Cities and Cathedrals, Essay Example

Medieval Cathedral

From 1050 A.D. to 1350 A.D. France built 80 Cathedrals 500 churches and over tens of thousands of parish churches. By 1400 there was 1 church for every Christian child. Weber notes that the growth of the church was driven by competitiveness. The larger the church, the more affluent it meant a town or city was and this was also measured by the architecture of the master masons that constructed these great gothic cathedrals.  Weber notes that how these cathedrals rose during the middle ages was not as important as where they were built. In 1163, Notradame of Paris had 103 feet, and then finally in 1225 Bovie 157 feet high.

Romanesque and Gothic Architecture

Romanesque style, involved mostly monastic structures. Romanesque buildings were large and dark with long towers, central aisles and barrel vaults. and round arches. They seemed so solid and formidable, people often called them “fortresses of God.” (Sherman & Salisbury, 246).”“Architects and builders set about making this vision a reality, and to do so, they adopted innovative techniques that came to be called the Gothicstyle. Instead of round arches, they used pointed ones, as shown in Figure 8.3b. Some scholars believe the use of the pointed arch originated in India and found its way through the trade networks to France (Sherman & Salisbury, 246).”“With these innovations, the walls no longer needed to be thick to provide the support for the church. Builders could therefore add large windows that let light ?ll the interior. Glassmakers gathered in nearby forests to burn the hard-wood needed to blow glass, and they added metallic oxides to make rich primary colors (Sherman & Salisbury, 246).”

The exclusion of women from universities in the 13^th century put young men in a position to become successful nobles and get lucrative jobs, but women were deprived of this luxury and made to be dependent on men (Sherman & Salisbury, 247). If women wanted to have professions they had to work illegally. In the case of Jacoba Felicie, a Jewish woman in Paris who was practicing as a physician without a university license, it was found that she was extremely skilled at practicing medicine.  She eventually was arrested for practicing without a license, and then the charges were withdrawn due to many testifying that she was very skilled, but she was forced to quit the profession. The work of Roger Bacon  resulted in his inventing of the eye glasses during this period (Sherman & Salisbury, 253).