The origins of this publication lie in a session held at the 108th College Art Association Annual Conference titled “Reassessing ‘Lateness’: Issues of Periodization and Style in Late Medieval Architecture.” The number of interested colleagues who joined us for the session despite the early hour and subfreezing temperatures in Chicago, as well as the many animated conversations that followed, confirmed to us that this topic was an area of interest among scholars at all career stages. Encouraged by our colleagues, we held a virtual follow-up session at the 56th International Congress on Medieval Studies in 2021. Both of these panels aimed to engage with notions of lateness and modernity in medieval architecture, broadly conceived geographically and temporally, with the goal of (re)situating the eclectic visual vocabularies of secular and religious buildings from the 14th through the 16th centuries that are indebted to medieval building practices and designs within the larger and more established narratives of art history and architectural history.
The panelists in our sessions considered issues related to periodization, as well as the historiography of medieval architecture and its forms, while bringing to the fore the geographic expanse of the Gothic, its multifaceted meanings and functions in particular contexts of use and display, workshop practices and the movements of people and knowledge across the medieval world, as well as the development of local styles relative to competing traditions. Moving past the limitations of chronologically-driven studies that often privilege a singular, “ideal” moment in the life of a building, many of the papers investigated issues related to reception, spatial experience, coexistence, visual networks, urban identities, and meanings. In addition to the session speakers, we have invited several other scholars to contribute to this publication in efforts to expand its scope and approach to the topics under consideration. We wish to thank all of our authors for remaining steadfast and committed to this project each step of the way—especially given the unprecedented challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The resulting volume was made possible with generous support from the following institutions and organizations: the International Center of Medieval Art (ICMA), Tufts University, and Winthrop University. In particular, we are grateful for funding support from the ICMA through a Kress Foundation Research and Publication Grant, a Faculty Research Award from Tufts University, and the Dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Winthrop University.
We also wish to thank the Association Villard de Honnecourt for the Interdisciplinary Study of Technology, Science, and Art (AVISTA) for providing
Finally, we are indebted to our copyeditor, Annika Fisher, for her assistance and careful attention to detail; to our research and editorial assistant Rileigh K. Clarke from Tufts University for their invaluable assistance in the later stages of the project; to our indexer, Sever J. Voicu, for his thoughtful and detailed work on a tight deadline; and to Richard Thomson (rt-imagery.com), for designing the illuminating map in the introduction to the volume and several other plans of medieval churches.
Many mentors, colleagues, and friends have supported our work on this topic from the very beginning, especially Robert Bork. His work on late Gothic architecture, as well as his enthusiasm about issues related to its study and interpretation, encouraged us to pursue this project. We are grateful for his sustained interest in the present volume and the countless contributions he made to it.