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A New Material Interpretation of Twelfth-Century Architecture Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 May 2025
Abstract
Suger conceptualized the reconstruction of the church like he conceptualized the perfection of the gemstones that he adored. Suger's focus on those stones and on the church was grounded in the matter theory and theology of his time. The church in this context can be understood as a giant jewel. Gem, church, and cosmos were equally the body of Christ to be completed in the form that God intended. For Suger the fact that the bread of the Eucharist became the body of Christ prefigured the ultimate goal for the terrestrial realm. Suger's material way, his ‘mistaken’ addition to Paul, offered a sophisticated and careful path to completing God's divine plan, within which the abbot bridged heaven and earth.
Keywords: the material way, the body of Christ, anagogy, architecture, reconstruction, and restoration
Ex ipsa matris ecclesiae affectione crebo considerantes … corde tenus suspirando: ‘Omnis inquam lapis preciosus operimentum tuum, sardius, topazius, jaspis, crisolitus, onix et berillus, saphirus, carbunculus et smaragdus.’ De quorum numero, preter solum carbunculum, nullum deesse, immo copiosissime abundare, gemmarum proprietatem cognoscentibus cum summa ammiratione claret. Unde, cum ex dilectione decoris domus Dei aliquando multicolor, gemmarum speciositas ab exintrinsecis me curis devocaret, sanctarum etiam diversitatem virtutum, de materialibus ad inmaterialia transferendo, honesta meditatio insistere persuaderet, videor videre me quasi sub aliqua extranea orbis terrarum plaga, quae nec tota sit in terrarum fece nec tota in coeli puritate, demorari, ab hac etiam inferiori ad illam superiorem anagogico more Deo donante posse transferri.
Often we contemplate, out of sheer affection for the church our mother … sighing deeply in my heart: ‘Every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, the topaz, and the jasper, the chrysolite, and the onyx, and the beryl, the sapphire, and the carbuncle, and the emerald.’ To those who know the properties of precious stones it becomes evident, to their utter astonishment, that none is absent from the number of these (with the only exception of the carbuncle), but that they abound most copiously.
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