History of the Cathedral Church of Wells

Edward Augustus FreemanProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.3
Word count
377K words
Chapters
38

Tags

English Originals Architecture Historical ReappraisalLocal GazetteerReligious ArchitectureArchitectural AnalysisEnglish CathedralsHumanistic CareAcademic MonographDocumentary NarrativeGothic StyleCross-Cultural View

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.History of the Cathedral Church of Wells by Edward A. FreemanAuthor: Freeman, Edward A. (Edward Augustus), 1823-1892,Language: English, Class: BX: Philosophy, Psychology, Religion: Christianity: Churches, Church movements, Release Date: Apr 18, 2014

Editor's review

This history of Wells Cathedral by Edward A. Freeman is a typical work of nineteenth-century English research on church architecture and local history. Using the cathedral building as its thread, the author traces its structure, stylistic evolution, and historical development, in prose marked by Victorian scholarly rigor and antiquarian interest. For readers familiar with English church architectural terminology, the discussions of components, plans, and dating are of considerable reference value; for general readers, it is more a historical source text requiring patient close reading. As a free eBook from Project Gutenberg, it is suitable as supplementary reading in architectural history, church history, or English local history, and for readers interested in Gothic cathedrals as further reference. It is best read alongside architectural images or on-site materials to offset the abstraction of purely textual description.

Who it's for

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Reading tips

  1. First consult a floor plan and photographs of Wells Cathedral, then read the book's descriptions alongside them.
  2. Take brief notes on architectural components and dating points by chapter for easy cross-reference.
  3. Mark specialized terms first and look them up after finishing a chapter, avoiding frequent interruptions.
  4. Read in parallel with a general history of English church architecture to build a background framework.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38

FAQ

Is this book in Chinese or English? According to the information, the book is in English; it is an English eBook released by Project Gutenberg, suitable for readers with some English reading ability.
Can I read it without a background in architecture? You can, but the book contains many technical descriptions of church components and stylistic dating, which will be difficult to understand without basic knowledge. It is advisable to first acquire some foundational knowledge of English church architecture, or read alongside images and reference materials.
Is this book suitable to read before traveling to Wells? It is more a scholarly work of architectural and historical research than a guidebook. If you want a quick overview before a trip, this book may not be efficient; but if you have a strong interest in architectural details, it can serve as in-depth background reading.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Edward Augustus Freeman Author · British · 1823–1892

Edward Augustus Freeman (1823–1892) was a British historian, architectural draughtsman and Liberal, born at Harborne in Warwickshire. Orphaned in early childhood, he was raised by his grandmother, graduated from Trinity College, Oxford, and from 1884 held the Regius Professorship of Modern History at Oxford. He died of smallpox at Alicante, Spain, in 1892. A prolific author, he is represented here by nine works spanning constitutional history, European history and travel writing. His constitutional histories trace the origins of English institutions in a careful, comparative manner, while his travel and local histories reflect an architectural draughtsman's eye for churches and townscapes observed on the ground. Public information on the details of his life is limited, yet the range of his subjects and the sober manner of his narrative still convey his approach to history.