The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 23 October 2001
by Allan Temko
The Parisian cathedral of Notre Dame is one of the architectural treasures of this planet. The site as well as the building are rich with an impossibly deep history. Allan Temko, writing in the 1950s, approached the building as a biographer. In this interesting and entertaining book, he looks at the fathers of the church, the royal sponsors, the builders and the worshippers. Through all, he entwines the history of the late Middle Ages in Paris and the countryside. We meet several of the key players in the construction of this monument, as well as a few who contributed to its decay. Maurice de Sully, perhaps, gets the most comprehensive treatment, as the Bishop of Paris who began the construction in 1160, on the foundations of an earlier Carolingian basilica. We follow the initial construction through to 1250, when Temko seems to consider the cathedral its most complete. Indeed, he favors the 12th and 13th century design and construction over the more ornate, yet less lively embellishments of later architects and builders. He laments the wanton destruction of such artistic treasures by the vicissitudes of history, most notably the French Revolution. And, like Lewis Mumford, he laments the loss of the social cohesion of medieval culture, though he doesn't neglect its injustices. Temko weaves history, personality, and architecture in his lively rendition of the church's "biography". He writes with enthusiasm (sometimes piously) and examines the imagery and iconography of the structure and its illustrations. Some of the ancient history of the Ile de la Cité is touched upon, as well as the building's inheritance and influence in history, as example of the Romanesque-to-Gothic transition. He manages to do all this in a mere 305 pages, so many questions are left unanswered. Nevertheless, Temko largely succeeds in bringing the Middle Ages to life, and invites the reader to experience the history that is still alive in a beautiful and massive building which now endures an onslaught of tourists.
(A new tragic chapter of this biography was written on April 15, 2019, when the cathedral roof caught fire in a spectacularly destructive conflagration.)
(Temko, writing for the San Francisco Chronicle, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for architectural criticism in 1990.)
(Victor Hugo wrote a large book with the same title, Notre Dame de Paris, which includes the famous tales of the Hunchback. Temko's book is liberally illustrated with black and white photographs in this 1968 edition. Since the story remains relevant, a newer edition is to be hoped for, though benefiting from up-to-date pictures and references.)
See Also: [Notre-Dame of Paris, by Victor Hugo]