2.3 The Fair of Lendit

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Do curso por Yale University

Age of Cathedrals

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Yale University

Age of Cathedrals

96 ratings

An introduction to some of the most astonishing architectural monuments the world has ever known—Gothic cathedrals. We shall study the art, literature, intellectual life, economics, and new social arrangements that arose in the shadow of the cathedrals and that were such an important part of the revival of cities in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The goal of the course is a better appreciation of the High Middle Ages, a world that is still recognizably our own.

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Introduction & Saint-Denis I

An introduction to the history of Paris in the centuries of chaos following the death of Charlemagne in 814 and the building of the first Gothic cathedral at Saint-Denis, just north of Paris. The old abbey church, where the kings of France were buried, was inadequate, and so a new building project was undertaken by Abbot Suger, who financed the new building through efficient land management and the commercial Fair of Lendit along a trade route between northern and southern Europe.

2.1 The Old Church6:02

2.2 Royalty Reposed5:38

2.3 The Fair of Lendit4:28

Conheça os instrutores

Howard Bloch
Sterling Professor of French
French

The Abbey of Saint Denis was exempt from ecclesiastical jurisdiction,

which meant that it could set its own laws and it was richly endowed.

Charlemagne's grandson, Charles the Bald,

confirmed in a charter from the ninth century that

income from a certain number of greatest States known as villae

belong to the Monks of Saint-Denis along

with all of the slaves or serfs attached to them.

However, in the general demographic and economic decline of the 10th and 11th centuries,

the economic condition of the Abbey also declined.

It wasn't until Suger became Abbot that the Abbey of Saint Denis began to flourish.

Suger was a great reformer and manager of the Abbey,

a superb administrator with a human touch.

Within the church proper,

he provided for the comfort of the monks with

endowments for their food and provision to keep older monks

warm in winter by making their seating in

the cold hard prayer stalls of the choir less harsh.

Suger was denounced by that great other church figure of the period, Saint Bernard,

who was a great ascetic and who railed against Suger's Abbey as a synagogue of Satan,

a forge of Vulcan,

a military arsenal and a cave of thieves because he thought it was too luxurious.

Bernard criticized what surely must be Suger,

an Abbott who travels,

he claims with armed escort of 60 horsemen.

In his tenure as abbot,

Suger tripled the revenues of Saint Denis.

He did this primarily through revenue from The Fair of Lendit.

The Fair of Lendit,

one of the early signs of economic recovery in the High Middle Ages,

was a biannual gathering of merchants who brought goods for sale, tools, food,

cloth and expensive textiles like silks,

skins, leather for shoes and parchment.

In this 15th century rendering of The Fair of Lendit,

we see shoemakers making and selling leather goods at the fair.

The man on the far right works on a piece of leather with

what looks like a leather tunic spread on the table before him.

The man in the middle holds shoe lasts or forms,

and the man on the left arranges pairs of shoes for potential clients.

Above him hang a pair of high boots and a third boot graces the merchant's

sign on a high pole in the far left quadrant of the image.

As we can see in this second 15th century painting,

The Fair of Lendit drew not only merchants,

but moneylenders and even a traveling tavern.

In the lower portion,

we see a shepherd who has clearly brought what look like pigs to market.

In the middle left, we see what look like

money changers passing a little pouch from one hand to another and above them,

two women sitting at stalls one of whom has a bundle of goods in front of her.

Opposite them on the far right,

we see a tavern where both a man and a woman are seated while a servant approaches

with two glasses and a pitcher of drink much as in a modern day café.

Above them all presides the bishop surrounded by monks,

recognizable because of their tonsured heads.

The bishop collected a percentage on every transaction just as in today's sales tax.

The bishop's part or tax was not a gratuitous fee but payment for

guaranteeing the fairness of

the proceedings and the safety of the roads to and from market.

The term Lendit comes from the Latin indictus meaning judgment.

From the beginning then we see the link between

the sacred space of cathedral's legal judgment and commerce.

In our next time together,

we shall see just how Abbot Suger accomplished all that he did in rebuilding Saint Denis,

the first Gothic Cathedral.

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