The Mediaeval Mason

The architectural splendour of mediaeval cathedrals is frequently acknowledged. What is often ignored is the engineering skill and administrative capacity which lies behind it. This book is perhaps the first real attempt to describe the stone-building industry as it existed in England during the later Middle Ages. Among the topics with which it deals are the organization of large-scale mediaeval buildings and the life of the mediaeval mason -- his status, his guilds, his conditions of employment. Various economic problems centring round the mediaeval mason, whether freemason, hewer, roughmason or layer, are examined and, finally, the changes in the economic conditions of the industry during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are described.