Your First Day as a Medieval Architect

Canterbury, Tuesday 5 September 1178. Your master — William of Sens, one of the best builders in Europe — has just fallen fifty feet from the frame of the great vault. From his bed, he gives the cathedral to you: a young monk who keeps the masons' accounts and has never cut a stone in his life. Hour by hour through one real day: French stone that rings or splits, quicklime that can blind you, a floor where every rib is drawn life-size, masons who hate you, the spot where the King of England was whipped, and a storm that could bring the whole vault down. It all comes from the eyewitness chronicle of Gervase of Canterbury, who wrote everything down — except your name. 🏗️ Would you have trusted Godric, the one man everyone blamed? Tell me in the comments. CHAPTERS 0:00 The fall 0:59 2 a.m.: Be my legs 2:46 6 a.m.: Stone from beyond the sea 4:39 9 a.m.: The lime yard 6:10 Noon: Silence 7:30 3 p.m.: The tracing floor 9:37 4 p.m.: The lodge 11:18 5 p.m.: Fifty feet 12:51 6 p.m.: The tomb 14:19 8 p.m.: The storm 16:02 6 a.m.: Look up SOURCES • Gervase of Canterbury, Of the Burning and Repair of the Church of Canterbury (tr. R. Willis, 1845) • R. Willis, The Architectural History of Canterbury Cathedral (1845) • Canterbury Cathedral, "How did they build that?" (learning site) • L. Shelby, Gothic Design Techniques (1977): Roriczer (1486) and Schmuttermayer • The sketchbook of Villard de Honnecourt (BnF, c. 1230) • Tracing floors at York Minster and Wells; Drawing Matter, "Medieval masons and tracing floors" • Monasteriales Indicia (BL Cotton Tiberius A III); the Canterbury Sundial (found 1938) • Henry II's penance at Becket's tomb, 12 July 1174 (contemporary accounts) • Studies of medieval lime mortar and seasonal building (Creation of Gothic) MUSIC "Achaidh Cheide", "Anguish", "At Rest", "Dances and Dames", "Dreamer", "Eternal Hope", "Heavy Interlude", "Hiding Your Reality", "Impact Prelude", "Interloper", "Investigations", "Lasting Hope", "Mystery Bazaar", "Prelude and Action", "Shores of Avalon", "Stay the Course", "Stormfront", "Truth of the Legend" — Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... IMAGES & SOUNDS Public-domain / CC0 works from The Met, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the BnF, the British Library, Poly Haven, ambientCG, the Internet Archive and Wikimedia Commons. Attribution-licensed works: CC BY 2.0: Renaud Camus (Becket window); Bonsoni.com (candle); Moyan Brenn (fire); Jules & Jenny (Canterbury windows). CC BY 2.5: Heliocrono (sundial). CC BY 4.0: Shisma (bread). CC BY-SA 2.0: Julian P Guffogg (Bell Harry Tower); Museum of London / Kate Sumnall (dividers); Michael Garlick (Rochester nave); Colin Park (Apprentice Pillar); Hugh Llewelyn (Salisbury Purbeck shafts); Winchester City Council Museums (tally sticks); Steve Cadman (Peterborough ceiling); Stephen McKay (Cleeve Abbey refectory). CC BY-SA 3.0: Maria (barn roof); Zantastik (bread); Diliff (Canterbury cloisters); Mathias Krumbholz (lightning); BáthoryPéter (water); Adam Bishop (Canterbury crypt); Schola Gregoriana (plainchant). CC BY-SA 4.0: Michael Coppins (Cressing Temple barn); PtrQs (Beauvais); Davidbena (limestone); Krugerr (cement bag); Peter K Burian (Canterbury choir); Patrick Hendry (flames); W.carter (frost); Fab5669 (Henry II effigy); Benjamin Smith (Poitiers house); PAS (jug); A.-K. D. (mason's mark); Palauenc05 (Trier mason's mark); York Museums Trust (penny); Leiem (quicklime); Miss Puzzle (sacks); Confidence24 (sand); ADARSHluck (clouds); EgorovaSvetlana (straw); François de Dijon (Guédelon). Narration: the creator's own voice (AI voice clone). #history #medievalhistory #architecture