The purpose of the rib in the Romanesque vaults of Durham Cathedral

Thurlby, Malcolm

doi:10.1680/eac.16842.0005

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…Interestingly enough some protagonists in this debate, in addition to admitting no significant degree of agreement in solving the problem, also concede that in any case a solution would have little to do with, or say about, medieval church building. 8 This particular issue, indeed in many respects rather a trivial one, brings our theme to a crucial point. It is the necessity to fully and properly distinguish between two entirely different pursuits.…”

Section: Structural Behaviourmentioning

confidence: 97%

Cathedral studies: insight or hindsight?

Smith¹

2005

Interdisciplinary Science Reviews

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Thus far, certainly in English, most engineering history has been based on the lives of engineers or the chronologies of particular enterprises, with the two often woven together. Much of this work, as conventional biography or narrative history, has been well done, in many cases is a good read, and frequently is valuable as a basis for further study. But its preoccupation with who, when and where too often leaves unaddressed questions of how and why. Attempting to understand the intellectual and creative components of engineering's history, especially its early history for which written records are rare or nonexistent, is exceptionally difficult. In this short survey the possibilities of retrospective analysis are discussed, and some of the potential pitfalls are identified by considering the particular case of cathedral building. Over the last twenty or thirty years cathedral studies have generated more publications in the field of retrospective analysis, in this case structural analysis, than possibly any other. Whether or not very much has been learned about the history of the engineering of cathedrals, however, is a good question, and is part of what follows.

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Section: Structural Behaviourmentioning

confidence: 97%

Cathedral studies: insight or hindsight?

Smith¹

2005

Interdisciplinary Science Reviews

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“…31.On the Durham vaults, see Bilson 1922; Bony 1954; Thurlby 1993a, 1993b and 1994; Fernie 2000, 131–40, and 2007. On English Romanesque vaults in general, see Hoey and Thurlby 2004.…”

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confidence: 99%

The Abbey Church of Lessay (Manche) and Romanesque Architecture in North-East England

Thurlby¹

2014

Antiq. J.

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The date of the Romanesque fabric of the abbey church of Lessay (Manche, France) has been much debated by architectural historians. Was the eastern arm of the church completed by the time of the burial of Eudes de Capel in the choir on 3 August 1098? Or do features such as the high rib vault and scalloped capitals preclude a date in the late eleventh century? This paper argues that the choir was completed by 1098, and that the master mason of Lessay was acquainted with architectural developments in north-east England in the 1080s and early 1090s, especially those at York Minster, St Mary's Abbey, York, and allied churches.

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“…112. 17 On the Durham vaults, see Bilson 1922;Fernie 1993, 152-5;1993c; Representative of the perceptions of English architecture after Durham is Kidson 1979, 52; 'Although the vaults of Durham are its most celebrated feature, it is rather disconcerting to find that their immediate influence on English architecture was well nigh negligible. This is all the more surprising because the theme of ribbed vaulting was at once taken up seriously in Normandy, and transmitted from there to the adjacent parts of France; but in England, apart from an isolated case, such as the vaulting of the nave of Lincoln in the 1140s, it was not until well into the second half of the twelfth century that it became at all common.'…”

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confidence: 99%