Adam

Domus Dei: Poland's Wooden Places of Worship

1998Best.-Nr. 4571Bosz 1998. 1st Edition . Hardcover. Fine/Good. Cloth hardcover 32 x 24 cm 1345g bilingual Pol/Eng 173 pages 3 illustrated throughout with colour photos glossy paper NOT ex-library. Book is clean and bright throughout with unmarked text free of inscriptions and stamps firmly bound. In an untorn moderately shelfworn dust jacket scratches short creases. -- "Stanislaw Vincenz often witnessed the birth of a peasant's cottage in the Huculszczyzna. A place of worship is also a dwelling though special in kind. The carpenters prudently went about its construction carefully selecting the beams storing cutting and joining as required. The House of God was not just meant for a moment but to stand and serve for centuries. Slowly it was to grow into the surrounding landscape absorbing all the flavours of its congregation imbuing the smell of burning candle-wax and frankincense and the aroma of fresh boughs of fir and flowers. And finally it was to age and disintegrate along the life-lines of the tree. The longer it stood the greater the master who built it. It may safely be said that the medieval churches which have survived to our own age were erected by the very best of the best. Only a master knew the code of the convoluted lines which beam to select for framework which for rafters and which only for shingles or timbering. 'From the way he put them together - you could easily tell the master who had patiently joined up all the beam-lines into a single plane as if a singular mysterious image. For a master would build without overdue care for paperwork or even for numbers hence he did not note down or number things. He would remember every board and knew every beam.' Only very rarely would carpenters leave their names inscribed in the timber preferring anonymity. They wanted to be recognised through their work. Vincenz wrote 'He who can read the images of the cross-sections will decipher the master and recognise him anywhere and know the master became blood-brother to the wood. The master would have been pleased to have been discerned not through vain repute but through his handiwork.' Many vestiges of that brotherhood survive in Poland where once vast expanses of forest stretched and Nature supplied Man with an everyday stock of material to build his civilisation. So it was once in the old Commonwealth of Poland. Wood was the resource for the first castles and strongholds fortalices cottages country houses and palaces. But another class of fine dwellings erected here were the houses for divine worship. These magnificent places of prayer traditionally built in wood for many religions rites and denominations still stand today. They still testify to the brotherhood that extraordinary union of Man with Nature and to its unique fruits. The mastercraftsmen not only had to know the wood but also to understand their patrons' wishes and to put them into their own language - the language of the beams braces trusses logs and cupolas. Just how they met the many challenges is best displayed in their works. There is probably no other country in Europe - and very few elsewhere - with wooden edifices for the divine worship of Christianity Islam and Judaism. Inside them for centuries people have been praying in various tongues invoking the Deity in a multiplicity of names. But the master-builder has always been the same. And will be recognised by one able to read his works. The Roman Catholic churches are the most numerous understandably. The oldest as regards indisputable dating is at Zborowek with the year 1459 carved into a board to mark its foundation. Haczow Church may go back even to the mid-14th century thus a counterpart of the last monarch of the Piast dynasty." from the Introduction. -- Contents: Roman Catholic Churches; Lutheran Churches; Uniate Catholic Churches; Orthodox Churches; Old Believers' Prayer-Houses; Mosques; Synagogues: Places of Worship No Longer Extant; Glossary; Map Bosz hardcover

killarneybooks · Irland49,50 €

Adam

Adam

Jahrhundert

Sprache

Land des Anbieters

Fotos

Hinzugefügt

Themen

Kataloge

Jahrhundert

Sprache

Land des Anbieters

Fotos

Hinzugefügt

Themen

Kataloge

Jahrhundert

Sprache

Land des Anbieters

Fotos

Hinzugefügt

Themen

Kataloge