(This elegantly illustrated, finely detailed account of ho...)
This elegantly illustrated, finely detailed account of how the magnificent Gothic cathedrals were erected also provides illuminating information on medieval society and the financial, political and spiritual roles of the men who inspired these splendid buildings. 94 photographs.
(Shipped from UK, please allow 10 to 21 business days for ...)
Shipped from UK, please allow 10 to 21 business days for arrival. A good, clean and sound copy which contains many photos/ills. 163 p : ill., facsims., plans, ports ; 22 cm.. . This translation originally published: Salisbury: Michael Russell, 1983. Includes index. Translated from the French. Bibliography: p. 157-158..
Medieval Machine: The Industrial Revolution of the Middle Ages
(The Middle Ages, writes French scholar Jean Gimpel, saw a...)
The Middle Ages, writes French scholar Jean Gimpel, saw an extraordinary flourishing of technological development throughout Europe. With the era came waterwheels and clock towers, nearly uniform machine parts and improvements in public hygiene, vaulting cathedrals and towering city walls, and a notion of spiritual and earthly progress that promised better things to come. In analyzing the growth of precision in measurement and of the experimental sciences, and in considering the careers of medieval geniuses such as the architect-inventor Villard de Honnecourt, Gimpel clearly conveys the intellectual excitement of the time. Sadly, it was undone by religious intolerance, brutal warfare, and the arrival of the plague as quickly as it rose.
Jean Victor Gimpel was a French historian. A profound and very practical interest in technology, and especially that of the Middle Ages, was the thread that ran through his working life.
Background
Mr. Gimpel was born on October 10, 1918, in Paris, France. He was the third son of the well-known art dealer Rene Gimpel, a friend of Monet, Renoir and Proust whose journals he would eventually edit. His mother was the sister of an even more famous English dealer, Lord Duveen. His two brothers, Peter and Charles, who was captured and tortured by the Germans and died in 1973, founded their own gallery in London in 1946.
Education
Jean Gimpel finished his studies at Swanbourne House School, Great Britain, in 1931. In 1932 he graduated from Le Rosey, Switzerland, ans in 1938 Lycée Louis-Le-Grand, France.
Career
He worked with the French Resistance during World War II, for which he received the Croix de Guerre. After the war, Mr. Gimpel turned his talents to the art world, studying the paintings of the Old Masters. He produced a television program for the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC), Don't Take It for Granted, describing the pitfalls of authenticating these works of art. It was during this time that Jean Gimpel became interested in Medieval technology. His first book, The Cathedral Builders, was originally published in French as Les Batisseurs de Cathedrales in 1958.
He was a lecturer Yale University, University Southern California, University Ottawa, Rochester University, Lehigh University, University Delaware, The Royal Oak Foundation, Albany Institute History of Art, Carnegie-Mellon University, Alliance Francaise, Ironbridge Gorge Museum, St. George's Chapel, Windsor. Consultant United Nations during the period of 1977-1982.
Author: The Cathedral Builders, 1958, Against Art and Artists, 1968, The Medieval Machine, 1975, The End of the Future, subtitled The Waning of the Hi-Tech World, 1995, l'Ulime Rapport Sur le Declin de l'Occident, 1986. Co-author: Le Moyen Age Pour Quoi Faire?, 1986. Editor: René Gimpel's Diary of an Art Dealer.Producer television films including Don't Take It for Granted, 1971.
Membership
Founder, member Models for Rural Development, 1985, Association Villard de Honnecourt, France, 1983, AVISTA Association for the Study of Medieval Technology, Science and Art, Haverford College, 1986. Organizer of symposium on Future of the West: Decline or Transformation, University Southern California, 1977.
Interests
Women and technology, ping pong/table tennis, future forecasting.
Connections
Jean Gimpel married Catherine Cara in 1946. Together they had two sons (Rémy, Olivier) and one daughter (Claire).
Obituary:Jean Gimpel | The Independent
Jean Gimpel was a man of great physical and intellectual energy, with a big heart and strong sense of justice. A profound and very practical interest in technology, and especially that of the Middle Ages, was the thread that ran through his working life. It yielded two classic studies, The Cathedral Builders (1958) and The Medieval Machine: the Industrial Revolution of the Middle Ages (1976), underpinned two further books, The Cult of Art: against art and artists (1968) and The End of the Future (1995), and helped make him an effective saboteur in the French Resistance. For his services during the Second World War he was awarded the Croix de Guerre, the Medaille de Resistance and the Legion d'Honneur.