God’s Own Language

Architectural Drawing in the Twelfth Century

Karl Kinsella

$100

Hardback

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English

MIT Press
18 July 2023

Architecture

How modern architectural language was invented to communicate with the divine-challenging a common narrative of European architectural history.

How modern architectural language was invented to communicate with the divine-challenging a common narrative of European architectural history.

The architectural drawing might seem to be a quintessentially modern form, and indeed many histories of the genre begin in the early modern period with Italian Renaissance architects such as Alberti. Yet the Middle Ages also had a remarkably sophisticated way of drawing and writing about architecture. God's Own Language takes us to twelfth-century Paris, where a Scottish monk named Richard of Saint Victor, along with his mentor Hugh, developed an innovative visual and textual architectural language. In the process, he devised techniques and terms that we still use today, from sectional elevations to the word ""plan.""

Surprisingly, however, Richard's detailed drawings appeared not in an architectural treatise but in a widely circulated set of biblical commentaries. Seeing architecture as a way of communicating with the divine, Richard drew plans and elevations for such biblical constructions as Noah's ark and the temple envisioned by the prophet Ezekiel. Interpreting Richard and Hugh's drawings and writings within the context of the thriving theological and intellectual cultures of medieval Paris, Karl Kinsella argues that the popularity of these works suggests that, centuries before the Renaissance, there was a large circle of readers with a highly developed understanding of geometry and the visual language of architecture.

By: Karl Kinsella
Imprint: MIT Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 241mm, Width: 159mm,
Weight: 567g
ISBN: 9780262047746
ISBN 10: 0262047748
Pages: 240
Publication Date: 18 July 2023
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

1 Noah's Ark in Twelfth-Century Paris 1 2 Richard and the Abbey of Saint Victor 31 3 The First Plans 45 4 The Gatehouse 69 5 The Slope of Ezekiel's Mountain and the Language of Architecture 107 6 The Temple Precinct 139 7 The Map of the Promised Land and Jewish Exegesis 167 Afterword 183 Acknowledgments 189 Manuscripts 191 Notes 193 Bibliography 211 Index 225

Karl Kinsella is a lecturer in art history at the University of Aberdeen, having previously held positions at the universities of York and Oxford. A specialist in medieval architectural history and manuscripts, he received the Hawksmoor Essay Medal in 2013 for his work on architectural drawing.

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God’s Own Language

Architectural Drawing in the Twelfth Century

Karl Kinsella

$100

Hardback

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