Incluye referencias bibliográficas (páginas 441-451) e índice.

Geometry and the Gothic design process -- The origins of Gothic architectural drawing -- The flowering of Rayonnant drawing in the Rhineland -- Italian drawings up to 1350 -- Germanic tower drawings and the elaboration of tradition -- Wider horizons -- The Italian challenge to the Gothic design system -- Gothic drawings as traces of the creative process.

"The flowering of Gothic architecture depended to a striking extent on the use of drawing as a tool of design. By drawing precise 'blueprints' with simple tools such as the compass and straightedge, Gothic draftsmen were able to develop a linearized architecture of unprecedented complexity and sophistication. Examination of their surviving drawings can provide valuable and remarkably intimate information about the Gothic design process. Gothic drawings include compass pricks, uninked construction lines, and other telltale traces of the draftsman's geometrically-based working method. This book offers a new perspective on Gothic architectural creativity. It shows, in a series of rigorous geometrical case studies, how Gothic design evolved over time, in two senses: in the hours of the draftsman's labor, and across the centuries of the late Middle Ages"--Provided by publisher.