has followed the history of the Gothic style in France right through to the last stages of the Flam-
boyant, he is expected, in a second group of chapters, to make a mental jump back to the earliest
period, this time in England, and so on with each succeeding country. The Gothic style is a
European phenomenon, and must be understood in its full breadth. An attempt to make a simul-
taneous survey of all the buildings erected at the same time leads to an advance by short steps in
time over the entire field. This does not mean that national differences need be levelled out; on
the contrary, in this way they may perhaps be more clearly visible.

In such an attempt it is natural that the emphasis should fall on those countries which proved
themselves creative within the development of the Gothic style. There will be complaints of
neglect from champions of various regions, but there are already enough monographs dealing with
these. The present book cannot cover the entire field. I hope that, though it cannot offer multa,
it may offer multum. The reason why the Gothic style in England is so briefly treated is that a
separate volume is devoted to it within the Pelican History of Art. ³

Fourthly, I have avoided threading together a series of monographs. In their own right, these
make useful preliminary studies for a comprehensive history. In shortened form, in guide books,
they are welcome to the traveller who requires a survey of the entire history of a building on the
spot. But they are out of place in a history of style. The historian does not move in space: his
aim is to move along the passage of time.

One of the tasks which particularly preoccupy the historian of art is to demonstrate the depen-
dence of works of art on those that went before, and the influence of different regions or schools on
one another. This approach to the problem is important and is a specifically historical one. What
it must avoid, however, is giving the negative impression that there is nothing new under the
sun. It has been rightly stressed that there is no such thing as passive influence; for those who
are influenced always accept only what is in harmony with their nature, and out of it create some-
thing new. In this book the emphasis is laid on the ability to draw from the old a creative stimulus
for the new. There are few periods in the history of art in which the logical sequence of the suc-
cessive steps is so patent and so convincing. In this case, therefore, the historian can legitimately
adopt a forward-looking position.

The central thread of this book is the logical process by which the changes from the Roman-
esque to the Gothic style, and those within the Gothic style until its fulfilment in the Late Gothic
phase, developed from one basic principle. But this central thread acquires substance and value
only when it is the core round which a rope is wound. By this I mean that it must be shown in
conjunction with the creative wealth of the spirit of the Middle Ages.

The nature of the reader's response to the wonders of the Gothic style will depend entirely on
his own aesthetic susceptibility. Whether he happens to love the Gothic style as a whole, to hate
it, or to be indifferent to it; whether he happens to prefer one building, one national variation in
style, or one phase, to another; all this is his own personal affair, as it is also in the case of the
author. Historians often believe that they must educate their readers, and so they leaven their
work with their own highly personal judgements. It betrays a lack of understanding on the part of
an eminent historian when he cannot refrain from making disparaging remarks about flying
buttresses, or from expressing a preference for churches designed on the basilican principle (i.e.

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