Index | Article: "Scenes from a Design:The Plan of Saint-Urbain, Troyes" | page 2, page 3, page 4, page 5

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Conclusion: Figure 10

Several salient points emerge from the analysis of the plan of Saint-Urbain concerning the way in which the building was conceived and executed. The entire design started from the physical limitations of the building site. The master mason then used geometry as a tool to control the overall exterior dimensions. In the short, the body of the building did not unfold from a single key dimension or geometric figure, but was formulated as a whole unit whose internal dispositions were defined through subsequent steps. Once the envelope was set out, the way was open for meaningful patronal input.

At first inspection, Saint-Urbain appears as an unremarkable basilican plan whose three aisles terminate in polygonal apses similar to Saint-Lazare, Autun or Notre-Dame, Dijon. Only in mapping the geometry does the cruciform personality of the design emerge. The unusual combination of longitudinal and centralized plans suggests that Saint-Urbain embodied Urban IV's specific vision. We can well imagine this widely-traveled, highly educated pontiff, a man who 'after his dinner ... was fond of making (learned men) sit round him and of listening to them discussing different questions," meeting with his master to describe buildings he had seen in France, in imperial Germany, in Rome, urging him to find the means to accommodate both the requirements of the liturgy and the symbolism of the Cross. He might have proposed the dimension of the crossing at the heart of the plan. one of the few distances that can be translated credibly into whole feet.

For his part, the architect doubtless used plan drawings to effect the precise integration of pragmatic con-straints. patronal demands, and craft practice. Yet despite its semiotic and symbolic opulence. the design can be translated easily from parchment to building site for its setting out requires nothing more than the construction of squares, octagons, and hexagons and the rotation of diagonal lines. Space and structure were generated together: pier placement and wall thickness appear to be the by-product of the geometric matrix, not the result of an independent system.

Fig. 10. Saint- Urbain, Troyes: plan geometry (Davis)

Although I have offered three altematives for the design of Saint-Urbain, in truth these solutions are not mutually exclusive. As we have seen, the 'symbolic generator' can be elaborated by means of the physical steps of the 'mechanical version' and the ,square sequence' appears to be a necessary prologue to the generation of the apse and west portals. Individually, each possibility offers us a perspective of the process by which one remarkable building of the thirteenth century was given form and meaning. Together, they tell us a human story by bringing us closer to the actions, words. and thoughts of thirteenth-century individuals. We can now hear more clearly that after-dinner conversation between Urban IV and his master mason on a fall evening in the papal residence in Viterbo.

I am so glad that you have arrived safely, my friend. Although I know you must be weary after the long journey from Troyes, my enthusiasm for this project simply will not wait until morning.
Your Holiness. it is my honor to know your will for this chapel. Have you seen the portrait that I have prepared? Several houses remain to be demolished. but enough has been cleared to measure the length and breadth of the building. It works out that the edifice is 178 by 126 Roman feet so it just fits into a piece of land that is 8 perches long and 6 perches wide.
My agents, Jean and Thibault assure me that all of the houses will be purchased in the next months. Heaven knows I have given them enough money. Anyway, as you know from my letter of this past May, I am following the example of Saint Gregory who built a chapel, now called S. Gregorio, Magno, at his villa on the Caelian hill in Rome. My recent predecessor, Gregory JX, did likewise at Agnani and it seems to me a worthy undertaking. Because the church will have only twelve canons and a dean, it does not require numerous altars and chapels. In my many voyages through this world, I have observed that churches of the glorious martyrs are built in the shape of squares or circles or crosses. I am especially interested in this idea of the cross for my church will not only honor saint Urban and the memory of my birthplace, but will also remind the faithful of the sacrifice of Christ and the sacrament of his body. When you go to Rome, Ancherus, my nephew who is the cardinal of Saint-Prassede, will show you S. Stefano Rotondo, a venerable and magnificent structure. which is both a circle and a cross. And last, so that these mute shapes will have meaning that elevates the soul, I would like the perfect number, six. to occupy a pre-eminent place in your plan. Now, of course, l am no master in the art of building but I do hope that my ideas have merit. Reverend father. I have no doubt that geometry will show me the way to transform our discussion into stone and glass. With compass and straight edge. I shall invent a plan worthy of your vision of a church that will resemble one of the chambers of the City of God.

Notes

1. The conclusions presented here concerning the design of Saint-Urbain in Troyes are the result of an NEH sponsored research grant undertaken in collaboration with Linda Neagley of Rice University and with the assistance of graduate students from the University of Michigan, the University of California, Berkeley, and Columbia University. Surveyed during the summer of 1992, Saint-Urbain, along with the fourteenth-century abbey of Saint-Ouen, Rouen and the fifteenth-century Saint-Maclou, Rouen which compose the broader parameters of our study, will offer the opportunity to compare the designs of three structures located in two distant cities, embracing a 250-year time span, serving distinct functions (shrine, monastic church, parish church), and representing a strikingly different plan types. The geometric analysis was carried out at Mount Holyoke College using AutoCAD version 13. My thanks to Peter Zieja, project engineer, for his patient mentoring and good humor.

2. John Casey, In the same madhouse, review of Wendy Steiner, The Scandal of Pleasure, (Chicago, 1996) in The Times Literary Supplement, June 14, 1996: 9.

3. Saint Augustine, City of God, trans. Henry Bettenson, London, 1984: 465 (book xi, chapter 3 1).

4. Stephen Murray. The Cathedral of Notre-Dame of Amiens, Cambridge, 1996: 42-43.

5. Simon Schama, Dead Certainties: unwarranted speculations, New York, 1991: 325-326.

6. Horace K. Mann, The Lives of the Popes in the Middle Ages,
XV, 1929: 145.