List of Works Designed With The Golden Ratio - Gothic Era

Gothic Era

In his 1919 book Ad Quadratum, Frederik Macody Lund, a historian who studied the geometry of several gothic structures, claims that the Cathedral of Chartres (begun in the 12th century), the Notre-Dame of Laon (1157–1205), and the Notre Dame de Paris (1160) are designed according to the golden ratio. Other scholars argue that until Pacioli's 1509 publication (see next section), the golden ratio was unknown to artists and architects.

A 2003 conference on medieval architecture resulted in the book Ad Quadratum: The Application of Geometry to Medieval Architecture. According to a summary by one reviewer:

Most of the contributors consider that the setting out was done ad quadratum, using the sides of a square and its diagonal. This gave an incommensurate ratio of by striking a circular arc (which could easily be done with a rope rotating around a peg). Most also argued that setting out was done geometrically rather than arithmetically (with a measuring rod). Some considered that setting out also involved the use of equilateral or Pythagorean triangles, pentagons, and octagons. Two authors believe the Golden Section (or at least its approximation) was used, but its use in medieval times is not supported by most architectural historians.

The Australian architectural historian John James made a detailed study of the Cathedral of Chartres. In the page 157 of his work The master masons of Chartres defends that Bronze, one of the master masons, had used the golden ratio. It was the same relation that between the arms of their metal square:

Bronze by comparison was an innovator, in practical rather than in philosophic things. Amongst other things Bronze was one of the few masters to use the fascinating ratio of the golden mean. For the builder, the most important function Fi, as we write the golden mean, is that if the uses is consistently he will find that every subdivision, no matter how accidentally it may have been derived, will fit somewhere into the series. Is not too difficult a ratio to reproduce, and Bronze could have had the two arms of his metal square cut to represent it. All he would than have had to do was to place the square on the stone and, using the string draw between the corners, relate any two lengths by Fi. Nothing like making life easy.