a crisis of civilizational morality, a failure of moral reason in a culture that had given the world the very concept of moral reason'. The source of this crisis is, for Weigel, intellectual, and consists of the usual suspects: Comte's positivism, Feurbach's and Marx's messianic socialism, and Nietzsche's embrace of `the will to power'. The rest was inevitable.
This is not a particularly original argument and amounts to a gross oversimplification of late nineteenth-century thought, particularly in the case of Nietzsche. But even if one were to grant the point, Weigel's true problem is his complementary claim - sometimes explicit, sometimes implicit - that America has represented a moral alternative. Weigel certainly does not deny the influence of Nietzsche, Marx & co. in American life, but still wants to imagine that America has tread a different, more dignified path into modernity.
One could take issue with Weigel on a variety of fronts - for example, the appalling death of civility in America represented by Wal-mart, mega-churches, and uncentered suburban sprawl. But this is also a weak argument on the political level as well. It is certainly easy to bemoan Europe's fraction into extremist `-isms' in the first half of the twentieth-century. But it is more difficult - and thus all the more pertinent - to look critically at militant universalism in American foreign policy stretching across the entire century, what Claes G. Ryn (a Catholic political scientist more perceptive than Weigel) has called, "America the virtuous'. That is, if one is to argue that the First World War resulted from Europe's spiritual tragedy, then one must be equally skeptical of an American president, Woodrow Wilson, who claimed that Americas national interest lay in `a war to make the world safe for democracy'.
But Weigel reduces the Catholic tradition of `just war' theory to a moral obligation and license to save the world at gunpoint (although in op-eds, he uses the conservative-sounding language of `advancing the cause of world order'). But he fails both to reveal American interventionism's ethical foundations, as well as to offer any compelling reasons why Europeans should support the noble cause. In the end, Wilson's defeat of the German Empire ensured the sustainability of Bolshevism just as Bush's overthrow of Iraq has galvanized Islamic violence.
In turn, beyond shear policy failure, a proper understanding of America's 'just wars' overturns most of Weigel's oppositions. Today, President Bush's most fervent supporters are evangelical Christians, groups who claim to be not only the most conservative, religious, 'real' Americans, but hold that it is the military's duty to expand universal values abroad. America has her own form of decadence, but it is something that cannot be measured by church attendance as Weigel would like.
Weigel's book was published before the seismic shift in European politics following the `non'-vote in France and the Netherlands rejecting the E.U. constitution. Interestingly, the 'non-coalition', if it should be called that, included not only the nationalist Right but, perhaps to a greater extent, a faction of the socialist Left. In turn, in Germany, it is not just the Right-wing Junge Freiheit that warns of `the dictatorship of the Bureaucrats', but the social-democratic Der Spiegel. Furthermore, while the current state of the American two-party system offers no choice for the real Right, in Europe, this is increasingly not the case. And yet Weigel's deprecation of Europe and sanctification of American `conservatives' offers no space to consider these developments.
Despite these criticism, as a popular book that brings questions of philosophy and national character pressingly to the fore, The Cube and the Cathedral deserves to be read. Perhaps, most of all because, despite himself, Weigel leaves one with the impression that Europe and America fundamentally share the same problems and interests. Both of which are centered on the question of the very possibility of retaining communities, nations, spirituality, and dynamism in a world not only of mass immigration, but of consumerism, economic efficiency, universalism, and self-satisfaction.
A crucial case study in survival and triumph mentioned by Weigel is Poland. In the eighteenth- and nineteenth-centuries, Poland existed solely as a plot of land to be divided and traded between the great powers. The twentieth-century brought far worse horrors. Is it not then a miracle that Poland played as significant a role as any in bringing the Soviet Union to an end, and afterwards emerged unified as a nation and people? Weigel is right to find the source of the Poles' enduring strength in their culture. Even accounting for terrorism, Americans and Europeans face nothing even resembling the direct threat to survival experienced by the Poles. And yet, their shared culture is no less at stake.
EUROPE: ALL IS NOT LOST, YET.......2006-11-13
Anyone wanting a quick way to assets the general merits and intellectual muscle flexed in the book should glance at the chapter headed `Two Ideas of Freedom', contrasting the secular and sacred versions of Freedom with luminous brevity. However, the general easy-reading contemporary nature of the prose will be better gauged from the later chapter `The Cost of Boredom', which sums up why white post-Christian Europe cannot be bothered to procreate with sufficient vigour to stem its population decline, and our `postpolitical wilderness' of rule by faceless bureaucrats.
As an American theologian and the biographer of Pope John Paul II, George Weigel is well placed to speak with perspective on Europe's current problems. The main thrust of the book is a critique of atheistic secular humanism (ASH) and its many virus variants which have infected the Euro-Russian continent. The emphasis is on the 20th century, and picks up the root philosophical and cultural causes of World War I and II, and the rebellion of the `Les Soixante-Huitards' (1968 riots) with remarkably fluent and coherent reference to Western European history as far back as the High Middle Ages of Aquinas and Occam (1200-), and glancing reference much further back. The Cube is the intellectual symbol of the sterile closed-universe ASH viewpoint, the architectural colossus of 'La Grande Arche' of Paris, being an open cube of white marble and glass about 40 stories tall and 348 feet wide. The cathedral is the rather more famous church of Notre Dame, which despite its ancient complexities and beauty in spire and tower, would `fit comfortably inside the Grand Arch'. This current edition is dated 2005, and probably just missed the rioting and looting and epidemic of car-burnouts that afflicted France that year.
It is difficult to do anything like reviewing justice to this book at one reading, but one of the central themes is that `western Europe is committing a form of demographic suicide' (p.5), with a general greying of the population and coming universal pensions crisis due to a birthrate being less than the replacement rate. He might have added that Russia currently has an annual death-rate that exceeds the birthrate by 750,000, but his purpose does not extend to a proper vilification of communism. The root cause of our lack of reproductive enthusiasm is analysed to be spiritual nihilism, emptiness, and lack of purpose in life, having rejected the Christian roots of our historical culture. Its criticism of the purblind inability of the EU to see the problem, let alone grapple with it, will gladden the hearts of those who oppose this political con-trick that is the eurozone--despite the (to me) astonishing revelations he makes of the catholic Christians who were the architects of the whole scheme.
He is frequently at pains to trace the intellectual, cultural, and moral roots of western Europe (the eastern empire is sparingly but properly referenced, and not ignored as is so often the case). Recently the ruling EU elites totally refused to recognise the Christian heritage of Europe in the drafting of its 70,000 word constitutional treaty. Our roots apparently jumping from the classical civilisation of Greece and Rome to that of the humanist Enlightenment of Descartes and Kant (which merely extracted the parts it liked from Christian culture, and promptly forgot what it takes to develop and preserve them, which is a living faith in a Judaeo-Christian God.)
He invites us to contemplate a striking list of Christian scientists, artists, politicians, leaders, warriors, and philosophers--and asks us to imagine Europe [history itself, I would say. Just consider that we only discovered the gas oxygen about 225 years ago. We could not even begin to describe the chemistry of burning or human respiration before this], without their contribution. And this is a list which is so wide-ranging that it includes Milton, Mendel, Michaelangelo, Wesley and Wilberforce, while it omits Shakespeare, Isaac Newton, Handel, and dozens of others.
The other main theme is euro `Christophobia', which is detailed in many ways, from the persecutory attitude to the Catholic Professor Rocco Buttiglione in his proposed place in the EU government, to the universal demand for tolerance which includes rather madly includes rigid intolerance of any discussion of the Christian religion or its place in influencing civic society. Altogether, this adds up to the best analysis of secularism that I have ever read.
The statement of the very obvious that is the underlying theme of the themes, is that western European civilisation was built by the Catholic church. There is more balance and a gentler tone here in the treatment of the subject, but the author is generally in line with Thomas Woods book, `How the Catholic Church built Western Civilisation'. Which is well paired with this one, before or after making little difference.
The only weakness of this book is that it understates its case. It would be easy to adduce more evidence of outright damage and incoherence of ASH in our literature alone (Kafka, Samuel Beckett, Sartre, Nietzsche, Camus), and then as a whisky chaser consider the intellectual flight from science. Professor Robin Dunbar's `The Trouble with Science', published in 1995 traces the problem in Britain back at least twenty years. And is still seen in the rapid and ongoing rejection of chemistry and physics in the school system throughout, from GCSE at 16, to university graduate, a trend which is steadily shutting down departments in these subjects as I write. My second reading of this book starts right now, and I can also see how it would help one or two of my friends, with Christmas about to hove into view. Read them and pray.
Book Description
The Gothic cathedrals of the Middle Ages are among the world's supreme architectural achievements. Hundreds of these great churches were built throughout Europe in a rich variety of styles between c. 1130 and c. 1530, all of them representing an investment of money and effort so immense that it is difficult to find a modern parallel.
Christopher Wilson focuses here on the interaction between design and the requirements of patrons, following the creative processes of architects by reconstructing the problems and opportunities that they faced. He discusses chronology, structural techniques, and stylistic developments and then goes further, seeing the story as a sequence of choices from which new challenges and solutions arose. 221 illustrations.
Customer Reviews:
The Gothic Cathedral is comprehesive AND readable!.......2000-02-04
How I ended up being the first to review this book is beyond me. I would've guessed that many a learned architectural scholar would've long since sung the praises of this wonderful book. I, however, am just a layman with a lifelong passion for Gothic cathedral architecture, which started in the Washington National Cathedral and became educated, at least partiallly, in this book.
I consider Wilson's "The Gothic Cathedral", a 'must own' for anyone who has ever felt a yearning to know more about the soaring arches, brilliant glasswork, and impossibly high, vaulted ceilings of these magnificent medieval structures. This book, details the development of this unique form of architectural artistry; beginning with it's modest antecedents in Romanesque architecture and the groin-vaulted churches of Normandy and England and continuing through even the most elaborate and extravagant versions of late-Gothic throughout Europe. Mr. Wilson moves the reader, comfortably and comprehensibly through the chronological development of Gothic architecture, while neatly detailing the differences in coincidental development in several diverse geographic regions. Even I, with no formal architectural education, can now explain most of the finer points of Norman Romanesque, French High Gothic, and the Rayonnant styles of architecture, as well as explaining the odd metamorphisis of the English Decorated style into the very uniquely English, Perpendicular style.
The text is brilliantly cross-referenced with the illustrations, diagrams and photographs, which are both descriptive and beautiful, despite being all black and white. Finally, the glossary, index, and bibliography are complete and very helpful. If you think you MIGHT like this book... you will. Buy it.
Book Description
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 Enterprise helps 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 Enterprise considers the idea of 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 life during medieval times. The author describes the difficulties master-builders faced in scheduling construction that wouldn't be completed during their own lifetimes, how they managed without adequate numeric systems or paper on which to make detailed drawings, and how climate, natural disasters, wars, variations in the hours of daylight throughout the year, and the celebration of holy days affected the pace and timing of work. Scott also explains such things as the role of relics, the quarrying and transporting of stone, and the incessant conflict cathedral-building projects caused within their communities. Finally, by drawing comparisons between Gothic cathedrals and other monumental building projects, such as Stonehenge, Scott expands our understanding of the human impulses that shape our landscape.
Customer Reviews:
A real pleasure.......2006-09-01
Well written and wonderfully informed, this well designed book presents a comprehensive review of the appearance and use of the great cathedrals and abbey churches built across the middle ages in France and England. It also includes a wonderfully precise presentation of the social, economic, and political order of the time, and it discusses how the great buildings were built and what is known of their builders. Overall, it is the best general introduction I know of, easily accessible to non experts and a wonderful review for the better informed.
Outstanding book.......2006-01-30
The people who reviewed this book before me did a great job of describing this wonderful book, so I'm not going to repeat their observations. However, one aspect of the work I personally appreciated was the way Scott examined the cathedrals as architectural responses to the cultural context. His analysis is clear and straightforward. Excellent book!
Grand undertaking.......2005-09-24
Author Robert Scott had much the same the experience at Salisbury Cathedral as I had - a sense of awe and wonder, and a desire to learn more about it, not just as a place, or as an architectural wonder, or as a place of worship, or as a cultural icon. Scott wanted to get at the heart of the idea of the Gothic enterprise as a whole - a trained sociologist, Scott knew that the bigger picture is sometimes lost by too narrow a focus on particular details to the exclusion of others. The sociology background also gave Scott a sense of wanting to understand the hearts and minds of the people involved.
While the principal focus of Scott's travels started with Salisbury Cathedral (in full, the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Salisbury), Scott draws examples from the breadth of the Gothic cathedrals, churches and other buildings. There are literally thousands of such dotted across the European and European-influenced landscapes. Each building has its own unique characteristics, but they share a common spirit.
Church building in particular was 'big business' in Christendom for a long time. Scott quotes estimates of that there are nearly 19,000 ecclesiastical buildings in England and Wales, nearly half of which date to the medieval period. The first Gothic church was the Abbey Church of St. Denis, just north of Paris, built under the direction of the 'founding father' of Gothic style, Abbot Suger.
Scott's first major section looks at how cathedrals were built, in terms of materials, architectural design, settings, and workforce. With regard to the workforce, the numbers were large and the division of labour highly specialised. In the records of the construction of Westminster Abbey, there were fifteen different categories of workers listed in 1253. Workers were often local, but supplemented by those who traveled, particularly if special skills were needed. Construction was often suspended in winter months, not just because of the cold, but because the number of daylight hours greatly diminished (in England, there can be fewer than 8 hours of daylight in the winter months).
Scott's second major section explores the history involved. The Gothic enterprise grew up out of the feudal system as it was trying to define itself in a sea of shifting political structures. It is no mistake that the Gothic ideal was born in an Abbey rather than a Cathedral; bishops had become increasingly involved in secular and political matters, while the monasteries remained closer to the common people and closer to the spiritual ideals of the church. 'Monasticism was a continuous effort to surmount sense perception and intellectual understanding to achieve knowledge of God, to experience communion with God, and by so doing to reveal the divine mystery and achieve special favour in the eyes of God.' Still, the particular abbey of Gothic's foundation, the Abbey of St. Denis, had a particular attachment to the French monarchs, and for a time the Abbey enjoyed a supreme reputation, 'from 1124 onward the Abbey Church of St. Denis became the religious and, in an important sense, the political capital of France.' From this place, the influence of Gothic style spread through the Paris region, then outward into France and beyond.
In the third section, Scott highlights some of the classic details of what the Gothic look entails. There is a geometric symmetry involved, which, 'when followed consistently, gives Gothic cathedrals their characteristic organic unity.' There is a logic and harmony built into the design. High vaulted ceilings, flying buttresses, pointed arches are other features. However, the key element in Gothic design is light, and it is in aid of this aspect that the other elements are enlisted. Gothic cathedrals in comparison with the dimly lit Romanesque predecessors are flooded with light. Be it clear or stained glass, the incorporation of windows and lighting techniques hitherto not done makes the Gothic space a brighter surrounding. Heaven would be a place of light, and the Gothic cathedral is intended as a foretaste of the heavenly banquet.
The fourth section explores the religious experience in Gothic structures, and how liturgies and worship are carried out, how they serve as temples of the imagination in addition to being the centre of worship, and how they become a repository of history. Part of this history was the incorporation of the memory and power of the dead into the fabric of the cathedrals - many became pilgrimage sites or burial sites; royal and other notable society figures also became part of the structures of cathedrals and churches. According to Scott, the cathedrals provided the saints with a focal point of veneration, and the saints in return provided a steady income (from the pilgrims) for the buildings to be completed.
The final section looks at the community that surrounded the Gothic enterprise, be they parish churches, abbey churches or cathedrals. Scott explores the living standards of the time, the stratification and specialisation of people in the different roles in society, and the questions not only of how the communities built the churches, but how the churches and cathedrals in turn built the communities. 'We might ...imagine that the long time required to build Gothic cathedrals added to the depth of the collective identity they engendered.' Indeed, in some regards, the building of a cathedral was never supposed to be completed. Spanning generations (sometimes, as in the case of Canterbury Cathedral, nearly 400 years) such enterprises defined the community in ways that no building project in modern times could approach.
Scott ends with a small essay regarding Stonehenge, not too far from Salisbury Cathedral, showing some similarities and differences in the way people built and found identity then.
Scott quotes Samuel Johnson as declaring Salisbury Cathedral 'the last perfection in architecture'; however, it is clear that there is much perfection to go around when it comes to all things Gothic. Scott's passion for the material and love of discovery is apparent on every page. A good writer, he serves as teacher, tour guide, and co-discoverer of ideas with the reader. This is a wonderful book.
A New Perspective on Gothic Cathedrals.......2004-01-15
I would highly recommend Robert A. Scott's new book, The Gothic Enterprise. Although many books have been published on the topic of Gothic Cathedrals, Scott has approached his subject with a new perspective. He asks the reader to think as much about the "why" of cathedral building as the "how." The reader will still find lots of information about the practical aspects of cathedral building, most helpfully enhanced by a discussion of the social, political, economic, and even climatological factors that complicated such long and challenging construction projects. But above and beyond this, Scott is interested in the people who conceived, designed, and built these great churches. What motivated them? How did hundreds of people with varying and often conflicting interests work collectively over long periods of time? What did an individual or a community expect in return for their contribution to such a bold undertaking?
Scott answers these questions and more. In turn he challenges the reader to see the cathedral in a new light, not only as an example of great architecture, but as tangible evidence of the commitment, creativity, hope, and faith of the people who, against great odds, undertook such a bold and difficult enterprise.
Having visited dozens of cathedrals, I think Scott is right on target. A cathedral is more than an amalgamation of stone, timber, and glass. If we look closely, we can still see traces of the contributors: in a mason's mark, the carved face of an 800 year-old effigy, a bishop's ring, or an irreverent carving high in the rooftops. It is the collective presence of these long-dead individuals, as much as the grandeur of the architecture that makes a cathedral so memorable, so tangibly the result of a collective human enterprise.
Scott's book is beautifully packaged with many photos and charming illustrations. It would be a handy guide for a traveler visiting cathedrals or a great read for an armchair traveler. I suspect the reader of The Gothic Enterprise will never see a cathedral in quite the same way again.
Great for both new and experienced enthusiasts.......2004-01-07
This book is both a wondrous introduction to Gothic Cathedrals for those who are newly curious about them and a concise but thorough resource for those who have long admired and read about the Gothic Cathedral. The author often takes a personal approach in his narrative, which seems quite appropriate given the personal impression these buildings were designed to make (and have made on most who will read this book). The book is both well-researched and easy to read, a difficult achievement. Its description of the elements of Gothic architecture, for example, is one of the most complete and clear treatments I have read.
The broad perspective taken (historical, intellectual, religious, architectural, sociological) helps bring together into one coherent whole the many different faces of the cathedral. Even those who may know the historical and intellectual origins of the cathedral will learn much about its other aspects here. For example, some of the details on construction techniques and parts of the discussion of "sacred spaces" within the cathedral were new even to someone who has read many books on the subject.
Medieval intellectual history and its relationship to the cathedrals is explored, and the coexistence of the potentially conflicting reason and faith in a single building is explained. Some discussion of how the cathedrals and their attached schools gave rise to the medieval (and hence the modern) university would have been helpful.
Overall, though, the book provides an excellent introduction to the topic and a comprehensive explanation of the "why" and "how" of Gothic Cathedrals (in addition to the more mundane, but still important, "who", "when", and "where").
Before this book, one would have to read many volumes to get such a complete picture of the Gothic Cathedral. This book is appropriate for anyone with an interest in the subject. It is the book that I'm sure many Gothic Cathedral enthusiasts wish they had written.
Book Description
Recognizing that a work of art is the product of a particular time and place as much as it is the creation of an individual, Duby provides a sweeping survey of the changing mentalities of the Middle Ages as reflected in the art and architecture of the period.
"If Age of the Cathedrals has a fault, it is that Professor Duby knows too much, has too many new ideas and takes such a delight in setting them out. . . insights whiz to and fro like meteorites."—John Russell, New York Times Book Review
Customer Reviews:
The Terror and the Beauty.......2005-04-02
Now, don't get me wrong, this book is a very serious scholarly work packed with facts and dates, notes and references. However, according to the author -renowned French historian and member of the Académie Française Georges Duby, who died in 1996- History should be considered, and worked as, a literary genre. And hence his care with vocabulary and narration, his pains to characterize the frame of mind of those who populated the age he was a specialist in: the European Middle Ages. This book is maybe his most significant contribution to understanding the artistic heritage of those years, and he certainly succeeds with it in making us grasp some of the feelings and visions of the world that are behind some of the most striking monuments ever made by men: the gothic cathedrals.
Duby's aim is, as usual, to explain through carefully crafted narration how the society that erected such awe-inspiring monuments behaved and tried to understand itself; how cathedrals are a product of it, and also which were the powers that guided that society. But although some representatives of those powers (church and monarchy) may have been wholly convinced that Cathedrals where ultimately monuments to their glory, Duby shows us throughout the pages of this wonderful book how the architects and the workers, the masons, the servants, the monks, but also the priests and nobles, artists and scholars, contributed with their work and their blood, to make cathedrals maybe the most astounding homage to the power of Life, with its terror and its beauty.
Terror is what you will find at the very beginning of the book(in the year 1000 approx.): the terror of living in the wild forested land that then was Western Europe, trying to scratch a living out of the unyielding land, trying to survive and understand the scourge of terrible plagues or murderous invasions that decimated the few and scattered settlings. The amazing pungency of this beginning totally catches us (who probably expected an arid compilation of dates and battles) unawares and takes us from the basest level of medieval society (especially that of France) up through different layers to the powers that governed lives and souls and who decided where and when one of these fabulous temples should be erected.
Even if you are not a catholic or Christian, even if you are an atheist, when you walk into one of these striking temples you can't help but notice -at ground level, near your feet- how there are numerous tombs of kings, priests, powerful people, that will make you think about the unavoidable mystery and darkness of death; how higher up there are paintings and works of art depicting good and evil, the fights and the fears, the knowledge and redemption to be sought and found throughout life; and when you raise your eyes to the stained-glass windows and the soaring spires....the wonder and the bliss, the whole power of Life.
So, if you are considering a visit to one of these greatest of human works of art, the gothic cathedrals of Western Europe, this is the book to read, or even take with you. But even if this is not the case, I recommend you to read it. You will see a whole society creating, with their work and effort, with their minds and hearts, with their very blood, one of the greatest, best homages to Life: to the sheer awe and terror of it, and the sheer wonder and beauty of it.
(In memory of Bob Zeidler. To the friend I would have liked to have, who died on April 2 2005)
Book Description
Sheds new light on the identity of the alchemist Fulcanelli
• Provides new understanding of the relationships between the most important figures of the esoteric milieu of Paris in the first half of the 20th century
• Includes a wealth of rarely seen documents, photos, and letters
Fulcanelli, operative alchemist and author of
The Mystery of the Cathedrals and
The Dwellings of the Philosophers--two of the most important esoteric works of the twentieth century--remains himself a mystery. The true identity of the man who allegedly succeeded in creating the philosopher’s stone has never been discovered, despite ardent searches by many--even the OSS (the wartime U.S. intelligence agency, later to become the CIA) claimed to have looked for him following the end of World War II. Geneviève Dubois looks at the esoteric milieu of Paris at the turn of the century, a time that witnessed a great revival of the alchemical tradition, and investigates some of its salient personalities. Could one of these have been this enigmatic man, reported to have last appeared in Seville, Spain, in 1952 when he would have been 113 years of age?
The trail followed by the author encounters such figures as Papus, René Guénon, Schwaller de Lubicz, Pierre Dujols, Eugene Canseliet, and Jean-Julien Champagne. Working from rare documents, letters, and photos, Dubois suggests that one of these men could have been hiding his activity behind the pseudonym of Fulcanelli or that Fulcanelli may even have been a composite fabricated by several of these individuals working together. Beyond its attempt to reveal the actual identity of Fulcanelli,
Fulcanelli and the Alchemical Revival also presents an explanation of the alchemical doctrine and reveals the unsuspected relationships among the important twentieth-century truth seekers it highlights.
Customer Reviews:
Much ado about nothing.......2006-07-10
After having read both 'Le mystere des cathedrales' and 'The dwellings of philosophers' (which, by the way, do NOT seem to be written by the same person), I simply cannot understand why so many people are interested in the 'true' identity of their supposed author. On the other hand, this is one of the instances when I understand perfectly the Traditionalist (like in Rene Guenon) contempt for biography. The only thing that truly matters here is whether Fulcanelli's ideas work or not. So far I have not read a reasonable discussion of this; instead, we get more and more books dealing with the utterly insignificant minutiae of the life in the occult circles in France around WW1.
I feel like paraphrasing the old Zen adage - if you meet Fulcanelli on the road, kill him!
Coming back to Mlle Dubois' book: it certainly brings to light many previously unpublished documents and obscure facts. However, their arrangement is rather haphazard, the commentary minimal and the translation of all this into English simply not very good; at times it reads almost like one of those jobs done by an online free translation engine. But it still deserves three stars, if only for a stubborn research.
The Fulcanelli Mystery continues..........2006-06-10
Anticipating this book & finally reading it was a bit anticlimactic in that the promise did not quite meet my expectations. What I found in this book is a good overview of French alchemical occultism since the end of the 19th century through the mid-20th. A sound companion to Christopher McIntosh's "Eliphas Levi & the French Occult Revival". But as to throwing additional light onto identifying who was Fulcanelli- the usual suspects remain unchallenged. The translation appears a bit forced and choppy, and required me to go back and reread certain sections to see if I had missed something. Like Herman Hesse novels, the allure and promise of mystical insight is promised but never quite delivers.
Fascinating Study with Strong Evidence.......2006-06-07
Who was this enigmatic being, Fulcanelli, a twentieth century alchemist who allegedly discovered the secrets of immortality, or at very least a special elixir that extended his life long beyond life expectancy? His true identity is the subject of this book.
Fulcanelli is accredited with authoring two books, Le Mystère des Cathédreles (1926) and The Dwellings of the Philosophers in 1930. The former title by far is considered a masterpiece in modern alchemy, examining the sculptures in French gothic cathedrals, primarily Notre Dame of Paris, and linking them to the processes of alchemy, suggesting that these churches were used as but intended as learning centers for the ancient sciences. A curious "lost" chapter, The Cyclic Cross at Hendaye, is added to the 1957 edition of this book, a chapter which redirects Fulcanelli's work in an entirely different corner of the universe, a ten page examination of a stone cross near a parrish church in the center of a small town in the Basque country. The examination of the symbols on this cross, according to the author of this chapter, point to a prediction of the end of the world. This chapter has spawned an entire impulse based on Fulcanelli's book, that is very different than the rest of the book, and this topic (that chapter) is not the focus of this book, though the author does have some interesting remarks about it in a later chapter in her book. And being that it was added over thirty years after the original edition of this book, it is questionable whether it was even penned by the same hand that wrote the rest of the book. Le Mystère des Cathédreles is definitely about alchemy, not the end of the world.
This book will introduce the reader to the thriving Parisian occult activity between the periods of about 1910 and 1930. Major personalities are named and relationships established. Interest in the occult was acute during this period, and Paris was the center of a bustling community of artists, writers, poets, and others with an intense interest in this subject matter.
Dubois book presents quite a bit of compelling information suggesting exactly who was behind the Fulcanelli phenomena. She introduces the key players and presents how certain individuals were quite capable of producing this ground-breaking revival of the alchemical tradition. The clues Dubois are strong (and abundant) and the conclusion logical. The book is lavishly illustrated with portraits, fragments of handwriting samples, notes, obituaries, and even the natal charts of two of the key players (with brief analysis for both) in this drama.
Geneviève Dubois has written other text on themes Alchemical and has extensively studied this period of occult history. This book is a welcomed addition to the mystery of who Fulcanelli might (probably) was plus an excellent historical survey of the thriving occult community in Paris up to around 1930.
Regrettable Misconception.......2006-04-15
If we use the word "misconception", it is quite on purpose, for that word refers to "getting it wrong", which on the whole is not dishonourable. Nevertheless, within this particular misconception is also the deep and scarcely veiled contempt in which the author holds Fulcanellian alchemy. The authors listed above had undoubtedly shown respect for Fulcanelli and had considered him an Adept of hermetic philosophy, which he masterfully discussed in both of his published books. However, Genevi?ve Dubois not only appears to hold contempt for Fulcanellian alchemy, but for Fulcanelli himself, who is also disparaged, run down and betrayed in such a manner that her book would have been more appropriately entitled, "Fulcanelli d?voy? " rather than "Fulcanelli d?voil? "!
"L'Affaire Fulcanelli" , another work by said author, is a fallacious and partial book full of glaring errors of logic, transcription and date. It is, as far as I know, a book that few noticed (with the exception of Jean Laplace), and one which ridicules and describes a hoax cunningly orchestrated by the duplicity of two document looters - Pierre Dujols and Ren? Schwaller - and the ingenious ideas of Eug?ne Canseliet and his mentor Julien Champagne, in the manner of a novel by Flaubert: the "Bouvard and P?cuchet " of the Belle Epoque. However, under the pretence of making amends, Genevi?ve Dubois wished to make it clear at the end of the perfidious book that she thinks that young Canseliet had been the sport of Champagne, who thoroughly manipulated him.
Jean Laplace, therefore, justly expressed his indignation in the diatribe he published in La Tourbe des Philosophes , N?s 36-37:
[...] I was still very na?ve to think that those "questers" had only in mind to put a name on a pseudonym; I realized after some time that some of them were only trying, under the cover of that so-called "quest", to destroy the hated image of Eug?ne Canseliet, whom they so detested. [...].
The malevolence and intentional prejudice warned against by Eug?ne Canseliet, again produced a heap of nauseous nonsense entitled Fulcanelli d?voil?. Still, in his Alchimie expliqu?e, and on that same page 12, the philosopher foresaw that four centuries would not elapse, as in the case of Flamel, before his own life would be meticulously sifted through without any benevolence by yet another Villain.
[...] The new accusatory document that appeared in November 1992 (Fulcanelli d?voil?) goes even farther, insinuating that there never was an Adept Fulcanelli, since all of that had been a hoax of which Eug?ne Canseliet was the victim, unless he was a stakeholder in it. The hatred for Eug?ne Canseliet that emanates from that distasteful book is all the more easily released as the only one able to give answers has been dead for about ten years now. Still, when one realizes that the author is not even able to correctly read the original copy of the philosopher's published letter - so enormous are the mistakes - one is allowed to seriously doubt her insight.
Not content with all that, Genevi?ve Dubois, who was at that time directing a line of alchemical writings for publisher Dervy, decided in 1995 to publish an odd book under the name of "Jean-Fran?ois Gibert" entitled Propos sur la Chrysop?e, avec en annexe le Manuscrit de Pierre Dujols-Fulcanelli traitant de la pratique alchimique , in which the author expresses, without beating around the bush, her negative intentions (p. 21):
Newton's case study now being almost completed, we will now talk about the case of Fulcanelli, one which is close to a hoax and represents the final form of pseudo-alchemical materialism, a blind alley in the hermetic labyrinth. To prove our statements we are going to present a still unheard of manuscript from Dujols-Fulcanelli on the Chrysopea. This will enable students of the philosophical art to get their own ideas on the Great Work considered in the manner of Le Myst?re des Cath?drales, written from the notes left by Dujols and Champagne, by the scholarly blower, the late Eug?ne Canseliet.
What an edifying document, indeed, is this text which, while correctly reflecting Pierre Dujols' style, is at the perfect opposite of the alchemical path followed and recommended by Fulcanelli.
The alchemist Fulcanelli was the most famous adept of the 20th century, the man who achieved the Great Work less than 100 years ago, but his true identity has always been shrouded in myth and uninformed speculation...until now.
Patrick Rivi?re reveals with profuse documentary evidence the true identity of the enigmatic and prestigious author of The Mystery of the Cathedrals and The Dwellings of the Philosophers. Beginning with an overview of French alchemical life at the turn of the 20th century, Rivi?re carefully builds his case step-by-step with facts, documents, and photographs, introducing us to the well-known physicist who was known as Fulcanelli. Rivi?re also demolishes the scurrilous hypotheses that suggest Fulcanelli never existed. Rivi?re is uniquely suited to solving this mystery as his teacher was Fulcanelli's sole student, Eug?ne Canseliet. (ISBN 1-897244-21-5 Red Pill Press)
Designed to destroy Fulcanelli.......2006-01-20
Do you ever read a book and feel like you need a long, hot shower when you're done? That is how I felt after finishing the original French version of this book. Dubois tries to make the case that Fulcanelli didn't really exist, that he was a "committee". The point of such an argument is to destroy the reality of the adept and give the credit for his work to Schwaller. Dubois takes great pleasure in the character assassinations of Jean-Julien Champagne and Eugène Canseliet.
Moreover the book is poorly written and goes off on tangents that have nothing to do with her "argument".
If you can read French, you will learn much more about the man known as Fulcanelli reading Patrick Rivière's book Fulcanelli in the Qui suis-je? series published by Pardès.
Amazon.com
The Sun in the Church by J.L. Heilbron is a provocative work of scholarship that challenges long-held views of the relationship between science and Christianity. Heilbron's main point is simple enough: "The Roman Catholic Church gave more financial and social support to the study of astronomy for over six centuries, from the recovery of ancient learning during the late Middle Ages into the Enlightenment, than any other, and, probably, all other, institutions." Despite the persecution of Galileo, Heilbron notes, the Church actively supported mathematical and astronomical research--often designing cathedrals that could also function as observatories--in order to set the precise date of Easter (a crucial endeavor for maintaining the unity of the Church). Heilbron's fluid, engaging style brings his detailed reconstructions of 16th- and 17th-century Church politics to life. And his argument that scientific knowledge was deemed both morally neutral and politically useful during the Reformation and beyond yields an unusually interesting, complex, and human understanding of Catholicism in the early Modern period. --Michael Joseph Gross
Book Description
Between 1650 and 1750, four Catholic churches were the best solar observatories in the world. Built to fix an unquestionable date for Easter, they also housed instruments that threw light on the disputed geometry of the solar system, and so, within sight of the altar, subverted Church doctrine about the order of the universe.
A tale of politically canny astronomers and cardinals with a taste for mathematics, The Sun in the Church tells how these observatories came to be, how they worked, and what they accomplished. It describes Galileo's political overreaching, his subsequent trial for heresy, and his slow and steady rehabilitation in the eyes of the Catholic Church. And it offers an enlightening perspective on astronomy, Church history, and religious architecture, as well as an analysis of measurements testing the limits of attainable accuracy, undertaken with rudimentary means and extraordinary zeal. Above all, the book illuminates the niches protected and financed by the Catholic Church in which science and mathematics thrived.
Superbly written, The Sun in the Church provides a magnificent corrective to long-standing oversimplified accounts of the hostility between science and religion.
Customer Reviews:
The Sun in the Church.......2006-03-08
It's a beautiful book; it's astronomy and history all together.Very well written.
havent read it yet but.........2005-03-29
hate to nitpick but looking at the index, it looks like they used the name bianchi where the modern and accepted name is bianchini
(see http://web.romascuola.net/itaer/vaula/geografia/Meridiana/OrigMer.htm )
3 stars for the effort for now.
The Dawning of the Age of Aquarius............2002-05-20
One does not need a mathematical background to follow the narrative of J.L.Heilbron's THE SUN IN THE CATHEDRAL but a knowledge of high school geometry will probaly help. Dr. Heilbron was aware of the "geometrically challenged" reader when he developed his book and has written the text for the lay person. Heilbron received the Watson Davis Prize for Public Understanding of Science for his work DILEMMAS OF AN UPRIGHT MAN. The average reader without a fear of math should be able to follow the ABCs in the text and link them to the ABCs in the diagrams. It took me several weeks to read the text, not because it is so difficult, but because it is filled with information and I had to take breaks to absorb what I had read.
THE SUN IN THE CATHEDRAL is nothing less than the story of how the Christian Church parented modern science and technology. Although the ignorant will persist in accusing the Church of being a roadblock, the truth is that the impetus and sustenance of scientific exploration in the West came from the church, and although one might call it an unholy alliance, Christian ideology and Science have moved in lockstep ever since. Heilbron predicts that eventually Gallileo, who was sponsored by the Church, will be cannonized a saint.
Why does this happen? Dr. Rock who invented the modern birth control pill was Roman Catholic. He developed the pill to help RC women control their fertility in a manner acceptable to the Church that had to do with the timing of the release of the ova. His method was not accepted by the Church, but nevertheless the use of Rock's pill has led to falling birth rates in the U.S. and other Catholic countries (U.S. is 40 percent RC) and a subsequent decline in the poverty rates. (Economic development is important, but per capita household income is affected by fertility levels.) Maybe he will become a saint someday.
How did the Church become interested in the study of time? The means of communication were slow in the early days of the Church and this slowness led to a requirement for advance knowledge of the moveable feast dates which the Church passed on to its far-flung parishes. The problem of determining when these dates would occur lay with determining when Easter would occur. The moveable feasts of the Church year fall in accordance with Easter (i.e. Chistmas is a fixed date, Pentacost is a moveable feast that follows Easter by 40 days, Good Friday and Lent preceed Easter by a fixed numer of days. Easter is calculated relative to the Spring Equinox which is the point at which the day and the night (solar) are exactly equal.)
To address the problem of measuring the Spring Equinox, the church employed bright young men (like Gallileo) and gave them the resources they needed including church facilities. THE SUN IN THE CHURCH is their story and the story of those who followed them who were sponsored by the Reformed Church and Royalty of both RC and Reformed persuasion.
The book suggests that even as one problem was solved, yet another arose (you need the geometric diagrams to understand the intricacies of these problems as well as their solutions). First there was the problem of finding a structure large enough to create a BIG sundial, since sundials were useful for figuring out the length of the day. This led to the use of cathedrals and other very large public buildings where even today a numer of gnomen (little windows that admit sunlight) and meridians (sun dial like stuctures inside the building) can still be found. Inside these cathedrals, pillars and other obstacles had to be overcome and how this was done is ingenious.
Obstacles to the precision of measurment led to discussions about the height of the terrain where a building was situated, the thickness of the earth under the building (some sank), the shape of the earth (affected the location of the center or apex of the triangle of measurement), the distance of the moon from the earth and the sun, etc., etc.
Most importantly, a discussion ensued about whether or not the world was heliocentric. If you start from a false premise such as the sun revolves around the earth, no matter how carefully you conduct your calculations the results will be wrong. The issue of heliocentricity proved a big stumbling block. In the end, the records of the scientists who said the earth moved about the sun were preserved (else Heilbron couldn't have written his book) but for a long time the Church held that the sun revolved around the earth, and anyone who said differently was speaking heretically. Some really funny compromises occurred, probably because intelligent church men knew they were not necessarily correct (some of the scientists were Jesuits or former clergy). And, at one point England and Italy were on two different calendars because the English refused to accept anything Rome devised, even if it was CORRECT!!.
The study of time led naturally to the study of space and both led to global explorations. The Jesuits (grey friars) traveled the globe and impressed their new converts with the science (magic) of the West. The Domincans came to the New World with the Conquistadors and recorded the science and magic of the inhabitants.
Protestants continued the tradition of exploration which led to the discovery of longitude. Seems the earth is not the same diameter every where. A team measuring the diameter of the earth in Peru was attacked by local Indians who thought the Europeans with sticks were lunatics or socerers. Ditto the Appenines in Italy. "Who would think Italian countymen could behave like savages" remarked one scientist. Geodetic surveys and even the GPS system in use today are descended from this research.
THE SUN IN THE CATHEDRAL is a fabulous book, and one every one who wants to gain a better understanding of the world around us should read. This book cancels the mistaken notion that the church tried to block science. This book is about how science and ideology interacted and framed the world we live in with "Western" ideas. And, as Heilbron points out, even in our so-called advanced state of knowledge censorship is alive and well. "All of which will be unpleasantly familiar to observers of the operation of political correctness in contemporary universities." Reason and science are threatened today by a much more insidious enemy.
Astronomy and the Church.......2002-01-01
J.L. Heilbron's The Sun in the Church: Cathedrals as Solar Observatories is a beautifully illustrated, finely written exposition of how the Roman Church used sacred space to perform astronomy. The most sacred day in the Church calendar is Easter, established as the Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. As it turns out, this was an astoundingly difficult day to calculate, especially years in advance. As a result, in the Middle Ages the celebration of Easter "drifted" from the true date; the Church found itself commemorating Christ's resurrection on the "wrong" Sunday, a matter of grave concern. To solve this problem, astronomers determined that large buildings - most ideally churches themselves - could be made into solar observatories with a light opening at the apex and a meridian line placed on the floor. By this device, Church-supported scientists could observe the sun's precise position and movement with reference to the meridian line, and thereby make needed Easter (and other) calculations.
I confess that I am mathematically challenged, and much of this book is devoted to fairly detailed geometric and trigonometric proofs. I had no choice but to "bleep" over these sections. Heilbron's prose and argument are clear, entertaining, and persuasive, and I felt I lost none of his key points by needing to skip the proofs. Everything about Church history and astronomy in the Church - except a chapter about the unfortunate treatment of Galileo - was entirely new to me, and I was absolutely enthralled. For those who have read Dava Sobel's Galileo's Daughter, this is a useful second perspective on the Church and astronomy.
I wish there were more books like this!.......2000-07-21
I'm a professor of mathematics, but I'm also a "closet historian". This book is a great work of scholarship both in terms of history and mathematics. It's true that if you don't know much about spherical astronomy, you may get a bit of shell-shock, but why don't you pick up Kaler: "The Ever-changing Sky" or Evans: "The History and Practice of Ancient Astronomy" to learn the basic. The you can go back to Heilbron's book to appreciate it fully. Believe me, it's worth the effort!
PS. One of my students has written a mathematical supplement to this book. It's available on my home page. (Amazon won't let me give you the URL in the review, but just do a quick searh on the web or look at the "äbout me section".) So far it only covers the first few chapters, but we hope to be able to expand on it later. I hope some of you may find it useful.
Average customer rating:
- Splendid book
- If you are looking for the definitive guide to European Cathedrals, this is THE book
- A Spectacular Survey
- great Book and reference.
- This is my favorite photography book!
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Great Cathedrals
Bernhard Sch?tz
Manufacturer: Harry N. Abrams
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0810932970 |
Customer Reviews:
Splendid book.......2007-01-10
Awesome and great selection. Text provides enough information about the buildings. One of my favourite books.
If you are looking for the definitive guide to European Cathedrals, this is THE book.......2006-11-28
This book has been around for at least 3 decades; I'm 43 and remember looking over an earlier edition with awe and reverence in the town library when I was a teenager.
The current edition has some nice updates, including added coverage of the great eastern European cathedrals, such as St. Vitus in Prague. The photography is splendid, and gives a feel of the look and scale of each building, as well as for the smaller details like sculpture and stained glass that makes each great cathedral a triumph of Western civilization.
If you are looking for a book that covers the major cathedrals of Europe in a thorough, satisfying way via photographs and a text providing the history of each building, a discussion of its style, and so forth, search no more. This is EASILY the best book out there that provides what you want.
A Spectacular Survey.......2006-07-09
Magnificent photography, both general views and close-ups of architectural details and stained glass. The book covers France, Germany, England, Spain and Italy. UIt contains a useful glossary of architectural terms and floor-plans of each cathedral. The "Crazy Vaults" of Lincoln Cathedral are not to be missed! I wanted this book to study cathedral design in general, and it more than met my expectations.
great Book and reference........2006-06-04
You will never find a better book on this type of archetecture
This is my favorite photography book!.......2006-03-29
This is my all time favorite photography book! My husband is active duty military and we have been able to live overseas for the last 6 years so each weekend, I travel from one cathedral or castle to the next. This book is full of some of the best cathedral photography I've come across. And the price on this website is great...I spent $100 for mine at a Barnes and Noble store.
--Vicki Landes, author of "Europe For The Senses - A Photographic Journal"
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