PARIS AND HER CATHEDRALS

An exploration of six great cathedrals in Paris.

In his latest book—part travel guide, part history book, and part homage—Bloch, a professor of French and humanities at Yale, provides a thorough account of the “monumental churches” of Saint-Denis, Notre-Dame, Chartres, Sainte-Chapelle, Amiens, and Reims, all from a variety of perspectives. In each case, Bloch discusses the predecessor buildings that stood on the sites of the current cathedrals. Many of these histories are surprisingly ancient. Saint-Denis, for instance, “had been the burial place of French kings, beginning with the Frankish leader Dagobert, who died in 639.” These histories, which wind through medieval times into the Renaissance, offer intriguing tales of court politics, church power, and cultural change. Each capsule history also seems touched by two of the great enemies of Parisian cathedrals: fire and the French Revolution. Fire has been an ever present threat, most recently destroying Notre-Dame in 2019. However, the revolution was just as devastating for most of the cathedrals. Bloch examines the art and architecture of each cathedral in great depth, noting that the art was not merely decorative or sacred, but also practical for elucidating sermons and lessons. “In an age in which few could read or write and literacy was the sign of a clerical education, the cathedral was, in the popular phrase, ‘a poor man’s Bible’ and a teaching tool,” writes the author. “The priest preaching a sermon might illustrate his lesson by pointing to the astonishing array of sculpture and stained glass illustrations of biblical figures and stories by which he was surrounded.” Though the text is well written and filled with meaningful information, general readers may be overwhelmed by countless descriptions of sculpture and stained glass, which tend to blur together. The book contains nearly 100 photographs.

Useful for tourists, students of French culture, and historians of Christianity.