historical reality of his career can be pieced together from scattered documents and
inscriptions: a 1284 contract mentions Erwin as master of the works; a destroyed 1316
inscription in the chapel of the Virgin, erected against the jubé, names him as its builder;
and the master of Niederhaslach is identified as the son of Erwin, “once the master of the
works at the cathedral of Strasbourg,” on his 1330 tomb. The epitaph of an Erwin who
was “governor” of the Strasbourg fabric and died on January 17, 1318, may
commemorate a financial administrator rather than the builder; the famous 1277
inscription that appended the Steinbach surname to Erwin and credited him with
beginning the “glorious work” of the west façade disappeared before 1732 and cannot be
verified. Nevertheless, if Erwin was master from the late 1270s into the early 14th
century, he would have built a considerable portion of the west front and may well have
been the author of Projects B, B1, and D, which are among the most stunning
architectural drawings ever produced. Project B, which corresponds closely to the portal
zone as built, introduced the dramatic freestanding tracery that screens the masonry of the
façade block. Based on the vocabulary of French Rayonnant architecture, these Projects
showcase the elaborate optical effects that preoccupied designers in the later 13th
century.
Michael T.Davis
[See also: GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE; STRASBOURG]
Geyer, Marie-Jeanne. “Le mythe d’Erwin de Steinbach.” In Les bâtisseurs des cathédrales
gothiques, ed. Roland Recht. Strasbourg: Éditions les Musées de la Ville de Strasbourg, 1989,
pp. 322–29.
Recht, Roland. “Dessins d’architecture pour la cathédrale de Strasbourg.” Oeil 174–75(1969):26–
33, 44.
——. “Le mythe romantique d’Erwin de Steinbach.” Information d’histoire de l’art 15(1970):38–
45.
——. L’Alsace gothique de 1300 a 1365: étude d’architecture religieuse. Colmar: Alsatia, 1974.
Will, Robert. “Les inscriptions disparues de la porta sertorum ou Schappeltür de la cathédrale de
Strasbourg et le mythe d’Erwin de Steinbach.” Bulletin de la cathédrale de Strasbourg
14(1980):13–20.
ESQUIRE/ESCUIER
. By ca. 1100, the term escuier (derived from Lat. scutarius ‘shield man’ but normally
represented in Latin by scutiger ‘shield bearer’ or armiger ‘arms bearer’) was generally
applied, with va(s)let ‘young vassal’ and damoisel ‘lordling,’ to young men serving as
apprentices to knights. Down to ca. 1180, most sons of knights who were not destined for
a clerical career probably undertook this apprenticeship, and most of those who did so
seem to have been dubbed to knighthood around the age of twenty-one. After that date,
however, the growing expense of knighthood led increasing numbers of apprentice
knights to postpone formal dubbing, or adoubement, indefinitely and to serve in battle
with less than full equipment through most or all of their lives. Such adult but undubbed
noblemen were known at first by a variety of titles, including valet and damoisel (later
damoiseau, Occitan donsel), but the first of these titles survived in this sense only in
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