The Jacobins

THE CHURCH OF THE JACOBINS

Tori Schmitt

 

 

In 1219, the Dominican Order established a convent in Paris and quickly took on the name, the Jacobins, as their convent was located on the Rue Saint-Jacques. 1 Constructed between the years 1254-63 and destroyed in full by 1850, there are no complete sources documenting the original appearance of the Jacobin Church. 2 Today, the only surviving fragment from the complex is an incomplete piece of tracery from the chapter house.3 This reconstruction aims to synthesize surviving source material so that the Jacobin Church may be viewed as a complete structure.The Church of the Jacobins is understood to have been a simple rectangular structure, measuring approximately 20m by 83m in size.4  The interior of the church was bisected by a linear row of twelve columns, creating two bays of unequal width.  This affected not only the interior experience of the church, but also the exterior of the church.  The spine of the church’s timber truss roof was centered above the colonnade.  Due to the unequal width of the bays, this resulted in a roof with an asymmetrical pitch.  The church was not vaulted.  The east end of the church had a flat apse which terminated in the Rue Saint-Jacques.  On the north side of the church, the structure was flanked by eight chapels, added in the 14th century.  The lack of vaulting as well as radiating chapels firmly categorize the Jacobin Church as a hall church rather than a traditional Gothic cross-shaped plan.— Tori Schmitt

  1.  Y. Christ, Eglises parisiennes actuelles et disparues, Paris 1947. Cited by Sundt in  “Mediocres domos et humiles habeant fratres nostri,” p. 397.
  2. Rechac (La Vie du Glorieux Patriarque S. Dominique), a Dominican Frier cited by Sundt, “Toulouse,” 203.
  3.  see figure, Convent of the Jacobins, fragment of tracery from chapter house (Musée Carnavalet).
  4. Y. Christ, Eglises parisiennes actuelles et disparues, Paris 1947.  Cited by Sundt in  “Mediocres domos et humiles habeant fratres nostri,” p. 397.

Sources

Most of what is known about the church’s visual appearance comes from Alexandre-Albert Lenoir’s Statistique Monumentale de Paris: Explication des Planches and Georges Rohault de Fleury’s Gallia Dominicana: Les couvents de saint Dominique au Moyen Age, two architectural surveys published in 1867 and 1903 respectively. 6  As the church no longer stands, the modern understanding of the church is mediated through these sources rather than through direct contact with the church.  Each of the two sources depict the Jacobin Church with a different viewpoint.  The Statistique Monumentale depicts the Jacobin Convent in the process of it’s dismantlement, whereas the Gallia Dominicana, published 50 years after the destruction of the convent, provides an overview of the church as a complete structure.

  • Fleury, Georges Rohault. Gallia Dominicana: les couvents de St. Dominique au moyen âge. Paris, 1903.
  • Lenoir, Albert. Statistique Monumentale de Paris: Explication des Planches. Paris: Imprimerie Impériale, 1867.

Bibliography

  • Davis, Michael. “Fitting to the Requirements of the Place’: The Franciscan Church of Sainte- Marie-Madeleine in Paris.” in Architecture, Liturgy and Identity edited by Zoë Opacic and Achim Timmermann. Studies in Gothic Art. Turnhout: Brepols, 2011.
  • Fleury, Georges Rohault. Gallia Dominicana: les couvents de St. Dominique au moyen âge. Paris: [publisher not identified], 1903.
  • Hinnebusch, William A. The History of the Dominican Order. Staten Island, N.Y: Alba House, 1966.
  • Jordan, of Saxony and Simon Tugwell. On the Beginnings of the Order of Preachers. Oak Park Ill: Parable, 1982.
  • Lenoir, Albert. Statistique Monumentale de Paris: Explication des Planches. Paris: Imprimerie Impériale, 1867.
  • Sundt, Richard. “Mediocres domos et humiles habeant fratres nostri:” Dominican Legislation on  Architecture and Architectural Decoration in the 13th Century.” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 46, No. 4 (1987): p. 395-407.
  • Sundt, Richard. “The Jacobin Church of Toulouse and the Origin of Its Double-Nave Plan.” The Art Bulletin, Vol. 71, No. 2 (1989): p. 185-207.