Setting Out the Keystones of Pointed Arches: A Note on Medieval "Baugeometrie"
1969; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 10; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/3101574
ISSN1097-3729
Autores Tópico(s)Historical Geography and Cartography
ResumoBecause of the valuable insights which it provides into the techniques of medieval architects, sculptors, and builders, the Sketchbook of Villard de Honnecourt, French master mason of the 13th century, has attracted a great deal of scholarly attention since it was first published in the 19th century. Yet there remain many unsolved problems in this book, and among the most puzzling of these are the pages devoted to stereotomy. For instance, several generations of scholars have exercised their ingenuity in trying to explain the diagrams for setting out keystones of thirdand fifth-point arches which were inserted into Villard's Sketchbook later in the 13th century by an anonymous person now commonly referred to as Magister 21 (see pl. 1). Recently Robert Branner of Columbia University made a determined effort to solve the puzzles by proposing two bold hypotheses: (1) that the chief clue for an explanation of the diagrams is to be found in the unannotated Archimedes' adjacent to the fifth-point keystone, and (2) that the explanation using this spiral requires a revision of the traditional definitions of thirdand fifth-point arches.2 Details of Branner's proposed solution were criticized by Colonel Leonard Cox, who, however, accepted the two main hypotheses of Branner's argument.3 Branner's article, Cox's criticisms, and Branner's reply certainly clarified
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