Architecture as cosmology: Lincoln Cathedral and English gothic architecture

Abstract

An examination and explanation of the unprecedented and influential architecture of Lincoln Cathedral. Considers precedents at Durham and Canterbury, interpretations of the architecture by historians, and the influence of the architecture throughout the development of English Gothic architecture. Focuses in particular on the writings of Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln 1235-53. The geometries of the architecture can be seen in relation to the geometries of Grosseteste's cosmologies. Keywords: architecture, cosmology, Lincoln Cathedral, Lincoln Academy, English Gothic Architecture, Robert Grosseteste (Commentary on the Physics, Commentary on the Posterior Analytics, Computus Correctorius, Computus Minor, De Artibus Liberalibus, De Calore Solis, De Colore, De Generatione Sonorum, De Generatione Stellarum, De Impressionibus Elementorum, De Iride, De Libero Arbitrio, De Lineis, De Luce, De Motu Corporali at Luce, De Motu Supercaelestium, De Natura Locorum, De Sphaera, Ecclesia Sancta, Epistolae, Hexaemeron), medieval, University of Lincoln, Early English, Decorated, Curvilinear, Perpendicular, Catholic, Durham Cathedral, Canterbury Cathedral, Anselm of Canterbury, Gervase of Canterbury, Thomas Becket, Becket’s Crown, Trinity Chapel, Scholasticism, William of Sens, William the Englishman, Geoffrey de Noyers, Saint Hugh of Avalon, Saint Hugh’s Choir, Bishop’s Eye, Dean’s Eye, Nikolaus Pevsner (Buildings of England, Cathedrals of England, Leaves of Southwell, An Outline of European Architecture), Paul Frankl (Gothic Architecture), Oxford University, Franciscan School, Plato (Republic, Timaeus), Aristotle (De anima, De Caelo, Metaphysics, Physics, Posterior Analytics), Plotinus (Enneads), Wells Cathedral, Ely Cathedral, Hereford Cathedral, Lichfield Cathedral, Winchester Cathedral, Beverley Minster, Chester Cathedral, York Minster, Worcester Cathedral, Salisbury Cathedral, Southwell Minster, Gloucester Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, Elias of Dereham, Nicholas of Ely, Reginald Ely, St. Mary Redcliffe, Norwich Cathedral, Bristol Cathedral, Exeter Cathedral, Tewkesbury Abbey, Ottery St. Mary, lierne, tierceron, William Joy, Thomas Witney, John Ramsey, William Ramsey, Alan of Walsingham, William Hurley, Thomas of Cambridge, Thomas of Canterbury, fan vault, pendant vault, Henry Yevele, Robert Hulle, William Orchard, Oxford Divinity School, Oxford Christ Church, Windsor Castle (St. George’s Chapel), Cambridge King’s College Chapel, Peterborough Cathedral, Bath Abbey, William Vertue, Robert Vertue, Adam Vertue, William the Conqueror, Remigius, St. Mary Undercroft, St. Stephen’s Chapel, Abbot Suger, Abbey Church of St. Denis, Leon Battista Alberti (De re aedificatoria), Albertus Magnus, Alexander of Aphrodisias (De anima), Alexander the Mason, Abu Nasr Alfarabi (De intellectu), Alhazen (Opticae), Alkindi (De aspectibus), Amiens Cathedral, Thomas Aquinas (Summa Theologica), Saint Augustine (De Civitate Dei, De Musica, De Trinitate), Averroes (Long Commentary on the De anima), Avicebron (Fons Vitae), Avicenna (De anima, De Caelo, Liber Naturalis, Metaphysica), Roger Bacon, Bartholomew the Englishman, Benedictine, Boethius (Arithmetic, De Consolatione Philosophiae), Byzantine, Cambridge University, Alistair Cameron Crombie, Nicolas Cusanus (De circuli quadratura, De coniecturis, De docta ignorantia), Duns Scotus, Euclid (Catoptrics, Elements of Geometry), Marsilio Ficino (De amore), Franciscan, John Harvey (English Medieval Architects, The Medieval Architect, The Perpendicular Style), Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (Introductory Lectures on Aesthetics), Henry of Avranches (Metrical Life of Saint Hugh), Hugh of Wells, Humanism, Robert Hulle, James of Venice, Robert Janyns, Henry Janyns, Liber de Causis, London, Michael of Canterbury, Neoplatonism, Folke Nordström, Norman, Norman Conquest, Notre Dame, Noyon Cathedral, Old St. Paul’s, Erwin Panofsky (Gothic Architecture and Scholasticism), Paris, Matthew Paris, John Peckham (Perspectiva Communis), Plantagenet, Proclus (Commentary on the First Book of Euclid’s Elements, Elements of Theology), Pseudo-Dionysius (Celestial Hierarchy, Divine Names, Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, Mystical Theology), Pythagoras, Reims Cathedral, Renaissance, Thomas Rickman (Attempt to Discriminate the Style of Architecture in England), Robert of Beverley, Romanesque, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling (The Philosophy of Art), Sir George Gilbert Scott, Gottfried Semper (The Four Elements of Architecture, Style in the Technical and Tectonic Arts), Edmund Sharpe (Seven Periods of English Architecture), Sir Robert Smirke, William Smyth, Richard William Southern, John Sponlee, George Edmund Street, Themistius (Paraphrase of the De anima), Theology of Aristotle, Edmund Venables, Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (Entretiens sur l’architecture), Vitruvius (De architectura), John Wastell, John Welbourne, Westminster Palace, William of Wykeham, Erasmus Witelo (Perspectiva), Christopher Wren, William Wynfor