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"hibiscustour", three separate sites -
Curiosity. Things, amazing, science, society.. -
Ideas perso. Household, Practical life, D.I.Y, Computering.. -
Islands and lagoons New Caledonia, Polynesia (part).
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The Lent; (means "the fortieth day"). It is one forty days period, Sundays not included because they did not exist at the time, during which one comply with a diet. It starts with ashes and finishes at Passover (taken again by the Moslems under the practice of the Ramadan.
Passover (Hebrew word meaning "passage", from an angel who would have passed to kill Egyptians new born). Paschal lamb; he commemorates the release of the Jewish people, maintained in slavery by the Egyptians (although slavery was unknown in this country, and that there is no trace of the passage of the Jewish people in the Egyptian papyruses nor in the archaeological excavations). Here comes the origin: to be avenged for the Egyptians, God inflicted 10 plagues to them, dryness, grasshoppers, rains of blood et cetera. The tenth wound constituted neither more nor less than to kill all the new born Egyptians (to some extent, the first holocaust). It was however necessary to distinguish the Jewish families from the Egyptian ones and God made mark the doors with the blood of a throat cut lamb, which was eaten with bread wafers. It is to celebrate this release of the Jewish people (in a blood bath), that they celebrate Jewish Passover by cutting the throat of a lamb. Taken over by the Christians, the rite must be modified, in date and significance, since it refers for them to the resurrection of Christ. The lamb of God (agnus Dei) represents Christ resucity (Apocalypse of Jean), the throat cut but alive, glorious and victorious. Jesus is also designated like the lamb of God, (sweet and which lets itself kill to clear the sins of the world.
| Islâm (Arab word meaning resignation);
the Arab people had in the beginning, like all the nomad people, not strong
links each other. Descendants of Ismaël (see
Hebrew above), God (Allâh in Arabic), creator of the universe, tried to make
known himself by sending messengers (prophets) (Adam, Moïse, Jesus) as for
the Jews and the Christians. But they were not heard. Seul Mahomet
(Muhammad) heard the word of God periodically, by the revelations of the
angel Gabriel (XII me century). They were written partially and
rewritten long after its death. One distinguishes four periods, the fourth
being perhaps most critical regarding the judaïc and Christian
religions.
The Islamic
religion thus takes back the same beliefs as the Jewish and Christian
religions, whose Genesis (creation) in particular and Mahomet is the
last
prophet of God, after Jesus-Christ and Moïse (going the time back).
Being the last, it is presented in the form of perfect and is placed above
both others.
One finds there the notions of paradise and hell, angels, the resurrection of
deads at the moment of the final judgement (thus, end of the world
announced as for the concurrent religions. Holy place, Ka' Ba: it is the sanctuary builds by Abraham and Ismaël, ancestor of Arabic. Any Moslem would make a pilgrimage there once in his life. Allâh (God) does not have a religious representative on this earth alike Christian religions (pope, bishops..) have. An imân is chosen among the faithful ones which knows the sacred texts well; it is an independent spiritual head (not taking part of a religious hierarchy).
Human representation
is prohibited in the mosques where one find only the geometrical or floral
patterns (see "architecture 6", bottom of
the page) "It is discovered in it that if Mahomet gave really the order to lapidate an adulterous couple (thus also the man), it is at the request of prominent Jews. But this decision made law whereas Coran does not mention this punishment and precise that" the adulterer can marry an adulteress" (they are thus alive!). "For twenty years, the Saudi Wahhabisme has given a reducing version of Islam". |
According to the historian Britannique Beats Y'eor, of Egyptian origin, "the dhimmi" is a fundamental concept of the ideology of the djihad " (endehaviour and combat on the way of God). ("the Point", March 2005)
"the djihad is the holy war of the
Islam which divides humanity into two camps, the Moslems (camp of peace) and
the others, inaccurate (territories of the war)". "The djihad prescribes the
obligation of conquest of the non Moslem countries to subject them,
peacefully or not" Of his wife Khadîdja, Mahomet had a girl, Fatima (or Fathma, Fatma), born in Mecca in 606. She married her cousin Ali and had three children ; the Moslems Chi'ites admit only the descendants of Ali and Fatima.
Of theocratic, Islam turn into a military monarchy with the Omeyyades of
Damas and the Abbassides of Baghdad, after the weakening of the empire
Byzantin (which was the end of the Romain empire). See "the crusades
herafter"). Arab empire; The dynasty of Fatimides or Fatimites
(Chi'ites), its name arising from Fatima), extended to the borders of
China, India (one finds there countries of the old Soviet Union, whose name
generally finishes by "stan" or for the others in "ran"), of Egypt which
became the capital of the their empire, of Syria, of central Africa and
North Africa; in occident of Spain, Mediterranean islands (Sicily, Sardinia,
Malta.) and France, where it were defeated in Poitiers.
(Larousse). The Moslem world had its poets, astronomers, mathematicians, artists; but the natural science, physics and chemistry are not or very few represented. Merits of the Islamic religion. The french man De Foucault, that the pope finally honoured, had been allured by this religion, that it defined as being simple,clear and egalitarian. Simple because it is written by only one person and is thus not muddled like the multiple biblical accounts. Clear because one obeys its principles supposed to regulate each moment of the life, without possible interpretation of the texts. Nowadays, it is not true. Let us add for a better underdtanding that the father Of Foucault was from a military origin. Egalitarian because both rich and poor people pray side by side four times per day. Allal : see casher above (Hebraïc, Jew) Pilgrimage; any Moslem should go in the Mecca once in his life. For them, it is the fatherland of Abraham and it is there that the Ka' Ba is located, a small square building covered with black hangings, in which the black stone (a meteorite), given to Mahomet by the Gabriel angel, is sealed. The Ka' Ba is located at the center of the big mosque of the Mecca. The black stone is ringed by silver. Any Moslem must face the Mecca (east in France), to make his prayer. |
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The cathedrals
TV ARTE broadcast, May 2004 Foreground
; At the end of XI th century, two events will drive the development of the cathedrals: the crusades (see their origin above), and reforms of the pope
Gregoire VII. Both are in fact closely dependent (see the crusades),
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Religious and economic benefit of the Gothic architecture. In Saint-Denis abbey, where are buried the kings of France, the monk Suger abbot of the place and first adviser of the King, adores the invaluable stones to decorate the liturgical objects and is endeavouring to gather all the richness he can find; He is a a powerful man. It wishes to show the richness of the Church to the people and make the heart of the abbey demolished in the purpose of get it rebuilt larger and more open for the light to penetrate and light up the said objects, according to a technique tested at the cathedral of Sens. The new stained glasses make the liturgical objects resplendishing, the gold of reliquaries which, placed at the centre, can be observed under all their faces ; for that, Surger creates a path all around. In 1144, he greets a large number of kingdom representatives which discover this vast luminous space and the exhibition of richness. Everyone wants to have such a cathedral, of which the King who launches the movement. The faithful people, filled with wonder, are of course invited to throw their offering in a trunk. The new construction yields a lot: it is a kind of prayers factory . And so that, people can attend the offices at the time of the great religious festivals, it makes then enlarge the nave (to see to believe). It is the starting point of the Gothic architecture spreading. This name will be given later, at the end of the one hundred year war (French against French), by lords and middle-class men who will devote themselves then to the construction of war castles, then of palate, that will make cathedrals as being barbarians works that is to say goth works, whose gothic derives from (ostrogoths, barbarians from east and Visigoths, barbarians from west). |
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Noyon is built after Saint-Denis and the vault goes up to 22 meters;
the porches (gates), come largers and gain in-depth and inside platforms
appear to oppose the forces of stretching that pushes the top of both
pillars and walls toward outside ; the external arcs (flying buttress) are
not invented yet. The rosette will be created in Laon, which will
also expose an extraordinary bestiary (animals sculptures). The nave is 24
meters high. In Paris, one reinforce the nave with inside platforms
which lean on two collateral alleys instead of one ; the wings of the
transept also help to contain the forces as well as the frontage, but the
height reached, 35 meters, makes that on gives up putting ceiling stones for
a time : a mere roof will be placed, waiting for a solution to come.. Bourges will have 28 meters high under the vault and especially brings the external flying buttress (see below, roman and gothic), which contain the forces exerted on the top of the pillars and the wall, where the vault arcs are connected and push toward outside ; this solution make it possible to remove the side alleys and high platforms, which will give room. Straight at the beginning, the flying buttress will arc there-after, beginning in Chartres. Chartres, also with flying buttress, will not be higher but broader, with its 16 meters, which increases all the same efforts to be opposed ; it will be reinforced; the elements of vault come to a set of four pillars instead of six. The flying buttress is slightly bent. It is the right time for Paris to achieve Notre dame vault in posing the ceiling of stones. There, the flying buttress will be even thinner, following these majestic curve which clearly distinguish it from the others cathedral. Another innovation, the flying buttress integrate another function, that of funnelling the water rain; drains are indeed dug open there, until the gargouilles; opened on the exterior, the channels are not stopped any more. |
Reims goes up higher, with many stained glasses and a considerable
number of inside and outside statues. |
Let's imagine a soft curved plank with the ends attached in the walls.
If you sit on it, you see that the forces forces push them away, push back the walls that deviate, what is normal because there is flattening and therefore lengthening of the board.
Let's cover the plank with joined stones, and remove it, a classic process for building domes and arches.
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The barrel vault of the Roman style (Roman/Greek) is very heavy and requires very thick walls, reinforced significant buttresses, because the weight of the stones of the vault, presses this one downwards by gravity and so lengthens its arc so that the walls are pushed outside at the top (see the dotted lines which simulate displacement); only the weight of the walls and the buttresses makes it possible to oppose these forces ; openings are thus very few and small bus one should not introduce any brittleness (the port-holes of planes are small and round not to weaken the structure); height and width are limited.
; arc rond: barrel vault /
murs épais : thick walls / poussée : push / poids : weight / contreforts :
buttresses Gothic architecture brings the broken arc (pointed at the top and not round); leaning on groups of pillars (4, 6 ..), these arcs are connected at their top on a stone known as keystone. they form a n intersecting rib. This basic module is repeated then throughout the nave; gothic also creates the flying buttress, which takes support themself on a strong pillar, known as abutment, whose is toped by an arrow or turret (pinnacle) wich weighs down (and not for the aesthetic, although they are worked). It's a very complex architecture in the connection of the forms, very daring, inventive and contemporary, comparable with our modern constructions if both steel and tconcrete had been known. Because a Gothic cathedral is a skeleton formed with lots of pillars supporting a great deal of stone arcs (ogives crossings), the whole being reinforced by external jambs (flying buttresses) which will stand the forces pushing towards outside, these forces coming from the stone arcs of the top between which the stones of the ceiling will be posed. It is necessary to adding a whole reinforcement of staples and plugs between the arcs (in particular for the rosettes), and also heavy iron belts of Tolede which connect the pillars between them (Reims, Amiens and all the large ones); run lead ensures the cohesion between iron and stone. The remainder would be only filling if the walls also did not have a blocking effect, without omitting the wings of the transept (cross shaped), nor the frontage, which also brought rigidity. |
Arches of the Gothic envolve reducing the weight of the stones of the vault, increasing both the width and height, the whole finally leading to large openings in thinned walls. But the efforts remain the same as the Roman vaults (drawing of left) and pillars and walls are pushed towards outside for the same reasons. At the beginning, before the invention of the external bracket, heavy galleries were built inside to pull in to some extent both pillars and walls. External buttresses supplement the action of this device (left part of the drawing below). After the invention of the flying buttresses, one removes the galleries.
; 4 piliers portent 4 arcs
brisés : 4 pillars bear/hold 4 broken arcs / pierre clef de voûte : keystone
/ arc-boutant : flying buttress : pilier contrfort de culée : abutment /
croisée d'ogive : intersecting ribs In spite of the lightening of both walls and vault of the ceiling (*), forces exerted by the vault are such that pillars and walls lean outside at the top to some extend making a kind of small visible swelling at the top if one can find a vertical reference mark in the vicinity, like the pipes of orgues for example, or the wire of a gloss. Fortunately, the skeleton of such a building has an astonishing elasticity (relative of course, for a few centimetres). (*) it is obviously quite relative because they are great quantities of stones which still weigh very heavy; it is known that the only keystone weighs from 400 to 600 kilos ! |
The archbishop is the work Master and chooses the Builder. In order to assemble the vaults, one build huged forms of wood reaching the top and one poses the stones onto; the wood is then removed and that holds itself. Lastly, not always. At the end of the XIII th century, the forests had suffered from these enormous taking away for of structural timber.
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There were neither chairs nor benches in the cathedrals which were open places where people came to chatter, often in gallant company, or to deal some businesses; peasants coming from the countryside picnicked in there and cathedrals were also the town hall. The stained glasses could be sponsored (already) and the sponsor could possibly make his own face painted. The sculptors did not represent only the saints, apostles and martyrs, angels and demons or the religious history, because erudite and thinkers formed part of it; shepherds and animals too or yet signs of the zodiac. At the top, the sculptors made themselves fun and carved familiar companion, canon acariâtre or other faces. Became somewhat profane following a hatching tendancy for emancipation or at least consideration, the woman appears there, like Marie, but sometimes with hips and breast well shaped. |
The cathedrals were painted colors sharp, inside like outside (see architecture 4 - colors). The end of the cathedrals coincides, in France but not in England or Germany, with the beginning of the hundred year old war (French against French), because it was necessary to devote the money for building strong war castles and finance the armies; after the fortified castles, came castles and palates. The cathedrals were forgotten and considered as a bit outdated and monstrous ; they were given the name of Gothic, from the goth, barbarian (ostrogoths, barbarians from east, Visigoths from west). |
