finally

im done.
finished it.
printed it out.
handed it in.
yay.

well, the finishing part was a bit weird as i spent the last week of it cruising though Poland.

printing it yout was a nightmare as the copyshop computers wouldnt read my illustrations. So I had to print them out on my home computer. 7 hours straight - 150 pages. phew.

handing in went smoother thanks to everyone being really nice.

a few hours later I got shot by one of the professors who agreed to read and mark my work - only through the telephone, but still - because of how much Ive written.. hmm.



what I didnt mentiopn was the amazing second trip to Paris.. Staying in our own apartment, searching through libraries for archive material on the restaurations of Saint-Martin, taking more DIGITAL pictures of the choir itself, managing to get into Saint-Pierre-de-Montmartre, AND SAINT-QUIRIACE in Provins on the way there as well as SAINT-GERMER-DE-FLY on the way back, which I both heartily recommend... maybe Ill have time to post some pictures ,although I only have picture sof the architecture of the churches, whereas what makes these two little villages so lovely is their lonely atmosphere from many ages ago....

is life without spacebars possible?

its been a pretty busy month I have to say. after theeaster break was over, I started working quite a lot on my texts. especially those parts that actually are connected to art history. but now Im back to editing and correcting mostly historical bits an bops. Sometimes I feel like a private detective investigating in the case of Saint Martin. When I actually ought to be doing much more creative things like comparing one capital with another one or one bit of stone with another.. hmmm.

also, Ive found quite a lot of old plans and depictions of Saint-Martin that Ive been trying to analyse in the past week. Its quite interesting how unprecise even the ground plans from the 19th century are. Especially Viollet-le-Duc is making a complete fool of himself. it is pretty amazing, at least I think so, that Ive got two depictions of the church of Saint Martin from shortly after the Roman building was constructed (Chronique versifiée dated roun 1070s -1090s) and a nother two from the 13th century copy of that chronicle. My favourite one is by Fouquet though, although the reproductions Ive got of that illumination are pretty horribly blurred. Even Merian etched it, I think the younger one. When Ive handed this in I might load up lots of pictures, unless I get washed away of further obligations that Ive puttign aside allthat time now.

another thing are financial factors. Ill have to spent some 40 euro on printing and binding three sets of about 150 pages each, including illustrations. AND if I want colour pictures as well that would make some 33 euro more if I include 17 colour prints in each of those sets. or 23 euro for 10 colour prints in each.

I even have a file called my Masterproject and its the actual text Im gonna hand in... at some point. Though im altering it all the time. Its not finished yet. The main bits and the intro and conclu are pretty rough still or even non-existent. no conclusions yet. hehe. l'art pour l'art.

ok, thats all for now, folks. unless one of you can tell me how to put my spacebar back into place properly. i foolishly removed it earlier to get rid of all the fluffy dust underneath it, but it doesnt fit back on now. help.

what a state - the chevet before the 1913 works

plans from the médiathèque

its been a looong time, noooow Im coming back home...

I have not been lazy! dont worry. but im still far away from my goal. I havent been able to do as much writing as I would like to, but its not like I haven tdone anything at all over the last month. As a special treat, and Ive just realized, that I didnt even mention that in the last post, I got a reaaaally loooong and contenting as contentful essay by Arnaud Prié about you-know-what from ma petite amie from Wonderland with lots of new ideas about the southern parts of the choir, that is the belltower and the former little apsis there. Archeological, but highly interesting. Also, Ive come up with a concept for the illustrations, found three different plans of the church, and so on. Ive started the literary bit by summing up all texts on Saint Martin, thus reducing two huge files into 18 pages. Its still loads of work. For a brief moment I was back into the whole thing, but I keep loosing track of "who said what now".. At the moment im still writing about the date and the reasons for the new building campaign. Its quite detailed, so I might just put something shorter there and use these bits for the main discussion. Ive even written another introduction! Also, Ive looke into capitals - forms, types, styles.. hard core stuff! :)

happy new year

2008 is a year full of final exams, final results and final decisions. Hopefully the first step will be taken soon - that is handing in THAT thing.. Apart from eating cookies, stollen, ducks, raclette, turkeys, lobster, fish, schnitzel and bagels over the last couple of weeks, I also have written out the building history (admittedly only during last week though). There ARE footnotes! Even more than proper text. But they are still pretty obscure and will need neating out. hmm, that seems to be a general problem here.

Today Ive spent a remarkable amount of time cruising through the "Fotoindex Marburg" to get some more illustrations on other churches. They actually are quite a lot of pictures of Saint Martin as well. Mostly from the 1940s, which is not ideal for my purposes, but still historically interesting. The church seems to have been in quite an acceptable state back then. I remember seeing other "old" pictures of it with nailed up shattered windows, the walls falling apart and the ground around it receeding. That might have been just before the restaurations of the 1910s then, maybe. Although I had kind of remembered that picture being from the 20s or 30s. Hmm. Ill find out at some point. Im still at odds with a couple of things, but it helps to see all those other, more or less contemporary churches; for one starts to realize the actual character of Saint Martin as opposed to all the other pompous cathedrals, provincial churches and the slightly more sophisticated as probably later attempts.

Im looking forward to the next part now, the summary of all the books and essays written on Saint Martin. Its gonna be hard work, but at least I will get back into the texts, some of which I read only briefly ages ago, so that I will hopefully get a better overview about the more general opinions as well as the rather detailed analyses.


It kind of feels like I still havent started writing yet, but looking at the above and below it just needs a bit of editing and I have nearly 20 written pages already! In the meantime Ive also decided to use digital illustrations and to print them out in colour. Its more fuss on the one hand, but also less on the other - but its definitely going to be neater. hehe. word of the blog. Oh, AND there will have to be a picture on the front page. Probably simplement le chevet...