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The great Gothic cathedrals of Europe are among the grandest achievements of Western culture. Evoking feelings of awe and humility, they compel us to attempt to understand what inspired the people who had the audacity to build them. This engrossing book surveys an era that has fired the historical ...

The great Gothic cathedrals of Europe are among the grandest achievements of Western culture. Evoking feelings of awe and humility, they compel us to attempt 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. Robert A. Scott explores why medieval people built Gothic cathedrals, how they built them, what conception of the divine lay behind their creation, and the social and political uses made of cathedrals by religious and secular leaders. 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 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. 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 negotiated the absence of usable numeric systems and the lack of paper on which to make detailed drawings, and how climate, natural disasters, wars, variations in hours of daylight throughout the year, and the celebration of holy days impacted the pace and timing of work. Scott also explains such things as the role of relics in the cathedral, quarries and the 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 throughout history, Scott expands our understanding of the human impulses that shape our landscape.