Description

The Royal Archaeological Institute [Reprinted from the Archaeological Journal, Volume 131, for 1974]. Pamphlet, paper covers (staple bound), with pages numbered 200- 214 and with pull out Appendix showing an illustration of The Wells tracing floor. In good+ condition. Red paper covers with black lettering on front have light bumping and fading to edges and light overall scuffing. Binding tight. Pages clean and unmarked. NOT Ex-Library. NO remainder marks. [From Introduction] The present article has a twofold purpose: to reconsider some aspects of the pair of classic papers on Wells Cathedral by Dean Armitage Robinson and Dr John Bilson, printed in the Archaeological Journal for 1928 ; and to add the results of more recent investigation into the subsequent history of the cathedral. There is no need to stress that the original design of Wells Cathedral is a cardinal monument of Gothic style. Even if slightly later than the new choir of Canterbury designed in 1175 by the French architect William of Sens, Wells shows us a completely different version of Gothic, devoid of the old Corinthianesque character of Canterbury and markedly English in what has been called the South-Western manner. We must remind ourselves that, apart from Wells, the first two buildings which can be described as pure Gothic — that is, devoid of major features surviving from Romanesque practice — and whose dates are approximately known, are the cathedrals of Bourges in France and Lincoln in England, both designed in or about 1190-2. On any hypothesis. Wells was designed earlier than that, and the dating of this vital work had exercised antiquaries long before Armitage Robinson and Bilson undertook their studies. Between 1914 and 1928 they carried out a thorough, fresh survey of the documents and the fabric. Their conclusions, although parallel, were separate and discrepant, but the discrepancy was apparently slight. The documents positively indicate that building had started by 1186 at the latest, while typological comparisons of style suggested design in 1190 or later still; on this supposition work could hardly have begun before 1191.