Chapter 33 Notre Dame de Paris (2) Volume 5 This will destroy that (5)

Two this will destroy that "This will destroy that. Books will destroy architecture." The meaning of the archdeacon's enigmatic words may be explored here, and please bear with me, ladies who read this book. In our view, this statement has two meanings.First of all, this is a state of mind of the priests, reflecting the fear of the monks in the face of the emergence of printing, a new thing.Behold the radiant printing press invented by Gutenberg, Dazzled and terrified all the people in the temple, pulpit and manuscript, spoken word and written word, were terrified by the appearance of the printed word, a little like a sparrow seeing the angel of Largio ② Spread its six million wings and be dumbfounded.

① Gutenberg, that is, Johann Gensfreich (1400? -1468), a German printing worker, invented the printing press in 1434. ② The allusion comes from the eighth chapter of the Gospel of Luke. "Laizhiweng" originally means "large group", and he has many demons possessing him.When Jesus saw him and asked him his name, he replied that his name was Larion, which means the demons possessed in groups. This is the exclamation of the prophet: he has heard the jubilant clamor of liberated mankind, and sees a future where wisdom will destroy the foundations of creed, public opinion will overthrow the throne of faith, and the world will be freed from Roman control.This is the judgment of the philosopher: he sees the diffusion of human thought with the advent of the printing press, bound to rise like steam from the vessel of theocracy.This is the fearful mood expressed by the soldiers when they inspected the bronze ram with a sheep's head, and couldn't help screaming "the fort will be knocked down".This means that one power is about to replace another.

That is to say: the printing press will destroy the church. However, it seems to us that in this thought, undoubtedly the most basic and simple, there is another, more original idea, derived from the first, less perceptible and more open to objection; It is a philosophical point of view, no longer just that of priests, but also that of scholars and artists.This is the premonition that with the change of the way of thinking, people's thinking also changes its way of expression; the main ideas of each generation should not be written with the same materials and in the same way; stone books, how solid and durable, About to give way to paper books, which are stronger and more durable by comparison.In this respect, the archdeacon's ambiguity has another meaning, namely that one art will replace another, that is to say: printing will destroy the art of architecture.

In fact, from the beginning of time until the fifteenth century of the Christian era (including the fifteenth century), the art of architecture has always been the greatest book of mankind, and the main means of expression of human beings at different stages of their development of power or intelligence. As the memory of the first man felt overburdened, as the baggage of human memory of all kinds became so heavy and mixed that mere direct and erratic words threatened to lose some of it in transmission, people began to The most visible, durable and natural way to record all kinds of memories on the ground.Every tradition condenses into a monument.

① An ancient siege weapon. The earlier monuments were only piles of stones, which, as Moses said, had not been touched by iron.Architectural art, like any writing, begins with letters: erect a stone, and this is a letter; each letter is a pictogram, and each pictogram bears a set of ideas, just as a column bears a capital.Primitive tribes did this all over the world at the same time.In Siberia in Asia and in the Pampas grasslands of America, you can see Celtic rocks. Then make up a word.Putting stones on top of stones, connecting granite syllables, trying to make a certain combination of words.The flat stone mounds and monoliths of the Celts, the barrows of the Etruscans, the tombs of the Hebrews, these are words.

Some of them are proper nouns, especially ancient tombs.Occasionally, there is a place with many stones and a wide area, and people write a sentence.The vast group of stone mounds in Karnak is already a complete sentence. ① Etruria is the name of an ancient region in Italy. ②Argentina in South America. ③ Karnak: The name of a village in the ruins of ancient Thebes in southern Egypt, located on the right bank of the Nile. Finally wrote the book.Tradition breeds symbols, but is gradually submerged by symbols, just like the trunk of a tree is gradually covered by leaves.All these symbols worshiped by mankind have increased in number, multiplicity, intertwining, and complexity with the passage of time. overflow.The early monuments can barely express the primitive tradition, because the primitive tradition, like its monuments, is simple, unadorned, and prostrate on the ground.Symbolism needs to be fully developed on the building.In this way, architectural art advances by leaps and bounds with the development of human thought, becoming a giant with thousands of heads and thousands of arms, and using an indelible, visible and tangible form, the whole erratic symbolism is completely fix it.Just when Daedalus, the personification of power, was busy measuring, and Orpheus, the personification of wisdom, sang, as the pillar of letters, as the arcade of syllables, as the pyramid of words, under the double action of geometrical rules and verses, The whole thing is active, gathering, combining, blending, rising and falling, overlapping on the ground, and rising into the sky layer by layer, until under the inspiration of the general concept of a certain era, those amazing books are written, which are one after another. Wonderful buildings: the Tower of Eclinga, the Mausoleum of Ranseillon in Egypt, the Temple of Solomon.