The Formation of English Gothic

This title is winner of the 2009 Alice Davis Hitchcock Medallion awarded by the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain. In this original and wide-ranging account of architecture in England between c.1150 and c.1250, architectural historian Peter Draper explores how the assimilation of new ideas from France led to an English version of Gothic architecture that was quite distinct from Gothic expression elsewhere. The author considers the great cathedrals of England (Canterbury, Wells, Salisbury, Lincoln, Ely, York, Durham, and others) as well as abbeys, parish churches, and secular buildings, to examine the complex interrelations between architecture and its social and political functions. Architecture was an expression of identity, Draper finds, and the unique Gothic that developed in England during the first half of the thirteenth century was one of a number of manifestations of an emerging sense of national identity. The book looks closely at the significance of architecture and specific architectural features as understood at the time, inquiring into such topics as the role of patrons, the relationships between patrons and architects, and the variety of factors that contributed to the process of creating a building. With 250 illustrations including more than 50 in colour, this book offers new ways of seeing and thinking about some of England's greatest and best-loved architecture.