Gold Was the Mortar: The Economics of Cathedral Building

by Henry Kraus

Still looks new with no wear or markings to book or jacket.

Genres: History, Art History, Architecture

336 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1979

Reviews

[E · Rating 4 out of 5]

This unique book was sitting lonely on my bookshelf for many years.
I had picked it up in a thrift shop years ago on a whim.

When Notre Dame caught fire
In April of 2019. I wept as I saw it crumble.

Later, I thought of the book. It contained detailed information on 8 of the most famous cathedrals.

Notre Dame
Am'iens
Toulouse
Lyon
Strasbourg
York
Poitiers
Rouen

It lists the years it took to build these monuments. Some spanning 300 to 400 years or more.

These years encompass rebuilding after fires or damage from battle. Constant changes and additions were always going on.

Many of the donations that were made by nobility are referenced. It is not a long read. Any illustrations or photos are in black and white.

It is an obscure, antiquated little book published by Barnes and Noble in 1979.

The paper is dry and yellowed but I enjoyed it and gave it a place on my special bookshelf of much loved books.

[Mary Rose · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think that Kraus and I just have different visions of what an economic history of cathedrals should look like. His account is dominated by the burghers and their tensions with the clergy and he dedicates pages and pages to irrelevant skirmishes and projects unrelated to the building of cathedrals. This is not a long book and to read so much irrelevant content is so frustrating. It takes us nearly 90 pages (almost halfway into the book, discounting Notes/Index) to talk about how much the builders were paid. Other aspects of the business and economics of cathedral building that I think are of interest, such as the labor hierarchy of the builders, the stonemasons and painter’s guilds, where the materials came from, seasonal building cycles, the recycling of older building materials from existing structures, the trade in relics, etc. are glossed over (in the case where they are mentioned at all.) I expected better from a labor historian.

[Timothy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an absolute delight to read, and a great example of the philosophy behind the "Barnes & Noble Rediscovers" series. It's a serious work of art history from an economic perspective, and it's full of difficult jargon relating to Gothic architecture, feudal economics, urban government, church hierarchy, and more. But while I wouldn't recommend it to an absolute beginner in medieval European history, it really is highly accessible to the attentive reader. The writing style is clear, vibrant, and humorous, and the glossary is quite helpful. I slogged through all of the copious endnotes, which give a fascinating impression of the depth of the research, but you can skip them without missing anything big.

I think it's cool that, although Kraus and his wife were both medieval art historians, he also published widely as a modern labor historian, providing insider accounts of critical episodes in the life of the UAW. I don't expect that his other work will be the easiest to find, but I'm intrigued.