Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/269

 SLOAN'S ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW AND BUILDERS' JOURNAL. AN ILLUSTRATED MONTHLY. CONDUCTED BY SAMUEL SLOAN, ARCHITECT: ASSISTED BY CHARLES J. LUKENS. Vol. I.— Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S6S, by Samuel Sloan, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, in and for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. THE ORIGIN OF THE POINTED OK GOTHIC STYLE. CERTAIN it, is, that the term Gothic, as a distinctive name for this style, is an absolute misnomer ; yet it will re- main the popular designation through- out the whole future career of mankind, for the same reason that the Christian appellative of Americus Yespucius and not that of Christopher Columbus was selected as a basis for the title of this continent — it was easy and imme- diately obtained the public ear. Both are known to have had no adequate foundation ; but both are irrefragably established. The Pointed Style is called German by Cfesar Csesarianus, in his " Vitru- vius," without any reason alleged. He might hold the Goths, to whom this style has so uniformly since been at- tributed — formerly situated on the northern borders of Germany — as a branch of the Germans ; or might con- ceive it to have been first brought into Italy by William the German, in the twelfth century, or James the German, in the thirteenth. The former architect was engaged, with Bonanno, in A. D. 1114, to erect the bell-tower at Pisa; and the latter rebuilt the church of the Virgin Mary, at Asissi, finished in A. D. 1218. Vasari, also, terms Gothic architecture " Maniera Tedescha," and pointed structures " Lavori Tedeschi," at the very instant he ascribes the in- vention of this style to the Goths. Again, some suppose it to have been called Gothic, because it appeared at the time of the rise of the Gothic do- minion. Facts prove that it was derived from neither the Germans nor the Goths ; but long precedes either in the history of man and art. By way of additional synonyme, we would recommend, in contradistinction to Classic, the term Romantic be applied to Gothic, for it belongs to the ages, and is nearly related to the literature, both known in modern belles lettres by that name. A very cursory examination of his- tory will show, that the Goths could not possibly have any peculiar style of architecture, or, indeed, of and through themselves, any architecture at all. They were all soldiers, and brought with them into Italy neither architects, paint- ers, nor poets. When settled, they (225)