The after-Life of Vitruvius in the Middle Ages

Abstract

CLUNY III has been the subject of two articles in the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians. In the first of these (vol. II, no. 3, July 1942, pp. 3-5) its distinguished place in the general history of architecture was defined, and in the second (vol. xvI, no. 3, October 1957, pp. 3-II) certain results of the excavations were presented. In the course of a twenty-year study of the abundant dimensions established in the excavations, it became increasingly clear that the engineering and architectural work on the church was technically of a high order. One critic of my work, who did not see the data, says (Speculum, vol. xxxvI, no. 3, July 1961, p. 472) that this building was achieved by masons, not architects in our sense of the word... precise measurements ... would have amazed the mediaeval mason. This is the conventional opinion, but it is simply not applicable to a great building of the very first category like Cluny III. In our vast ensemble of calculations we recognized a typical (and inevitable) margin of error of I 12 to 3 inches approximately, with a maximum of 4 inches. Present-day builders, using modern apparatus, are accustomed to deal with discrepancies up to 2 inches. The settingout of Cluny III, as we know from the remarkable plan at I:Ioo made by Frederic Palmer, was unusually precise for a mediaeval building. The men responsible for Cluny III were certainly not masons. Two of them are known from contemporary texts as architects, members of the cultivated elite who are known, from another contemporary text, to have been drawn from far and wide to the Cluny of Abbot Hugh. The Abbot had special ecclesiastical faculties which permitted him to receive them from other institutions. One of the architects, Gunzo, had been abbot of the important monastery of Baume in the Franche Comte, and doubtless possessed administrative gifts. He is reported as a psalmista praecipuus and supposably knew Vitruvius, who has a musical section (Lib. v, cap. Iv). The other architect, Hezelo, was a former canon of Liege who became a monk of Cluny multo tempore before his death in 1123. Liege, near the old Imperial center of Aix-la-Chapelle, had a renowned school in the early Middle Ages. Hezelo, who came of a good family, was widely known and respected, both personally and academically. He is reported as singulari scientia etpraedicabili lingua and as a mathematician. Hildebert, bishop of Le Mans (a notable contemporary figure) calls him clarissimus.'