The course is broken down into 10 units over 10 weeks, each requiring approximately 10 hours of study time. The following topics are covered:
Week 1: Opening themes
• Time
• Culture
• Place
• Cathedrals and other churches
• Great churches
Week 2: Looking at cathedral architecture
• Looking at buildings
• Form and style
• A cathedral plan
• The cathedral in three dimensions
• The cathedral interior
• Light and liturgy
• Change over time
Week 3: Architecture and worship
• The function of a church
• Architecture and liturgy
• Medieval Christianity
• The Eucharist
• Fittings: screens, doors and altars
• Other forms of worship
• Ideas about the afterlife
• Shrines, tombs and lady chapels
• Architectural symbolism and decoration
• Ancillary buildings
Week 4: the Anglo-Saxon cathedrals, c.600 - c.1070
• Medieval society
• Medieval time: the modern view
• Landmark events
• Case study I: Canterbury
• Time: the medieval view
• The roots of the cathedrals
• The later Anglo-Saxon cathedrals
• Case study II: The old minster, Winchester
Week 5: The Romanesque cathedrals: Normans and Angevins, c.1066 - 1250
• Architecture and invasion
• Romanesque cathedral architecture
• Conquering: the 1070s
• Conqueror: the 1080s
• Conquered: the 1090s
• Case study III: Durham
• The Romanesque achievement
Week 6: From Romanesque to Gothic, c.1110 - c.1200
• 12th century cultural developments
• Romanesque in the 12th century
• Gothic origins and understanding Gothic
• Style in the late 12th century
• Developments in form
• The pattern of building, c1170 - c.1250
• The late 12th century rebuilds and ‘cathedralness’
• Case study IV: Lincoln
Week 7: The Early English cathedrals, c.1200 - c.1270
• Early English building patterns
• Understanding Early English
• The Episcopal style
• The screen façade
• Innovations
• Cast study V: Salisbury
Week 8: Decorated cathedrals – the later Middle Ages, 1250-1350
• The decorated style: development and patterns of building
• Understanding Decorated
• Polygonal spaces: Lady Chapels and chapter houses
• Cast study VI: Exeter
• Inventing perpendicular
Week 9: The perpendicular cathedrals, c.1350 - c.1530
• Architecture and society: the late medieval period
• Perpendicular cathedrals: the pattern of building
• Understanding perpendicular
• Perpendicular bell towers
• The cage chantry
• Iconography and meaning
• Cast study VII: Winchester (and Bath)
• Late or Tudor perpendicular
Week 10: The Reformation and afterwards
• Reformation and dissolution
• Case study VIII: York and its saints
• The impact of reform
• The cathedrals, c.1550 - c.1850
• From the 19th century to the present day
We strongly recommend that you try to find a little time each week to engage in the online conversations (at times that are convenient to you) as the forums are an integral, and very rewarding, part of the course and the online learning experience.