Shines scholarly light on the history of the great cathedrals of Europe and uncovers the wealth of human stories they hold. Thanks to the expertise and insight Emma provides in this episode, we are also able to uncover some of the secrets and stories of these beautiful buildings that might otherwise pass us by. It's to Wells's credit that she manages to make the history of these cathedrals as gripping as she does. But if cathedrals were in some sense bounden to the affirmatory heft of secular authority, they were also a bulwark against it.

It is this remarkable flowering of ecclesiastical architecture that forms the central core of Emma Wells's authoritative but accessible study of the golden age of the cathedral. Stunningly illustrated and endlessly illuminative, Wells’ authoritative yet accessible volume on the golden age of the cathedral leads the reader on a fascinating journey through 1000 years of striking ecclesiastical architecture. For more details, please consult the latest information provided by Royal Mail's International Incident Bulletin. It is this remarkable flowering of ecclesiastical architecture that forms the central core of Emma Wells’s authoritative but accessible study of the golden age of the cathedral. Wells, a historian, broadcaster and author of Heaven on Earth: The Lives and Legacies of the World’s Greatest Cathedrals.

Captures the particularity of these cathedrals, and…is filled with tales of local patrons, craftsmen and the wider politics of the kingdoms in which these cathedrals were built. As Emma tells us in this episode, her interest in cathedrals was sparked while she was studying history of art at university, where she became fascinated by “the elements of ecclesiastical buildings that you wouldn’t know were there unless you studied them”.

The emergence of the Gothic style in twelfth-century France, characterized by pointed arches, rib vaults, flying buttresses and large windows, forms the central core of Emma Wells’s authoritative but accessible study of the golden age of the cathedral. But, as with any marketing campaign, consumer enthusiasm wasn’t a given: in October 1247 Henry III walked barefoot from St Paul’s to Westminster to promote the latter’s acquisition of some holy blood from the wound of Christ, but neither the stunt nor the relic fired the public imagination. Santiago de Compostela was built on the site of the supposed tomb of St James, martyred in c44; Notre-Dame de Saint-Denis stands where the third-century missionary-martyr Saint Dionysius finally fell after his beheading on Montmartre. Transporting the reader from the chaotic atmosphere of the masons’ yard to the cloisters of power, each chapter is a journey of exploration through a different cathedral. It has the sometimes supplicant, sometimes competitive, sometimes accommodating relationship with state power that was required to build something on this scale and at this expense.The glossary of technical terms provided is useful and the photography is wonderful; but some drawings to illustrate the more detailed descriptive passages would have been welcome. Wells has written an accessible, authoritative and lavishly illustrated account of the building of 16 of ‘the world’s greatest cathedrals… The book gives full weight to the wealth of legends associated with cathedrals. Moreover, the intersection of pilgrims and relics also made cathedrals into engines of the divine: St James had produced just eight recognised miracles in his first thousand years. We use Google Analytics to see what pages are most visited, and where in the world visitors are visiting from.

William offered him as many trees from a nearby royal wood as Walkelin’s carpenters could cut in three days.An epilogue will then explore the evolution of the role and influence of the cathedral across art, culture, and society from Coventry to California, and the changing styles in our midst. Wells’ selection runs from Istanbul’s sixth-century Hagia Sophia to Florence’s 15th-century Santa Maria del Fiore, but its primary focus is the pinnacle of the Age of Gothic – roughly from 1140 to 1280 – as manifested in England and France. They were built to embody the celestial city itself while also transporting the faithful towards it: it’s surely more than coincidence that the term ‘nave’ derives from the Latin navis, or ‘ship’. She describes their origins, the striking and unusual stories attached to them and the people central to their history.