Notes
1. Peter Pace: The Architecture of George Pace: B A Batsford Ltd 1990
2. Frederick Stallard MA and Paul Bush: The Geometric Skeleton of Peterborough Cathedral: Paul Bush 1994
3. Peter Kidson in Salisbury Cathedral - Perspectives on the Architectural History: Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England: The Stationery Office 1993, 1996. A 20'6" measure is also important at Salisbury.
4. John H James: A History and Survey of the Cathedral Church, Llandaff: W M Lewis 1929. Lovegrove (Note 9) gives 14th April 1120
5. Illustrations are from John H James op cit, except for the prints which are individually ascribed.
6. Jerry Sampson: Wells Cathedral West Front: Sutton Publishing 1998.
7. C A R Radford in BAA Conference Transactions 1978.
8. F J North: The Stones of Llandaff Cathedral: University of Wales Press 1957. My observation.
9. E W Lovegrove: The Cathedral Church of Llandaff: Western Mail; 1944, also JBAA, 2nd ser., xxxv (1929). The description of the Norman Cathedral and the building sequence are based on this source, also the illustrations of the seal impressions.
10. For its widespread use at Norwich see Eric Fernie: An Architectural History of Norwich Cathedral: Clarendon Press 1993. For its use in Peterborough, see note 2, and for Salisbury and Old Sarum, see note 3.
11. The Hereford Chapter Seal of c 1190 gave an image almost identical to this (Ed Aylmer and Tiller: Hereford Cathedral, A History: Hambledon Press 2000, p32) but this does not necessarily mean that the representations were purely abstract. It could underline the essential similarity between the designs of the two cathedrals.
12. E W Lovegrove op.cit.
13. E W Lovegrove op. cit.
14. George Marshall: The Evolution of the Cathedral Church of Hereford: Littlebury & Co: 1950.
15. F J North op. cit.
16. F J North op. cit.
17. The term Nave is used here to refer to the architectural unity of eight bays.
18. Ed L S Colchester: Wells Cathedral - A History: Open Books Publishing Ltd, 1982, 1996.
19. Jerry Sampson Op Cit. The bases of the triangles at Wells and Southwell are measured between the centre lines of the walls in each case.
20. Jerry Sampson op. cit.
21. Floor to capitals = 15'9½", floor to clerestory base is 31'6½". The measured top of the clerestory is 46'11". The theoretical length of the bays working backwards from the height of the arcades is 18'2½". Provisional lengths of the bays numbered from the west are as follows. Measurements for the first bay exclude the 2” for the transition to the West Front.
North Arcade South Arcade
1st 18’1½” 18’7½”
2nd 18’4” 18'2½"
3rd 18’4” 18’3”
4th 18’1½” 18’2”
5th 18’3½” 18’1”
6th 18'2½" 18’2”
The triangles in Figure 6 are confirmed by the above measurements, for 18'2½" x √3 = 31’6.45”.
22. Lovegrove thought that the thickening of the aisle wall was a relic of the Norman transept end. In favour of this view is the use of Sutton stone to chamfer off the extra thickness, together with the presence of the Norman transept end here as deduced from the position of the chapter house stair turret. Against is the apparent continuity of the thickening with the inserted arch, also the dissimilarity between the chamfering and normal window sills and between the vertical finishing and door jambs, also the running into each other of the proposed jamb and sill, also the geometry of Figure 2, which indicates that the thickness of the Norman walls, particularly the extant Norman north wall of the north transept, was the same as that of the south aisle wall excluding the thickening. I am grateful for Professor Malcolm Thurlby’s verbal assistance in this matter at the 2004 BAA Conference. The single course on the outside, between the chamfer and the string course under the window is also of poor quality, indicating that it may have been inserted after the chamfer, i.e. that the last project for the eastern towers may postdate the Decorated nave aisle windows.
23. The Cathedral Church of St John the Evangelist, Brecon: Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales: Friends of Brecon Cathedral 1994.
24. A golden rectangle is such that the ratio of the long side to the short side is the same as the ratio of the sum of the sides to the long side, or φ :1, where φ = (√5+1)/2
25. Geometry from a reconstruction of the original form of the choir by Bilson given in Wells Cathedral – A history (Note 16)
26. See note 21
27. Abbott David of Bristol wrote to the Dean of Wells between 1218 and 1220, asking him to lend his stone-carver “your servant L, to hew out the seven pillars of wisdom’s house, meaning, of course, our chapel of the Blessed Virgin.” (Bristol Cathedral History and Architecture: Ed Rogan: Tempus Books 2000)
28. Freeman’s “Llandaff Cathedral”: W Pickering 1850.
29. “It is by no means impossible but that aisles were added to the presbytery … but at present without disturbing the original Romanesque walls. The evidence on which this supposition rests is the fact that the eastern arch of the vaulted bay is clearly part of the Early English work, and as it must have opened into something, some building must have been added to its eastern face …” (Freeman, op.cit.) I have to regard this supposition as only coincidentally probable, as the eastern arch of the chapel was a later insertion.
30. The windows were altered in the 18th century, but “even where the windows have given way to Mr Wood’s insertions, enough remained to replace the jambs with perfect accuracy; the tracery alone required to be entirely new.” (Freeman op.cit.)
31. Freeman op. cit.
32. J H James op. cit.
33. Strictly speaking, the foliated caps in the south arch are Early English, or rather early Geometrical Decorated, contemporary with the Lady Chapel. The western capital in the north arch, with its naturalistic leaf, is high Decorated, and its eastern fellow may well be.
34. There may have been an element of rivalry with St David’s, for Bishop Gower had the aisle windows replaced with Decorated ones.
35. Freeman op. cit. The tracery in the south window is now 19th century Geometrical Decorated.
36. Cole MS. xxix, fol. 14 b, from J H James, op. cit.
37. Pevsner and Metcalf: The Cathedrals of England: Viking 1985.
38. Peter Kidson op. cit.
39. John James: The Master Masons of Chartres: West Grinstead Publishing 1990, formerly Chartres, the Masons who Built a Legend: Routledge & Kegan Paul 1982. Pentagonal geometry is also to be found at Chartres.
40. Friends of St Davids. The print is from Browne Willis: Survey of Llandaff: 1718
41. George Lesser: Gothic Cathedrals and Sacred Geometry: Alec Tiranti 1957
42. In his excellent website http://medieval-architectural-geometry.com
43. Dan Pedoe: Geometry and the Liberal Arts: Penguin Books 1976.