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The Cathedral Builders
Recounts the construction of the great European cathedrals during the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries, discusses the rise of craftsmen's guilds, and explains why the religious building boom ended
176 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1958
About the author
Jean Gimpel
16 books14 followersJean Gimpel was a man of great physical and intellectual energy, with a big heart and strong sense of justice. A profound and very practical interest in technology, and especially that of the Middle Ages, was the thread that ran through his working life. It yielded two classic studies, The Cathedral Builders (1958) and The Medieval Machine: the Industrial Revolution of the Middle Ages (1976), underpinned two further books, The Cult of Art: against art and artists (1968) and The End of the Future (1995), and helped make him an effective saboteur in the French Resistance. For his services during the Second World War he was awarded the Croix de Guerre, the Medaille de Resistance and the Legion d'Honneur.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
June 29, 2016
Great book! Wonderful use of primary sources, sparse as they are, to explain the expertise, faith and technological innovation needed to build the great cathedrals. Didn't hurt that I had just seen some of them. Recommend to anyone interested in the social history of the 11th to13th centuries.
October 1, 2024
This slim book is a something of a classic in medieval history and architecture, and – as with too many classics – is better to have read than to read. I became interested in reading it after enjoying Ken Follett's "Pillars of the Earth," and learning that Follett had relied on this book as a source and on its author, Jean Gimpel, as a consultant. I should also acknowledge that my father produced this volume, the first English translation of Gimpel's book, in 1961, while he was a graduate student in art history. With two good reasons to be excited, I was, in fact, rather disappointed. This a dense book, notwithstanding its scant 184 pages, quite a few of them being taken up in whole or in part with more than 70 illustrations, not always of good quality. It is difficult to read, though whether that's the fault of the translation or of the original French, I can't say (but I note that another translation, by the novelist Teresa Waugh, was published in 1983). There is no index. What’s with that?
If you hope, as I did, to find descriptions of the techniques actually used to construct these magnificent buildings – how was the stone quarried? how was it transported to the building site? how did architects draw the precise shapes into which the stone was to be cut? how did masons translate those drawings into three-dimensional blocks; and how did builders hoist those massive blocks a hundred feet into the air (and keep them there)? – you will be disappointed. (One significant exception is a lengthy discussion of the geometry in laying out a cloister – but here Gimpel is illustrating a larger point and the relatively straightforward math is rendered opaque.)
What you will find, for the most part, is a very high-level survey of the religious, economic, and political circumstances that developed in the 11th century, spawned this amazing building spree, and then fizzled out in the 14th century. In this regard, I am reminded of A.J.P. Taylor's "From Sarajevo to Potsdam," which does a better job describing the zeitgeist of the interwar years than it does explaining it.
Since Gimpel is exploring a period between 800 and 1,000 years ago, with relatively few surviving records, little is (or, in 1961, was) known about specific architects and builders – with a couple of notable exceptions. Interestingly, one of those exceptions is Villard de Honnecourt. Although Villard's one surviving portfolio is well known to historians, almost nothing is known of Villard himself. Gimpel refers to him as a "true cathedral builder," and the book affords him considerable space. But more recent scholars (including the translator of the edition I read), have posited that it is more likely that Villard was an enthusiastic traveler who was fascinated with architecture (as well as machinery and exotic animals) and who simply drew sketches of what he saw. That viewpoint is not shared universally, but it is a good reminder that even preeminent historians have their biases, and so I think it would be wise to read this book for its themes rather than for specific historical details. Better yet, skip it and read "Pillars of the Earth."
If you hope, as I did, to find descriptions of the techniques actually used to construct these magnificent buildings – how was the stone quarried? how was it transported to the building site? how did architects draw the precise shapes into which the stone was to be cut? how did masons translate those drawings into three-dimensional blocks; and how did builders hoist those massive blocks a hundred feet into the air (and keep them there)? – you will be disappointed. (One significant exception is a lengthy discussion of the geometry in laying out a cloister – but here Gimpel is illustrating a larger point and the relatively straightforward math is rendered opaque.)
What you will find, for the most part, is a very high-level survey of the religious, economic, and political circumstances that developed in the 11th century, spawned this amazing building spree, and then fizzled out in the 14th century. In this regard, I am reminded of A.J.P. Taylor's "From Sarajevo to Potsdam," which does a better job describing the zeitgeist of the interwar years than it does explaining it.
Since Gimpel is exploring a period between 800 and 1,000 years ago, with relatively few surviving records, little is (or, in 1961, was) known about specific architects and builders – with a couple of notable exceptions. Interestingly, one of those exceptions is Villard de Honnecourt. Although Villard's one surviving portfolio is well known to historians, almost nothing is known of Villard himself. Gimpel refers to him as a "true cathedral builder," and the book affords him considerable space. But more recent scholars (including the translator of the edition I read), have posited that it is more likely that Villard was an enthusiastic traveler who was fascinated with architecture (as well as machinery and exotic animals) and who simply drew sketches of what he saw. That viewpoint is not shared universally, but it is a good reminder that even preeminent historians have their biases, and so I think it would be wise to read this book for its themes rather than for specific historical details. Better yet, skip it and read "Pillars of the Earth."
January 1, 2019
This was an interesting book even though a bit dry.
Some tidbits:
--More stone was quarried in France during three centuries (1050-1350)
than in ancient Egypt during its whole history. And the great pyramid alone has a
volume of 40,500,000 cubic feet.
--Some of the cathedrals were embedded as deep as 30 feet.
--The medieval quarryman had to teach himself how to reckon bed or vein heights
and compute their worth. No antique tradition had survived to teach him the qualities
and faults of stone.
--Arabs assimilated mathematical knowledge, developed chemistry and algebra and
for all intents and purposes invented trigonometry.
--1145 marks the date of the appearance of algebra into Europe.
Some tidbits:
--More stone was quarried in France during three centuries (1050-1350)
than in ancient Egypt during its whole history. And the great pyramid alone has a
volume of 40,500,000 cubic feet.
--Some of the cathedrals were embedded as deep as 30 feet.
--The medieval quarryman had to teach himself how to reckon bed or vein heights
and compute their worth. No antique tradition had survived to teach him the qualities
and faults of stone.
--Arabs assimilated mathematical knowledge, developed chemistry and algebra and
for all intents and purposes invented trigonometry.
--1145 marks the date of the appearance of algebra into Europe.
March 28, 2019
I really need to start reading titles more carefully. I thought this was going to be about the process of building cathedrals, but it is (as the title says) about the various laborers involved in building them. Interesting as far as that goes, but it is more academic than most histories I read.
February 13, 2022
An excellent overview of the 12th and 13th century revolution in European cathedral building.
September 29, 2025
While this book denotes the “Builders” of cathedrals, it more specifically encompasses the political and religious turmoil of the time in which the “cathedral crusade” took place, from the eleventh to the end of the thirteenth century. As a student studying architectural history, I found this absolutely fascinating. Some reviews are correct in admitting that questions of the logistics of cathedral builders are not addressed in this book. That would have been interesting: I wonder what the challenges were in hoisting large stones into the air for the building of some of earth’s most epic cathedrals like those of Beauvais and Cologne. I think what this book does well is explain the impetus behind the massive undertaking of a cathedral, in a time with a surplus of religious motivation and devotion and a concurrent insufficiency in advanced technologies or standards.
Standards, however, are discussed in this book, as rudimentary as they were at the time. This to me was one of the most thought-provoking and imaginative aspects of the book. Through the luckily preserved sketchbook of Villard de Honnecourt—which by the way I read happily due to this book’s frequent referencing and subsequent praising—the thoughts, observations, and contemporary construction techniques of a 13th century carpenter and geometry/nature enthusiast are explained. In Honnecourt’s drawings he explains simple geometric tricks to be employed to best calculate difficult measurements, or to plan entire architectural masses. To me, the most fascinating point on this topic was how measurements and dimensions were not the standards of the time as they are today in modern construction. Rather, for sake of efficiency and due to the lack of universal measurement, ratios were made standard. That is to say, for example, that the ratio of a cloister’s inner perimeter to its outer is 1:2, and the creation of this geometry (a square of a given area surrounded by a square of double area) is explained in this book among other geometrically related takeaways. I think what’s fascinating about these moments is that it places me in the observational standpoint of a medieval architect: limiting my mind to the tools of my eyesight, and narrowing my artistic range to the technical inaccuracies of the contemporary religious artworks of the time. At a time with such limitation, however, it seems that their spark and drive for progress is really what catapulted them so far in their ability to build high.
Through the religious complications of the time, cathedrals were built higher and higher, and this book explains the social and cultural circumstances of these architecturally significant structures very well. I recommend it to anyone interested in architecture or religious history, but be wary of this book’s rather dense nature, despite its actual page length of about ~110 (163 with images and all else).
Standards, however, are discussed in this book, as rudimentary as they were at the time. This to me was one of the most thought-provoking and imaginative aspects of the book. Through the luckily preserved sketchbook of Villard de Honnecourt—which by the way I read happily due to this book’s frequent referencing and subsequent praising—the thoughts, observations, and contemporary construction techniques of a 13th century carpenter and geometry/nature enthusiast are explained. In Honnecourt’s drawings he explains simple geometric tricks to be employed to best calculate difficult measurements, or to plan entire architectural masses. To me, the most fascinating point on this topic was how measurements and dimensions were not the standards of the time as they are today in modern construction. Rather, for sake of efficiency and due to the lack of universal measurement, ratios were made standard. That is to say, for example, that the ratio of a cloister’s inner perimeter to its outer is 1:2, and the creation of this geometry (a square of a given area surrounded by a square of double area) is explained in this book among other geometrically related takeaways. I think what’s fascinating about these moments is that it places me in the observational standpoint of a medieval architect: limiting my mind to the tools of my eyesight, and narrowing my artistic range to the technical inaccuracies of the contemporary religious artworks of the time. At a time with such limitation, however, it seems that their spark and drive for progress is really what catapulted them so far in their ability to build high.
Through the religious complications of the time, cathedrals were built higher and higher, and this book explains the social and cultural circumstances of these architecturally significant structures very well. I recommend it to anyone interested in architecture or religious history, but be wary of this book’s rather dense nature, despite its actual page length of about ~110 (163 with images and all else).
July 19, 2019
more about the construction people than the architects, though some about them too. Not what I was looking for, which is not the author's fault.
July 8, 2013
I can't with this book. First he talks about the United States of America for pages upon pages, then he just says things that are wrong (there's no difference between Romanesque and Gothic cathedrals my ass), and the book itself is badly put together. They don't differentiate quotes from the rest of the paragraphs, no quotation marks, no italics, no indentation. What an unpleasant read.
August 28, 2011
This book was an inspiration for Ken Follett's novel, Pillars of the Earth. I find this little book a lot more interesting than the other architectural treatises on cathedrals I have read in the past.
August 2, 2011
Interesting, but a little tedious.
September 3, 2015
fascinating
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews