2000.1

HADINGHAM, EVAN. "Ready, Aim, Fire!," Smithsonian, vol. 30 no. 10, January 2000, pp. 78-87.

The account of building and testing two trebuchets beside Loch Ness, Scotland in October-November 1998. One of these was built by a crew headed by Renaud Beffeyte (see 2004.7) and based on the plan (fol. 30r) in the Villard portfolio. After various adjustments, both machines worked. Beffeyte's trebuchet had a "throwing arm" forty-two feet long and used over two tons of sand in hinged baskets as a counterweight.

The article states (p. 85), "The notebook offers a unique glimpse of the mind of a master architect or engineer, a medieval Leonardo, although Villard's precise professional status and career are unknown."

There is no illustration of fol.30r, but a diagram (p. 84) illustrates the mechanics of Villard's trebuchet.

2000.2

CHICAGO, UNIVERSITY OF (Donald L. Ehresmann). The Sketchbook of Villard de Honnecourt. http://www.uic.edu/classes/ah/ah243/ah248-384.html

Part of the review materials for a course (AH 243 Medieval Art 2) taught in the Department of Art History, six black and white images from the portfolio are reproduced: fols. 10r (Laon tower elevation), 14v (Cambrai plan), 15r (two church plans), 24v (frontal view of Leo), 32r (Reims mouldings and templates) and 31v (Reims interior and exterior elevations). The images appear to be taken partly from photographs of the original leaves and partly from the Lassus facsimile edition (F.I).

The portfolio, called a sketchbook, is dated ca. 1220. There is no commentary on the images or any speculation about Villard.

2000.3

JENSENIUS, JØRGEN H. "Research in medieval Norwegian wooden churches: relevance of available sources," Nordisk Arkitekturforskning [Nordic Journal of Architectural Research], vol. 4, 2000, pp. 7-23.

The Villard portfolio, called an "album" and a "notebook," is mentioned several times as a source that combines practical and theoretical aspects of design, thus (p. 11) "bridging the gap between 'doing' and 'explaining' in writing."

The author, an architect now earning a Ph.D. at the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research, notes (p. 13) that [Villard's] "texts are written in the vernacular of the building craftsmen, replete with the technical terminology and the colloquial phrasing of the carpenter or masons."

A detail of fol. 18v, taken from Bucher F.VII, showing a castle whose gable is determined by a pentagram is included.

2000.4

BINDING, GÜNTHER. "Musterbuch eines Werkmeisters: Villard de Honnecourt." In Was ist Gotik? Eine Analyse der gotischen Kirchen in Frankreich, England, und Deutschland, 1140-1350. Darmstadt (Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft): Primus Verlag, pp. 77-80.

A summary discussion/analysis of a number of the architectural drawings in the Villard portfolio, called a Musterbuch and dated ca. 1220-1230. Offers no new information about or interpretation of Villard, called a Werkmeister in the title. No mention is made of his profession in the text.

Reproduces after Lassus or Bibliothèque Nationale negatives fols. 9v, 10r, 10v, 14v, 17r, 18r, 30v, 31r, 31v, 32r, and 32v.

2000.5

CHAUFFERT-YVART, BRUNO. "Villard de Honnecourt." In Reims, la cathédrale. Paris: Zodiaque, pp. 155-162.

A brief but careful analysis of Villard's drawings of Reims (fols. 30v, 31r, 31v, 32r, 32v), detailing how each differs from the building itself and an explanation of why. For example, the author proposes that Villard added crenellations to the radiating chapels of Reims (fol. 31r) for "le projet qu'il envisage pour l'église de Cambrai."

Villard's visit to Reims is dated before 1221, when the vaults of the axial radiating chapel were in place but not shown by Villard in his interior view of the chapel (fol. 30v). [It could be argued that the drawing was made after the vaults were in place but that they were omitted by Villard because he could not figure a way to draw the vaults without covering the pattern of the chapel windows.]

Reproduces each of the Reims leaves, as specified above.

2000.6

HISCOCK, NIGEL. The Wise Master Builder: Platonic Geometry in Plans of Medieval Abbeys and Cathedrals, Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.

Within the context of studying how geometry was used in devising church plans in the middle ages, various aspects of Villard's portfolio are examined. The spire design on fol. 20v proves that numerical (1 : 8 in this case) were used in design, but neither the drawing nor the caption is by Villard, being palimpsest additions to the portfolio (p.182) sometime between 1250 and 1255.

Villard himself did understand design ad quadratum, the use of grids of squares, for example, in the face-in-the-square (fol. 19v). He also understood the use of Platonic geometry as a basis of design, proved by his geometric-overlay figures on fols. 18r, 18v, and 19r, even though he made some errors.

It is not clear beyond doubt that Villard or his followers understood the Vitruvian principle of quadrature or rotation of squares. The examples most frequently cited (the planning of a cloister, halving a stone, and making a cloister so that the area of the walk is the same as the courtyard) are not by Villard and may, in fact, be based on a scheme of counting similar triangles.

Hiscock makes (p. 190) this interesting observation:

His [Villard's] initial intention seems clearly to have been to record interesting novelties encountered on his travels. In addition to sketches of architectural ideas, it includes classical statuary, wild animals, gadgets and any other detail that caught his eye for future reference. Since there was little point in filling pages of expensive parchment with the familiar, it should follow that anything that was familiar to him as common practice would not by definition be found in the book in the first place, not, that is, until the pages of exemplars were added later.

The author concludes that geometry appears to have been used for practical for both symbolic purposes, however much or little Villard may have been aware of the latter. Villard displays a routine familiarity with the figures of Platonic geometry, especially on fol. 18c, which he appears to use as a mnemonic guide.

Hiscock notes (p. 171) that Villard was a keen architecture enthusaist "despite uncertainty as to his occupation." Throughout the portfolio is termed a "sketchbook."

Reproduces a number of leaves and details from leaves after Bucher F.VII.

2000.7

KERN, HERMAN. Through the Labyrinth, Designs and Meanings over 5000 Years, Munich-London-New York: Prestel, 2000.

States (p. 153) that Villard’s labyrinth was “…of, not a model for…” the Chartres nave labyrinth, dated ca. 1230. Kern denies (p. 192) that Villard’s labyrinth drawing was of the labyrinth at Saint-Quentin, noting that its path is black whereas at Chartres the path is white, and he concludes that “Villard’s authorship of Saint-Quentin is highly speculative.”

Reproduces Villard’s labyrinth from a photographic negative.

===================================================================

2001.1

SEKULES, VERONICA. Medieval Art, Oxford History of Art, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.

A survey of later medieval art treated thematically rather than chronologically. Villard is mentioned only in passing. His portfolio, called a "sketchbook," is dated 1230-1240. The focus is on Villard's drawing techniques, and he is termed (p. 55) "a practitioner in architecture and associated crafts."

The author notes the variety of Villard's interests and especially the importance of geometry to his drawings: "… however immediate the impression created on him by his subject, it seems the artist had to transform it methodically, using his training and professional techniques in drawing and geometry."

Reproduces fols. 19v and 28r (rotated 180°) from photographic negatives, carefully cropped and called, in the photographic credits, fols. 38r and 88r.

2001.2

CLARK, WILLIAM W. "Villard's Drawings of Reims Cathedral," AVISTA Forum Journal, vol. 12/2 (Fall 2001), pp. 13-14.

The abstract of a paper presented at the Thirty-Fifth International Congress on Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo, MI, in May 2000. See 2004.4.

The author argues that the discrepancies between Villard's drawings of Reims and the actual building may be explained by the fact that he made the drawings sometime after his visit(s) to the cathedral, and represent what he remembered as the most distinctive aspects of the building.

2001.3

BECHMANN, ROLAND. "Geometry and Symbolism in Villard's 'Tomb of a Saracen,'" AVISTA Forum Journal, vol. 12/2 (Fall 2001), p. 14.

The abstract of a paper presented at the Thirty-Fifth International Congress on Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo, MI, in May 2000. See 2004.8.

Questions whether Villard's "sepulture d'un sarrazin" (fol. 6r) was an ancient tomb that Villard had seen, pointing out that its geometry is that Villard used elsewhere as part of his mnemonic technique.

The author proposes that the drawing may symbolically reflect Villard's initiation into the Compagnons de Devoir.

2001.4

ALEXANDER, JENNIFER S. "Masons' Marks in the Portfolio [of Villard de Honnecourt]," AVISTA Forum Journal, vol. 12/2 (Fall 2001), p. 14.

The abstract of a paper presented at the Thirty-Fifth International Congress on Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo, MI, in May 2000. See 2004.5.

Proposes that Villard's mouldings and ciphers on fol. 32v reflect actual details found in the fabric of Reims, and that the combination can be explained as a means of assuring that asymmetrical structural components could be assembled correctly.

2001.5

SNYDER, JANET. "Costumes in the Portfolio [of Villard de Honnecourt]," AVISTA Forum Journal, vol. 12/2 (Fall 2001), p. 14.

The abstract of a paper presented at the Thirty-Fifth International Congress on Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo, MI, in May 2000. See 2004.6.

An overview arguing that Villard clothed some figures in costumes from ancient statues and others with actual contemporary garments and fabrics.

2001.6

BARNES, CARL F. JR. "What's in a Name? The Portfolio of Villard de Honnecourt," AVISTA Forum Journal, vol. 12/2 (Fall 2001), pp. 14-15.

Considers the various names by which the assemblage of Villard's drawings are known and argues that authors have given a name depending on what they wanted the drawings, collectively, to be (e.g., Hans Hahnloser: Bauhüttebuch) or that some designations are inaccurate and misleading (e.g., "notebook," "sketchbook").

The author concludes that the best accurate and unprejudiced designation is "portfolio," defined in the American Heritage Dictionary as "a portable case for holding material, such as loose papers, photographs, or drawings."

2001.7

BARNES, CARL F. JR. Review of Wilhelm Schlink, "War Villard de Honnecourt Analphabet?" (1993.3) in AVISTA Forum Journal, vol. 12/2 (Fall 2001), pp. 15-17.

2001.8

BUGSLAG, JAMES. "'contrafais al vif': nature, ideas and representation in the lion drawings of Villard de Honnecourt," Word & Image, vol. 17 (October-December 2001), pp. 360-378.

Bugslag explains the melding of Aristoteliansim and Platonism ("Aristotelianized Neoplatonism" or "Neoplatonic Aristotelianism") in the 13th century and argues that Villard was aware of the developing science of his time. On p. 363 the author states clearly that Villard's lion on fol. 24v was not drawn directly from life (although Villard may sometime earlier have seen an actual lion) and that the geometric underlay of the head and the chest is Villard's method of trying to capture the important essentials of lions, proved in part by his text which Bugslag calls a titulus. The drawing of lion training on fol. 24r from a literary source: "It is unthinkable that Villard would have actually witnessed such a fantastic and patently ridiculous episode of lion training." These claims should be compared with those of Perkinson, 2004.9.

Bugslag claims that Villard was not an architect and proposes (p. 374) that "… it is tempting to see in Villard a member of a growing class, an educated lay person, probably of middle-class or minor noble status, who sought an occupation in the mechanical arts. If I had to hazard a guess at his occupation myself, I might suggest that of custos operis, a clerk of the works …"

Dates the drawings ca. 1225 to 1235.

Reproduces fols. (called pages) 5r, 18v, 23v, 24r, 24v, and 26v, after the Hahnloser facsimile (F.IV).

2001.9

KURMANN, PETER and ALAIN VILLES. Reims, la cathédrale Notre-Dame, Paris: Éditions du patrimonie, 2000.

One page (18) is devoted to Villard's drawings of Reims, explaining their innacuracies as being due to the fact that he visited the workshop before the upper parts of the building were complete.

Reproduces fols. 30v and 31v after Lassus.

2001.10

BINDING, GÜNTHER. Medieval Building Techniques, Stroud: Tempus Publishing Ltd., 2001.

Note: 2001 is the copyright date of the orginal German edition. This English translation, by Alex Cameron, dates in 2004.

A book of some 900 redrawings (and an occasional photograph) of manuscript illumination, relief, and stained glass depictions of medieval building techniques and tools up to ca. 1500.

Item 469 (p. 152) contains six redrawings from the Villard portfolio, called a "Sample book" and dated ca. 1225-1235: measuring the height of a tower (fol. 20v), screw hoist, level, stablizing structure, and underwater saw (fol. 23r), hydraulic saw (fol. 22v). Reference is made to a cord (fol. 32r) but nothing is shown.

===================================================================

2002.1

COLDSTREAM, NICOLA. Medieval Architecture, Oxford History of Art, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 80-81.

One mention only of Villard, in which the author characterizes the portfolio in the following terms: "The earliest survivor [of architectural drawings], the portfolio of drawings on parchment sheets assembled by Villard de Honnecourt around 1230, has been shown not to be a lodgebook, but the idiosyncratic jottings of a man who could draw designs for metalwork, copy out moulding profiles, geometric constructions, and designs of machinery, but who was incapable of accurately recording an architectural detail even when it was in front of his eyes."

No illustrations.

2002.2

ZENNER, MARIE-THÉRÈSE. “Imaging a Building: Latin Euclid and Practical Geometry,” Word, Image, Number: Communication in the Middle Ages, eds. John J. Contreni and Santa Casciani (Florence, 2002), pp. 219-246.

Argues that Euclidian geometry was more widely known in 13th-century Europe than has been thought to be the case, and that there is not the sharp distinction that usually is made between Euclidian or university geometry and what Lon R. Shelby called (1972.6) constructive geometry (cf.2004.3) . The Villard portfolio is brought in (pp. 231-236) as one of the proofs that Euclidian geometry was used by craftsmen and surveyors. The author cites two drawings on fol. 20r by so-called Master II that concern measuring distance and height based on Euclid.

The author next analyzes the drawing of two flamingos on fol. 18v as being based on Euclid's propositions 1.1 and 1.22. The author makes (p. 234) the unique proposal that the inscription on fol. 18r refers specifically to the drawing of the flamingos, not to all the materials in the two bifolios that constitute the quire. The last drawings discussed are the first two on fol. 20r that concern how to locate the center of a column.

Reproduces fols. 20r, 20v, and a detail of fol. 18v (as modified by Roland Bechmann) after the Lassus edition lithographs.

2002.3

ZENNER, MARIE-THÉRÈSE. "Villard de Honnecourt and Euclidian Geometry," Nexus Network Journal, vol. 4 no. 4 (Autumn 2002), pp. 65-78; also: http://www.nexusjournal.com/Zenner.html.

This is one of several studies (2002.2; 2003.2) by the author in which essentially the same points are made: (a) that Euclidian geometry was known and used in 13th century Europe; (b) that there was not at that time so sharp a division between academic (university) geometry and practical or constructional geometry as has been commonly believed (see also 2004.3); and (c) that certain drawings in the Villard portfolio prove that Euclidian propositions were known.

2002.4

ZENNER, MARIE-THÉRÈSE. "Structural Stability and the Mathematics of Motion in Medieval Architecture," Nexus, Architecture and Mathematics, ed. Kim Williams and José Rodrigues, Fucecchino [Florence], 2002, pp. 63-79.

In the context of a discussion of the geometric planning of the church of St. Étienne at Nevers, the Villard portfolio is brought in. The author claims (p. 69), based on discussions/correspondence with Renaud Beffeyte (see 2004.7), that the sheep on fol. 18v represents the 'passport' of the stonemason and provides the basis for drawing a five-pointed star. On p. 71 the author reports that the profile horse head on the same folio is the 'passport' of the carpenter "and serves as a mnemonic device for the uses of a 60° triangle, one-sixth part of a hexagon."

Reproduces details from fols. 18v and 21r.

2002.5

GRAMACCINI, NORBERTO. “Was bedeutet das Schwein neben dem Löwen in Villard de Honnecourts Zeichnung?,” Re-Visionen. Zur Aktualität der Kunstgeschichte, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, pp.33-48.

Not yet read.

2002.6

SCHÜTZ, , BERNARD. Great Cathedrals, New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, 2002.

Terms (p. 17) the Villard Portfolio as one of the two most important sources for "the building activities" and writes that Villard "was well traveled, and knew Reims especially well. His book is an instructive annotated collection of sample drawings from which we learn that the architect was responsible for all the tasks that arose on the site." Terms the Portfolio a "site log" of the architect Villard de Honnecourt and dates the drawings 1220/1240.

===================================================================

2003.1

ROSS, LESLIE. “The Medieval Architect: Villard de Honnecourt?,” Artists of the Middle Ages, Artists of an Era, Westport and London: Greenwood Press, 2003, pp. 61-79.

Ross carefully reviews the state of knowledge about Villard, noting that we know little about him, only what can be gleaned from the portfolio, called a “sketchbook.” The author deals with several different Villard “issues:” “Villard the Genius, (pp. 73-74), the tradition of comparing Villard with Vitruvius and Leonardo da Vinci; “Villard the Metalworker” (pp. 74-75); and “Villard the Mysterious” (pp. 75-76). This is one of the best succinct overviews of the "state of the question" in print.

Depending on the English translations by Bowie (F.V) the author twice misquotes what Villard said: that the Laon tower was “the finest he had seen:” and implying that Villard drew a window at Reims because he had been invited to go to Hungary.” What he or his scribe wrote is: “I had been sent into the land of Hungary when I drew it because I liked it best.”

Reproduces fol. 9v (misidentified as fol. 10) from a photographic negative.

2003.2

ZENNER, MARIE-THÉRÈSE. “Villard de Honnecourt et la géometrie euclidienne,” Pour la Science, Dossier no.37, Les sciences au Moyen Âge (October 2002-January 2003), pp. 108-109.

This is a French version of 2002.3 lacking the extensive footnoting therein.

Zenner concludes (p. 109): “Ainsi, le manuscrit de Villard doit être reconnu comme un monument clé dans l’histoire de la transmission des connaissances mathématiques en Occident, que ce soit pour l’architecture ou pour la mécanique.”

2003.3

REVEYRON, NICOLAS. “Marques lapidaries” The State of the Question,” Gesta, vol. 42 (2003), pp. 161-170.

Illustrates (p.164 fig. 3), redrawn, some of Villard’s marques lapidaries (masons marks) found on fol. 32r and identifies them as “location marks” within the broader category of “construction marks.” Reveryon believes (p. 163) that Villard’s marks were intended to identify stones destined for particular architectural elements, in Villard’s case mainly window tracery.

2003.4

SAUERLÄNDER, WILLIBALD. “Antiqui et Moderni at Reims,” Gesta, vol. 42 (2003), pp. 19-37.

The thesis of this study is that the "classical" stone statues at Reims from the years 1220-1240 owe their style to metalwork from the area of Trier in Upper Lotharingia, a style surplanted by the "modern" style of Paris, as seen in the famous smiling angels on the west facade portals. Villard is brought in (p. 32) with the statement "This figure [= Villard's clean-shaven standing apostle (?) on fol. 28r] was certainly not drawn after a statue at Reims, but it shows that the degeneration of the vocabulary of the Antiqui into meaninglessness must have been widespread in Champagne and Flanders around 1230."

In footnote 48 the author states that the notion that "certain figures in Villard's drawings were drawn after real [stone] sculptures is difficult to accept. The notion of a northern artist around 1230 drawing statues from life is highly improbable per se." This does not seem to take into account Villard's drawings of antique nudes on fol. 22r.

Reproduces part of fol. 28r after a negative in the Bibliothèque nationale de Paris attributed to the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, Munich.

===================================================================

2004.1

STOKSTAD, MARILYN. Medieval Art, 2nd ed., Boulder: Westview Press, 2004.

Has a half-page box devoted to Villard on p. 283 in which the author acknowledges this author by name as one of the scholars who questions the view that Villard was an architect. Stokstad notes that the collection of drawings is usually called a “sketchbook” but is in fact a portfolio.

Illustrates fol. 19r in a photographic reproduction. The caption says that it represents a “pair of draped female figures,” but there is only one female figure illustrated on the folio. There appear to be two draped female figures on fol. 1v.

The drawing is dated 1230-1240 whereas Villard’s travels are dated in the 1220s.

2004.2

SHORTELL, ELLEN M. “Turris Basilicae Innixe: The Western Tower of the Collegiate Church of Saint-Quentin,” Perspectives for an Architecture of Solitude, Essays on Cistercians, Art and Architecture in Honour of Peter Fergusson, Turnhout: Cîteaux: Commentarii Cisterciensis, Medieval Church Studies 11/ Studia et Documenta 13, 2004, pp. 343-352.

Anaylzes (pp. 348-350) the likelihood of the pavement of the Chapel of St. Michael in the western tower of Saint-Quentin being associated with Villard (a claim first made in 1864.1).and concludes that the pavement dates at least twenty years before Villard could have been at Saint-Quentin if, indeed, he ever was there. The pavement design was fairly common and widespread, one example being in Hungary that Villard drew. Gives (p.348 n. 19) bibliography of comparable pavements.

2004.3

HISCOCK, NIGEL. "Architectural Geometry and the Portfolio of Villard de Honnecourt," Villard's Legacy: Studies in Medieval Technology, Science and Art in Memory of Jean Gimpel, ed. Marie-Thérèse Zenner, AVISTA Studies in the History of Science, Technology and Art, vol. 2 (Aldershot, 2004), pp. 3-21.

Proposes that Villard used the square, pentagon, and equilateral triangle in his drawings, these ultimately going back to Plato's Timaeus, in addition to square schematism. The author offers (pp. 10-13) an explanation of the enigmatic drawing on fol. 21r (the drawing designated "h" in Hahnloser's (F.IV) scheme) of an inverted equilateral arch. The article next has a discussion of the Vesica piscis, the geometric shape formed within the overlap of two equal circles through eachother's centers.

Hiscock notes (p. 21) that while patron may have understood geometry as symbolic (an equilateral triangle as symbol of the Trinty) and mason understood geometry as a way of working, "...rigid distinctions that continue to be made between practical, theoretical, and allegorical geometry are likely to be more modern than medieval."

Reproduces fols. 6v, 7r and details of 14v, 17r, and 21r after the Lassus edition lithographs.

2004.4

CLARK, WILLIAM W. "Reims Cathedral in the Portfolio of Villard de Honnecourt," Villard's Legacy: Studies in Medieval Technology, Science and Art in Memory of Jean Gimpel, ed. Marie-Thérèse Zenner, AVISTA Studies in the History of Science, Technology and Art, vol. 2 (Aldershot, 2004), pp. 23-51.

One of the most thorough analyses anywhere of Villard's drawings (fols. 30v, 31r, 31v, 32r, 32v) of Reims, treating in exhaustive detail the pier and molding profiles on fol. 32r, showing how they correspond in some cases to other Villard drawings and to architectural components of the actual building.

The author does not believe that Villard was an architect, but he proposes (p. 44) that he was "…an accurate and observant recorder of the visual experience [of visiting Reims]." Clark explains the discrepancies of Villard's drawings from the building itself not as blunders (cf. 2002.1) but of his consciously altering details and proportions, especially, to fit his own taste and in doing so with the main vessel elevation on fol. 31v anticipated the proportions of Amiens.

Reproduces fol. 31v and a number of details of Villard's drawings after the Lassus edition lithographs.

2004.5

ALEXANDER, JENNIFER S. "Villard de Honnecourt and Masons' Marks," Villard's Legacy: Studies in Medieval Technology, Science and Art in Memory of Jean Gimpel, ed. Marie-Thérèse Zenner, AVISTA Studies in the History of Science, Technology and Art, vol. 2 (Aldershot, 2004), pp. 53-69.

Identifies three uses of masons' marks in the Middle Ages: banker marks (identifiers for individual masons being paid by the piecework basis), quarry marks (identifers of the source or site destination of a stone), and assembly marks (job-specific identifiers as to where a given stone is to be placed in construction). The marks found in Villard's Reims drawings (fols. 30v, 31v, 32r) appear to be this third type. Assembly marks can be of two types: lines from one stone to the next or the same design (star, head in profile) on two stones at the points where they must meet.

The author admits (p. 66) that Villard's role in this process, if any, "remains elusive" and it may be that "Villard was not familiar with this material [which was new at Reims] and was receiving instruction in it."

Reproduces details of fols. 9v, 10v, 20v, and 32r after the Lassus edition lithographs.

2004.6

SNYDER, JANET. "Costumes in the Portfolio of Villard de Honnecourt," Villard's Legacy: Studies in Medieval Technology, Science and Art in Memory of Jean Gimpel, ed. Marie-Thérèse Zenner, AVISTA Studies in the History of Science, Technology and Art, vol. 2 (Aldershot, 2004), pp. 71-92.

Analyzes a number of the costumes of figures in the portfolio and concludes, based on comparison with contemporary representations of clothing in manuscripts, sculpture, and seals that Villard observed different styles of clothing and understood how these styles were worn by different classes of society: peasants (fol. 14v), clergy (fol. 12v), soldiers (fol. 23v), and nobility (fol. 14r). He could also draw generic ancient philosophers' garments (fol. 1v).

Snyder concludes (p. 92), "The thirteenth-century dilletante Villard de Honnecourt provides the modern scholar with significant information about thirteenth-century society through a language or system of dress."

Reproduces fols. 1v, 3v, 4v, 12r, 12v, 14r, and 23v after the Lassus edition lithographs.

2004.7

BEFFEYTE, RENAUD. "The Oral Tradition and Villard de Honnecourt," Villard's Legacy: Studies in Medieval Technology, Science and Art in Memory of Jean Gimpel, ed. Marie-Thérèse Zenner, AVISTA Studies in the History of Science, Technology and Art, vol. 2 (Aldershot, 2004), pp. 93-120.

A curious essay in the form of a dialogue between a modern master mason and an apprentice in which the portfolio is interpreted as revealing secrets of medieval design and construction because Villard was a master in the Compagnons du Devoir. Various drawings are explained as significant to the Compagnons, for example, the tabernacle on fol. 18v is called the door of the Temple of Solomon on which the four locks symbolize the four elements; the soldier on fol. 2v represents (p. 99) not a military knight but a knight of labor.

Several of the technical drawings on fols. 20r are analyzed and this is one of the few publications to acknowledge (p. 105) that these drawings were not by Villard but were later additions to the portfolio.

Beffeyte is a master artisan/carpenter who has built several large reproductions of Villard's trebuchet (fol. 30r; see 2000.1) and he proposes that drawing of two flamingoes on fol. 18v provides a key to the design of the trebuchet.

In the Editor's Note (p. 93) it is claimed that "For the first time in eight centuries a master artisan, a Compagnon du Devoir trained in the same oral tradition as Villard, opens the door to interpreting these remarkable drawings [of Villard]."

Reproduces fol. 30r and details of fols. 9r, 18v, 19r, 20r, 21r after the Lassus edition lithographs.

2004.8

BECHMANN, ROLAND. "The Saracen's Sepulcher: An Interpretation of Folio 6r in the Portfolio of Villard de Honnecourt," Villard's Legacy: Studies in Medieval Technology, Science and Art in Memory of Jean Gimpel, ed. Marie-Thérèse Zenner, AVISTA Studies in the History of Science, Technology and Art, vol. 2 (Aldershot, 2004), pp. 121-134.

Argues that while there is no external supporting evidence, it may be that the drawing on fol. 6r called in the accompanying inscription li sepouture dun sarrazin (the Sepulchre of a Saracen) is not a rendering of an ancient architectural monument but contains many elements found in the literature of the Compagnons du Devoir and the Freemasons and may represent the initiation ceremony of Villard into a secret society, forerunner of the Compagnons. The word sarrazin refers to Hiram, architect of the Temple of Solomon, and the two columns represent that temple. Bechmann acknowledges that much of his information came from discussions with Renaud Beffeyte (2004.7)

It is claimed that the drawing fits into a long square (actually a rectangle with the long sides twice the length of the short sides) and that a pentagram overlay defines a number of the dimensions of the drawing. The inscription statement li sepouture dun sarrazin q(ue) io vi une fois is taken in the literal sense of "that I saw only once," that is, at Villard's initation into the society, not in the more casual sense of "that I once saw."

Bechmann's conclusion (p. 134) is: "Thus, on folio 6r of Villard's Portfolio, we have another credible point of evidence that already in the thirteenth century there was a workers' association practicing the traditions and rituals that we find today amid the Compagnons du Devoir." See 2005.1.

Reproduces fol. 6r (with overlays) and details of fols.18v and 19r after the Lassus edition lithographs.

2004.9

PERKINSON, STEPHEN. "Portraits and counterfeits, Villard de Honnecourt and thirteenth-century theories of representation," Excavating the Medieval Image, Manuscripts, Artists, Audiences: Essays in Honor of Sandra Hindman, eds. David S. Areford and Nina A. Rowe, Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2004, pp. 13-35.

Citing many medieval texts, the author explains that in the Gothic period portraiture indicated a representation based on geometry, therefore capturing the essence of the subject in an ordered "complete and perfect" manner in contrast to contrefaire which indicated imitation (mimesis) of external appearance. Perkinson proposes that Villard understood these distinctions and wanted those who would use his portfolio to know that he understood the difference.

When Villard termed his representation of the horologe (fol. 6v) a portrait, he gave a description of how the parts were arranged. When he tells us that the lion was contrefait al vif (fols. 24r and 24v) he wants us to know that he had at sometime seen a real lion. Perkinson makes the point (p. 25 n. 54) that "It is important to make a distinction between Villard's 'having once been in the presence of a lion' and his 'having drawn the lion while in its presence.'"

Dealing with the "stick figures" found on fols. 18r, 18v, and 19r) the author states that the traditional explanations that they were shapes to facilitate drawing figures (Viollet-le-Duc, 1854.1, vol.8, pp. 265-267), that they were aids to transferring designs from small to large scale (Frankl, 1945.1), that they were mnemonic devices to help masons remember geometric formulas they needed in their work (Bechmann, 1991.3) are each unpersuasive.

Terms the portfolio a portfolio and dates Villard's activities between 1220 and 1240.

Reproduces fols. 1v, 18r, 18v, 19r, 19v, 24r, and 24v (not identified by folio number) from photographic negatives in the Bibliothèque nationale de France.

2004.10

HISCOCK, NIGEL. "The Two Cistercian Plans of Villard de Honnecourt," Perspectives for an Architecture of Solitude, Essays on Cistercians, Art and Architecture in Honour of Peter Fergusson, ed. Terryl N. Kinder, Cîteaux: Brepols, 2004, pp. 157-172.

Hiscock attempts to put Villard's two Cistercians church plans (sketch plan of a church designed ad quadratum, fol. 14v; plan of the chevet of Vaucelles, fol. 17r) in the context of plan developments in Cistercian architecture ca. 1200. He notes that the Order demonstrated a dicotomy in plan preferences: chevets with ambulatories and radiating chapels (Pontigny, ca. 1185; Longpont, ca. 1200; Royaumont, begun 1229; and Vaucelles, 1216-1235) and plans designed on a square schematism (Fontainjeans, finished in the 1230s). The author argues that both types were in vogue and that while the second may reflect the Cistercian tradition of architectural purity, it was not archaic.

There is considerable discussion of number and music symbolism and Hiscock points out that while Villard may not have understood the intricacies of such symbolism, his "church of squares" may have been a reaction to the complexity and ostentationess of Vaucelles.

Reproduces fols. 14v and 17r after black and white negatives in the Bibliothèque nationale de France.

2004.11

CHEVEDDEN, PAUL E. "Black Camels and Blazing Bolts: The Bolt-Projecting Trebuchet in the Mamluk Army," Mamluk Studies Review, vol. 8 no. 1 (2004). pp. 227-277.

This study does not discuss the Villard trebuchet in the text, but pp. 259-260 fn. 68 questions Bechmann's reconstruction of the trebuchet in 1987.9 and 1991.4: "Roland Bechmann has reconstructed the trestle-framed, counterweight trebuchet (trebucet) of Villard de Honnecourt as a bolt-projecting machine. If this interpretation stands, the presumption that the bolt-projecting trebuchet was diffused from a common source will be undermined, and the likelihood that it was invented independently and nearly simultaneously in the Latin West and in the eastern realms of Islam will emerge as a distinct possibility. ....... Bechmann has reverted back to the idea proposed originally by Lassus and Darcel (F.I) and has reconstructed Villard's trebuchet as a Rube Goldberg device for launching arrows. His design rivals any of Rube Goldberg's machines and is just as preposterous. A mammoth scaffolding towers above the trestle frame of the machine upon which rests a single arrow that is discharged by the impact of the throwing arm as it pivots skyward following release. Bechmann's machine is made out of whole cloth. He invents key design elements (e.g., the scaffolding) and radically reinterprets other components. The catch-and-trigger device of the machine, for example, which consists of a stanchion (estancon), or upright post, to hold a detaining bolt is refashioned as a break lever to restrain the rotation of a drum. Bechmann uses textual and pictorial evidence as a mirror to reflect his own a priori assumptions."

Chevedden believes that the best reconstruction of Villard's trebuchet is found in Willis (F.II).

===================================================================

2005.1

BECHMANN, ROLAND. “Villard de Honnecourt and the Medieval Craft,” Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism, ed. W. J Hanegraff, Leiden: Brill, 2005, pp. 1159-1162.

A good overview of the portfolio content and history and of Villard’s interests, but it is admitted (p. 1159) that “The social position, the functions, and the life of Villard are unknown." The author does note (p. 1160) that Villard “may have worked on the collegiate church of Saint Quentin.” The most interesting point raised is a theme found elsewhere in Bechmann’s writings (2001.3), namely, whether Villard may have belonged to a prohibited, therefore secret, workers’ association from which the Compagnons du Devoir ultimately evolved. The author then offers certain drawings in the portfolio, especially the “Tomb of a Saracen” on fol. 6r, as evidence of this possibility. See 2004.8.

No illustrations.

2005.2

BARNES, CARL F. JR. "A Note on Villard de Honnecourt and Metal," De re metallica, The Uses of Metal in the Middle Ages, ed. Robert O. Bork, AVISTA Studies in the History of Medieval Technology, Science and Art, vol. 4 (Aldershot, 2005), pp. 245-254.

Argues that there is no indication in the portfolio that Villard was interested in or knew anything about the use of metal in construction and repeats the idea that he may have been trained as a metalworker but that he was not, in any case, an architect.

Reproduces fols. 8r, 17v, 31v, and 32r after negatives in the Bibliothèque nationale de France.

2005.3

SHORTELL, ELLEN M. “Beyond Villard: Architectural Drawings at Saint-Quentin and Gothic Design,” AVISTA Forum Journal, vol. 15/1 (Fall 2005), pp. 18-29.

The best analysis to date of the architectural drawings, two bas reliefs and three linear tracings, in the choir of in Saint-Quentin. The author attributes the “Villard rose” in the northeast transept chapel to the 13th century but she (p. 18) disassociates the relief and the design of Saint-Quentin from Villard: “This thesis can no longer be taken seriously”

Shortell notes that two of the linear tracings (arch design and spiral, arch design with radial lines at Saint-Quentin incorporate the same geometry as found in certain of Hand II’s additions to the Villard portfolio (fol. 20v), but that the latter are too late in date (mid-13th century) to have been done by the same individual who did the Saint-Quentin engravings.

2005.3

GIVENS, JEAN A. Observation and Image-Making in Gothic Art, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.

Offers (pp. 56-81) the best analysis to date of Villard's drawings of a lion that he claimed to have been drawn al vif. Givens summarizes earlier views, e.g., Camille, 1996.3; Perrig, 1991.7 and shows that we still do not know whether Villard saw a real lion but, if so or if not, he was nonetheless conditioned by fixed images of "liondom."

The author also analyses Villard's drawings of Reims (fols. 10v, 30v, 31r, 31v, 32r, 32v), helpfully citing sources of the contradictory claims that they were or were not drawn from the actual building. Givens makes (p. 69) the important point that "The descriptiveness of his [= Villard] images implicates both visual knowledge and visual facility, and both amply demonstrate Villard's ability to analyze what he sees, or perhaps knows, as evident in his plans and architectural diagrams."

Reproduces fols. 24v, 20v, 30v, and 32r after negatives in the Bibliothèque nationale de France.

2005.4

MAYNARD, PATRICK. Drawing Distinctions, the Varieties of Graphic Expression, Ithica: Cornell University Press, 2005.

In various places, but especially pp. 15-18, anaylses Villard's drawing of a waterpowered saw on fol. 22v. The author concludes that it must be classified as a "sketch" and not as a "drawing" as the term is understood in post-Renaissance analyses. Villard presents the essential component parts of the saw, but more as a list than as a coherent assemblage.

On p. 237 n. 29 the author states that "No implication is made here that Villard was a professional architect…."

Reproduces a detail of the saw after Lassus.

2005.5

FARNWORTH, MICHAEL. Inventive Steps in Trebuchet Evolution, www.thehurl.org/tiki-download_file.php?fileId=66.

In one of the best overviews anywhere of the history and operation of the trebuchet, Farnworth explains the various types. Villard's trebuchet (fol. 30r) is a "moving box counterweight beam sling on a trestle frame" and the author estimates that the weight of the filled box would have been between 39,000 kg (85,900 lbs.) and 50,000 kg (110,231 lbs.). Villard's trebuchet could have thrown a 400 kg (881 lbs.) stone approximately 128 m. (419 ft.).

Farnworth does not deal with the question whether Villard's trebucher fired arrows rather than hurled stones.

Reproduces in color fol. 30r.

===================================================================