Medieval Irish Architecture and the Concept of Romanesque : Building Traditions in Eleventh- and Twelfth-Century Europe

This book presents a fresh perspective on eleventh- and twelfth-century Irish architecture, and a critical assessment of the value of describing it, and indeed contemporary European architecture in general, as “Romanesque”. Medieval Irish Architecture and the Concept of Romanesque is a new and original study of medieval architectural culture in Ireland. The book’s central premise is that the concept of a “Romanesque” style in eleventh- and twelfth-century architecture across Western Europe, including Ireland, is problematic, and that the analysis of building traditions of that period is not well served by the assumption that there was a common style. Detailed discussion of important buildings in Ireland, a place marginalised within the “Romanesque” model, reveals the Irish evidence to be intrinsically interesting to students of medieval European architecture, for it is evidence which illuminates how architectural traditions of the Middle Ages were shaped by balancing native and imported needs and aesthetics, often without reference to Romanitas. This book is for specialists and students in the fields of Romanesque, medieval archaeology, medieval architectural history, and medieval Irish studies. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Title 4 Copyright 5 Contents 6 List of figures 7 Preface 10 1 Europe and Ireland: inventing "Romanesque" 22 2 Tradition and innovation in the architecture of early medieval Ireland 49 3 Vaulting ambitions: the eleventh-century transformation of Irish architecture 98 4 Building the reformed Church in Ireland’s short twelfth century 136 5 Cormac’s Chapel and its place in Irish and European architectural history 190 6 Epilogue 231 Bibliography 234 Index 254 building,traditions;,medieval,archaeology;,medieval,Irish,studies;,Irish,architecture;,medieval,architecture;,Romanesque building traditions,medieval archaeology,medieval Irish studies,Irish architecture,medieval architecture,Romanesque This book presents a fresh perspective on eleventh- and twelfth-century Irish architecture. Eschewing its conventional description as Romanesque, it offers a critical assessment of that term, Romanesque, and of its accompanying theory of a common, pan-European, style of architecture in the early second millennium CE. Medieval Irish Architecture and the Concept of Romanesque is a new and original study of medieval architectural culture in Ireland. The books central premise is that the concept of a Romanesque style in eleventh- and twelfth-century architecture across western Europe, including Ireland, is problematic, and that the analysis of building traditions of that period is not well served by the assumption that there was a common style. Detailed discussion of important buildings in Ireland, a place marginalised within the Romanesque model, reveals the Irish evidence to be intrinsically interesting to students of medieval European architecture, for it is evidence which illuminates how architectural traditions of the middle ages were shaped by balancing native and imported needs and aesthetics, often without reference to Romanitas . This book is for specialists and students in the fields of Romanesque, medieval archaeology, medieval architectural history, and medieval Irish studies.