DOI issue:
No. 93 (November, 1904)
DOI article:Book reviews
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26963#0130
Book Reviews
it is kept properly subordinated, it should be a
convenient and well arranged supplement to the
note book of the pupil learning to work with his
hands. If it were allowed to be the instrument of
perpetuating the impression in his educational
training that all knowledge is fundamentally book
knowledge, it could easily defeat the very spirit in
which it is conceived.
The Cathedrals of Southern France. By
Francis Mil-
toot, author of
“Cathedrals of
Nort h ern
France”; “Dick-
ens’ London,”
etc., with ninety
illustrations,
plans and dia-
grams by
Blanche Mc-
Manus. L. C.
Page & Co. Pages
xiv.—554- $i-6o
net.
Mr. Francis Mil-
toun, in his study of
French cathedrals,
which is extended
by the publication
by L. C. Page & Co.
of a volume on the
“Cathedrals of
Southern France,”
seeks to avoid as
much as possible the
ways of the purely
technical description
and criticism, and of
the unspeakable
guide book. This is
not to say that he
does not concern him-
self with features that
are architectural sim-
ply, and others that
appeal mainly to the traveller; but his aim
has been to convey wherever possible what
seems to him the preponderating impression made
upon the beholder and student by the beauties of
many individual churches. He has, that is, set
out to find the emotion induced by the sight of
spire or clerestory. In fact he meets in his intro-
duction a supposed sense of hostility or lack of
sympathy with this method. That, for instance,
Notre Dame de Rodez is a “warm mouse-colored
cathedral” the author insists is not a trivial asser-
tion, but the concentrated result of observation.
Though one is prepared after this opening chal-
lenge for a mixture of the whimsical and serious-
minded attitude, the book itself presents a series
of brief and often matter of fact notes, readable
enough in themselves, though not always particu-
larly enlightening as to the actual architectural
condition of the sub-
ject, but containing
a fair recital of the
historical points with
some straightforward
description, and a
frank and unhesitat-
ing expression of the
author’s individual
judgment on the
merits of upwards of
eighty churches,
grouped for the
Rhone and Garonne
valleys, the region
South of the Loire
and the Mediterra-
nean coast. The il-
lustrations by Miss
McManus are con-
ceived in sympathy
with the author’s ap-
proach, leaving aside
any emphasis on ar-
chitecturaldetail, and
preferring to present
views of the cathe-
drals and usually
their immediate en-
vironment that shall
convey a sense of
their individuality.
Chapter headings and
full-page drawings in
line alternate with
reproductions in
sepia tone on brown surface of wash and crayon
work. Appendices are added, giving among other
matters a sketch map of France, an historical table
of dioceses of the southern part up to the begin-
ning of the nineteenth century, tables and formulae
from De Caumont and Violet le Due, and a con-
venient sheaf of plans and data on dimension and
chronology.
XVIII
it is kept properly subordinated, it should be a
convenient and well arranged supplement to the
note book of the pupil learning to work with his
hands. If it were allowed to be the instrument of
perpetuating the impression in his educational
training that all knowledge is fundamentally book
knowledge, it could easily defeat the very spirit in
which it is conceived.
The Cathedrals of Southern France. By
Francis Mil-
toot, author of
“Cathedrals of
Nort h ern
France”; “Dick-
ens’ London,”
etc., with ninety
illustrations,
plans and dia-
grams by
Blanche Mc-
Manus. L. C.
Page & Co. Pages
xiv.—554- $i-6o
net.
Mr. Francis Mil-
toun, in his study of
French cathedrals,
which is extended
by the publication
by L. C. Page & Co.
of a volume on the
“Cathedrals of
Southern France,”
seeks to avoid as
much as possible the
ways of the purely
technical description
and criticism, and of
the unspeakable
guide book. This is
not to say that he
does not concern him-
self with features that
are architectural sim-
ply, and others that
appeal mainly to the traveller; but his aim
has been to convey wherever possible what
seems to him the preponderating impression made
upon the beholder and student by the beauties of
many individual churches. He has, that is, set
out to find the emotion induced by the sight of
spire or clerestory. In fact he meets in his intro-
duction a supposed sense of hostility or lack of
sympathy with this method. That, for instance,
Notre Dame de Rodez is a “warm mouse-colored
cathedral” the author insists is not a trivial asser-
tion, but the concentrated result of observation.
Though one is prepared after this opening chal-
lenge for a mixture of the whimsical and serious-
minded attitude, the book itself presents a series
of brief and often matter of fact notes, readable
enough in themselves, though not always particu-
larly enlightening as to the actual architectural
condition of the sub-
ject, but containing
a fair recital of the
historical points with
some straightforward
description, and a
frank and unhesitat-
ing expression of the
author’s individual
judgment on the
merits of upwards of
eighty churches,
grouped for the
Rhone and Garonne
valleys, the region
South of the Loire
and the Mediterra-
nean coast. The il-
lustrations by Miss
McManus are con-
ceived in sympathy
with the author’s ap-
proach, leaving aside
any emphasis on ar-
chitecturaldetail, and
preferring to present
views of the cathe-
drals and usually
their immediate en-
vironment that shall
convey a sense of
their individuality.
Chapter headings and
full-page drawings in
line alternate with
reproductions in
sepia tone on brown surface of wash and crayon
work. Appendices are added, giving among other
matters a sketch map of France, an historical table
of dioceses of the southern part up to the begin-
ning of the nineteenth century, tables and formulae
from De Caumont and Violet le Due, and a con-
venient sheaf of plans and data on dimension and
chronology.
XVIII