giving birth to a daughter. It is ironic that the woman Louis married after divorcing
Eleanor for consanguinity was just as closely related: she was his third cousin.
Constance B.Bouchard
Facinger, Marion F. “A Study of Medieval Queenship: Capetian France, 987–1237.” Studies in
Medieval and Renaissance History 5(1968):3–47.
CONSTRUCTION TECHNIQUES
. The history of construction in medieval France can be divided into two major periods.
The first, embracing the 5th century into the 12th, is characterized by the survival and
variations on the building techniques, as well as many of the ornamental forms, of Roman
architecture. The second, the Gothic era of the 12th century to the early 16th, witnessed
the advent of innovative methods of building and design and led to a dramatic change in
the status of the architect.
The architectural record of France prior to the 9th century is fragmentary. With the
collapse of coherent imperial authority in the West and the spread of Christianity in the
3rd and 4th centuries, the church and in particular its bishops emerged as the primary
sponsors of major projects. At Cahors, Bishop Desiderius enclosed the city within
defensive walls and built aqueducts in the 6th century, while Sidonius Apollinaris, the
late 5th-century bishop of Clermont, erected a luxurious villa complete with baths and a
swimming pool. However, church structures, not public works, were the primary focus,
with the basilica and centralized baptistery serving as the major building types. In the
laying out of ecclesiastical complexes, it has been argued that early-medieval masons
employed Roman planning strategies based on harmonic proportions, but it is more likely
that the simple geometric ratios that order the designs represent the habits of craft
practice rather than a conscious continuation of past architectural principles.
In terms of actual construction techniques, political fragmentation produced increased
variety. Rather than the Roman system of mass-producing standardized elements, such as
columns or capitals, which were stockpiled at the quarry and later shipped to specific
sites, building was conditioned by local materials and models. Nevertheless, it appears
that many Roman building practices were continued, albeit on a decidedly less
monumental scale. Masons continued to build using a rubble wall construction faced with
cut-stone patterns, seen in the crypt walls at Jouarre (7th c.) or Notre-Dame de la Basse-
Œuvre, Beauvais (late 10th c.), which were composed of opus recticulatum in the Roman
manner, or stucco, as at Saint-Laurent, Grenoble (8th c.). The more impressive structures
often incorporated spolia, for example, the cathedral of Vienne (5th c.), Selles-sur-Cher
(mid-6th c.), or as at Jouarre imitated Roman columns and capitals. The sensibilities and
renowned skill of “Gallic” masons are showcased in the baptistery of Saint-Jean, Poitiers
(7th c.), where the pilasters, pediments, moldings, and geometrical designs set into the
wall fabric become surface embroidery rather than structural articulation.
The loss or abandonment of pozzolan concrete as a primary building material had
enormous technological consequences. Although masonry vaults and domes were erected
from the 5th century (baptistery of Fréjus) through the 7th century (Jouarre), the weak
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