Amiens
Magic Numbers
Amiens Cathedral was built in less than a century with a high degree of continuity, the master builders being united by strong links (Robert de Luzarches (1220-1223), then his assistant, Thomas de Cormont (1223-1228), then his son, Renaud (1228-1288)). It was restored in the 19th century by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc. Amiens was built during the High Gothic, from about 1200 to 1260 AD. (Murray 1996, pg. 23)
Name: Notre Dame d’Amiens
Artists: Robert of Luzarches, Thomas and Regnault de Cormont et al
Material: Stone, mortar, marble, glass, wood, metal
Date: 1220 – 1270 AD
Culture: French Gothic
Scale: Length: 145m (476 ft); Width: 70m (230 ft); Height: 42.30m (138.8 ft)
Current Location: Amiens, Picardy, France
Robert Grosseteste declared that without geometry, it would be impossible to understand nature (von Simson 1988, pg. 198). The metaphysical Gothic geometry recalls that a unit of square in proportions of fifth form a canon of the building plan at Amiens. The square bay of the side isle is the basic unit of the building from which other proportions were derived. And because the Gothic age did not fully understand the science of light, much understanding is of its metaphysical values, proportions were redeemed in music whose beauty could evoke that of light. “According to true measure”, the choir was 3:4 to the sanctuary. The octave determines the side aisle and the nave while the liturgical center, considered the place of most traditional form of worship at the center of the church had height which resembled Cistercian ratios of musical consonance. (Murray 1996, pg. 39). The principle of translucent walls was extremely important and by incorporating large windows, the cathedral reformed other quadripartite plans of earlier Gothic churches. It is in Amiens that the square stone block equated itself to the very building unit of Jerusalem, inspiring a kind of transfiguration of these stones into the essence of light, inspiring a new cosmos from which the cathedral is the image of Jerusalem. Thus the names of the architects of Amiens were inscribed on the stones of the labyrinth floor of the cathedral where many pilgrims gather to understand from these inscriptions the work of many and the worth of one man and architect. The labyrinth also was a symbol of Jerusalem who remains elusive to centuries of “decoding” her material and philosophical nature, a concept which today, may be approached as the Eucharistic ritual. (Murray 1996, pg. 59).
Geometrical methods hidden in the church of Amiens were not often well-motivated by other essence beside geometrical synchronicity. For instance, it was found that the proportion set out on the building site is one of an octagonal with a certain side length to that of the circle radius inscribing it. Such occurrences are not mere coincidence. Professor Stephen Murray was among the first to ascribe these proportions to Biblical numbers, particular that of the Jerusalem wall. He believes that sacred numbers form the construction of the church in all its dimensions, repetitions of bays, and window height. These numbers were considered “intrinsic to light” which the Bible often mentions as a metaphorical weight of stone that is so important in understanding the history and visage of Jerusalem, her interior temple, walls, gates, gems, stones, and most importantly, distance from Golgotha. Light, indeed, especially that coming from Jerusalem, is recorded by the celestial occurrences of Biblical times, such as the unveiling of the Temple of Solomon, the miracles of her prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and Molokai, the Nativity, and the Crucifixion. The light firmament that is singular to Jerusalem as the center of the earth is at times seen as the door to the celestial world. The numbers of sacrifices, of wall dimensions, and of those succumbing to the wars in Jerusalem, prefigures not just a Holy War of all the ages, but also bear a sacred symbol of civilization as the prophetic future of Jerusalem reaps also the time of Armageddon, a kind of rigor of light. Such prophecy is ascribed to Amiens whose ground floors and columns were proportioned to an accurate royal foot in the proportion of nave to isles, wall to center square, crypt to labyrinth. Builders used these numbers not just for prophecy, but also in the hope that it will magically bind the building to the founding stone, in other words, hold up the architecture. It is perhaps this prophecy that makes Amiens a structure held down by divine orders, maximizing its reach for the heavens and bringing in more light, standing at 42.3 meters, the highest complete French cathedral standing beside the incomplete Beauvais, with 126 pillars and the largest interior for a medieval building. (Murray 1996, pg. 89). In particular to Amiens, this is how each stone carries the meaning of insurrection along with resurrection. A vision of a heavenly fortress surrounded with delicate stained glass, fine classical sculptures, and a protective zone of towers, Amiens continues to bring the mystery of the Holy Temple to unknowing visitors and became a landmark of its own.