The conservation project and archaeological excavation of the old Parish Church at Siggiewi - an intermediate report

Until December 2007 the old parish church of Siggiewi, dating back to the late medieval period, and occupying a central location within the village core, had been in a neglected and dilapidated state for a very long time, so much so that the remaining ruins were almost totally covered with debris and thick vegetation (Plates 2; 9A; 9D; colour plate 2A; Fig. 4 and colour plate 3). While passing by the walled up and highly degraded site, the inhabitants of Siggiewi barely knew that beneath the soil and vegetation were the remains of their first parish church and the cemetery where most of their ancestors had been buried.peer-reviewe

Celestial Vaults in English Gothic Architecture

Many of the vaults in English Gothic cathedrals and churches are catechisms of cosmologies and celestial vaults. The tierceron and lierne ribs at Lincoln Cathedral, for example, and later lierne and net vaults at Bristol Cathedral and St. Mary Redcliffe, for example, display the geometries that can be found in medieval cosmologies such as the De Luce and De Lineis, Angulis et Figuris of Robert Grosseteste in the thirteenth century. The vaults can be read as intelligible structures of matter and the heavenly bodies. The vaulting of the nave of Lincoln Cathedral between 1235 and 1245, during the bishopric of Grosseteste, introduces basic vocabulary elements continued in later vaulting, and can be seen as a catechism of Grosseteste’s cosmologies. The lierne vault of the choir of Bristol Cathedral, built between 1300 and 1330, has a structural organic quality. The nave vault, completed to its medieval design in the nineteenth century, is a Lincoln-style tierceron vault. The transept vaulting, from between 1460 and 1480, presents an intelligible geometrical structure intended as a cosmology. The vault of the North Porch of St. Mary Redcliffe, from 1325, has a crystalline organic form. The Curvilinear vaulting in the transepts, from the early fourteenth century, presents a cosmology of Euclidean geometries. The nave vault, from between 1337 and 1342, suggests organic topographical lines and vectors of forces in nature and heavenly bodies, simulating the celestial vault. The choir vault, from around 1450, revives the Euclidean geometries of classical cosmologies, in particular the Timaeus of Plato

Photographic disasters

The word neither diffident nor ostentatious ... The common word exact without vulgarity, The formal word precise but not pedantic. (Eliot 221

A Renaissance Instrument to Support Nonprofits: The Sale of Private Chapels in Florentine Churches

Catholic churches in Renaissance Florence supported themselves overwhelmingly from the contributions of wealthy citizens. The sale of private chapels within churches to individuals was a significant source of church funds, and facilitated a church construction boom. Chapel sales offered three benefits to churches: prices were usually far above cost; donor/purchasers purchased masses and other tie-in services; and they added to the magnificence of the church because donors were required to decorate chapels expensively. Donors purchased chapels for two primary reasons: to facilitate services for themselves and their families, such as masses and church burials, that would speed their departure from Purgatory; and to gain status in the community. Chapels were private property within churches, but were only occasionally used directly by their owners. The expense of chapels and their decorations made them an ideal signal for wealth, particularly since sumptuary laws limited most displays of wealth. To overcome the contributions free-rider problem, these churches sold private benefits not readily available elsewhere, namely status and salvation.

Architecture of Jesuit Churches in the Former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, 1564–1773

The article presents the history and accomplishments of Jesuit architecture in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from the late sixteenth to the late eighteenth century. The author sees Jesuit architecture as a distinct and homogeneous element within Polish architecture. The paper starts with a brief presentation of the existing research in the subject. It moves on to enumerate the activities of the Society in the field of construction, divided into three major booms: the first roughly between 1575 and 1650, the second between 1670 and 1700, and the third from 1740 to 1770, divided by periods of relative decline caused by a succession of devastating wars. The paper identifies the most important architects involved in the construction of Jesuit churches, as well as their most notable works. The paper ends with a brief note concerning the fate of the Jesuit churches after the suppression of the Society and the partitions of Poland