The Cambridge Guide to the Architecture of Christianity has taken over a decade to be completed. The result is a monumental work in two hefty volumes that traces the development of religious architecture from its very beginnings until the modern day. The volume comprises 103 essays, written by 60 different scholars, all specialists in their fields who have, in many cases, already published monograph-length publications on the topic they are treating summarily in this guide. Together they compose a nuanced and multi-faceted work of 1,056 pages, including a glossary and indices by name and place, that will no doubt be a standard reference for many years to come. The texts are supported by 592 black-and-white print illustrations and 70 color plates. Another 856 ‘Web Figures’, signaled in the text, can be found on the Cambridge University Press website, though sadly only as two very large and rather clunky pdf-files that moreover are password protected.[1]
Conceived and steered by Richard A. Etlin as general editor, the guide is divided into four large parts, each managed by an associate editor who is a specialist in their area. Ann Marie Yasin commissioned and edited contributions on Early Christian and Byzantine architecture, Steven Murrey on Medieval architecture, John Beldon Scott on Renaissance and Baroque architecture, and Patrick J. Quinn on Modern architecture. Each essay brings together an array of source material and is intended to provide an overview of the state of the field, making the contributions useful for scholars and students of all levels but also understandable for non-specialist readers, at least in most cases. Each essay is referenced, allowing aspects raised and arguments made to be traced in more detail. In addition, six bibliographic entries per essay provide easy access to further reading on each topic. What follows is a whistle-stop tour of contributions mainly to Parts I, Early Christian and Byzantine Architecture and, to a lesser extent, II, Medieval Christian Architecture.
The range of topics addressed is very broad. Both Parts I and II are organised roughly chronologically, however Part I includes more architectural studies of building types, such as converted temples, baptisteries or funerary chapels. Early Christian, Byzantine, and Medieval monasteries are all treated in their own chapters (Chapters 5, 20, and 33). Regional studies do proper justice to the great variety in building traditions. They deal with the heartlands of the late antique and Byzantine empire in addition to the often spectacular buildings in regions with a long history of Christianity further afield, including Armenia (Chapter 9) and Georgia (Chapter 26). Part II provides overview chapters explaining the basics of Romanesque and all subsequent developmental phases of Gothic architecture. Issues of regionality are dealt with head-on in Chapters 39 and 40 on Romanesque architecture. Overall, the regional coverage here again is vast, covering western and southwestern Europe, touching upon churches as far north as Norway and including a chapter on shared sacred spaces in the Holy Land (Chapter 52). Chapters in both Parts I and II also examine key sites like the Justinianic Hagia Sophia in Constantinople and Louis IX’ Sainte-Chapelle in Paris (Chapters 13 and 46). A diachronic chapter focused on the city of Rome is, of course, also indispensable for a volume on the architecture of Christianity (Chapter 29).
Several essays touch upon or zoom in on the ornamentation of church buildings. Unsurprisingly, in Part I most attention goes to narrative interior figural art, although the figural reliefs on the exterior of both Armenian and Georgian churches receives attention in their respective chapters. Maria Georgopoulou in Chapter 23 explores how formal aspects of architecture relate to group identity in the multi-ethnic communities of the eastern Mediterranean from the twelfth century onwards, whereas Alicia Walker discusses the potential meanings behind the integration of islamicising motifs in Byzantine churches. In Part II, aspects of decoration that are discussed include very specific analyses like that of the architectural metaphor on “The Mystic Ark” (Chapter 43), as well as more general treatments of the rich materials and artistry on display in Gothic church interiors (Chapter 47), Gothic wall painting (Chapter 59), and the characteristic towers and spires (Chapter 55), and gargoyles (Chapter 58) of Gothic architecture. Symbolism in Christian architecture makes an appearance in multiple chapters, including in Part I Chapter 25, where it is argued that the largely aniconic exterior decoration of churches from the middle Byzantine period onwards was not just decorative but also symbolic, and in Part II Chapter 57, which examines the importance of sacred geometry for the design of medieval cathedrals.
Overall, much attention is paid to the social and political landscape in which these buildings were created and how they operated within it. Cecily Hilsdale’s chapter on Hagia Sophia deals with rituals related to ecclesiastical and imperial authority, whereas in Chapter 19 Alice-Mary Talbot provides an overview of both imperial and private patrons of churches and monasteries from Constantine onwards. It should be noted that the phenomenon of patronage by people from lower social strata that she mentions only for late Byzantium was widespread in late antiquity as well, noticeable for instance in the mosaic pavements of the churches of Palestine and Arabia,[2] and therefore the statement that “private patrons… became more active in the middle and late centuries of the empire” (p. 167) needs some nuance. In Part II alike, the defining role of elite patronage for Carolingian architecture is discussed in Chapter 34, whereas Chapter 48 touches upon regional identities and political culture shaping unique perspectives on Gothic architecture.
Several chapters consider the actual builders of the Christian monuments. Robert Ousterhout’s chapter focusses on the building process, builders and materials used by Byzantine architects (Chapter 11). Architects, builders and workforces moreover make a reappearance in Chapter 23 where they complicate neat formal divisions between “ethnic-religious-social groups”, and in Chapter 28, where they are part of the explanation as to why architectural elements from Byzantium were imported into Italy. Stefaan Van Liefferinge in Chapter 42 engages with the quadrivium (geometry, arithmetic, astronomy and music) as used in Gothic architecture, and Andrew Tallon in Chapter 45 examines structural innovations introduced by Gothic master masons.
Ample attention is paid to the activities carried out within these Christian buildings, both liturgical and others, throughout the centuries and in different areas of the world. Thus Sharon Gerstel (Chapter 12) pulls together architectural, iconographic and literary evidence to discuss the liturgy in the Byzantine church, and Allan Doig (Chapter 35) does the same for medieval churches and monasteries. Vasileios Marinis (Chapter 14) provides a complementary study on non-liturgical services and activities and places the experience of users and participants center stage. Sarah T. Brooks (Chapter 21) examines how church architecture was impacted by burials near and inside church buildings and was altered to accommodate commemorative rites. Architectural adaptations intended to answer to varying needs of large numbers of pilgrims in the Byzantine world are discussed by Tassos Papacostas with reference to late antique and Byzantine buildings on Cyprus (Chapter 22). Paula Gerson (Chapter 36) provides a broad sweeping overview of parallel adaptations from the fourth to the thirteenth centuries in the territories occupied by the former western Roman empire. Numerous essays moreover discuss how Christian religious architecture and their inhabitants (e.g., monks, pilgrims) fitted into and interacted with their immediate surroundings and the wider world.
The nature of the work Implies that this is not the place to search for the very latest theories or state-of-the-art discoveries. That being said, associate editors have taken care to include not just established scholarship, but also the major current lines of investigation within their sections. Most of the chapters cover the basics of their topic and will be easy to follow for all audiences. Others, however, for instance Chapter 17 on ‘Place, Time, and Text in the Monumental Decoration of the Middle Byzantine Church’, are less accessible and their inclusion in this overview work is not self-explanatory. Overall, the approaches taken by the individual authors and the length and coverage of individual contributions are quite variable. Although this may not be unusual for a work of this magnitude, some of the choices made are somewhat surprising. For instance, Chapter 6 on early Christian baptisteries is only five pages long, despite the centrality of this building for Christian ritual and the fact that the architectural evidence for this topic is very rich and chronologically and geographically diverse. By contrast, Chapter 8 dealing with the much more specific topic of ‘Sacred Space in Late Antique and Coptic Egypt’ is twelve pages, with almost three of those dedicated to the evolution of one site; Chapter 22 is built around the cult center and pilgrimage site of Stavrovouni; and the chapter on Georgia deals with two churches, built 400 years apart. Chapter 7 dealing with the early Christian churches of Palestine and Arabia provides some further explanation about the most famous churches in the region, yet, as the author rightfully states, “Many hundreds of churches have been discovered in Palestine and Arabia”. These are relegated to a couple of paragraphs and the treatment of evolutions after Constantine is so sketchy that a reader with no previous knowledge of the region will not find them very useful. The article includes a much more general section on the origins of the basilica and centralized churches, a topic which is picked up again in Part II, Chapter 31, when the evolution of both building types in the Middle Ages is discussed. As already indicated, themes recur across sections and, although the general editor clearly indicates in the Preface that they attempted to deal with this, it would seem that not all authors “cheerfully responded to these requests.”
These more critical remarks do not, however, diminish the great value of this work. This new Cambridge Guide is a truly comprehensive and wide-ranging study of the development of Christian religious architecture, the authors of which deal with Christian architecture in a wide variety of manners and pay proper attention to experience and meaning in addition to form. It is and will for many years to come remain a very valuable reference resource.
Notes
[1] Although the pdf files on the CUP website are indicated as being ‘unlocked’, the publisher still needs to be contacted to receive a password. Note also that the weblink provided in the publication under ‘Content’ does not work.
[2] See, for instance, P. Baumann (1999) Spätantike Stifter im Heiligen Land. Darstellungen und Inschriften auf Bodenmosaiken in Kirchen, Synagogen und Privathäusern (Spätantike – Frühes Christentum – Byzanz. Kunst im Ersten Jahrtausend. Reihe B: Studien und Perspektiven 5), Wiesbaden.