Shedding Light on the Galilee: the Vitruvius at Durham Project
The significance of light for the meanings and impact of architecture is no greater for any period than for the architecture of the Roman architect Vitruvius, whose text, compiled in the second half of the first century B.C., became a cornerstone of architectural theory for subsequent periods. Paradoxically, however, precise detailed prescriptions on the lighting of buildings are hard to deduce from Vitruvius’ text, leaving our understanding of these issues subject to the conflicting interpretations of his later readers down to the present day. Recent work has drawn attention to the interactions between architectural theory in late sixteenth- century Italy, derived from the Vitruvian tradition, and contemporary developments in optical theory, particularly the Book of Lights by the Milanese writer Gian Paolo Lomazzo (Borys 2004). However, less attention has been paid to the understanding of light in architecture in the medieval dissemination of the Vitruvian tradition. The same may be said for the classical buildings of Vitruvius’ own time, including especially his own basilica at Fanum Fortunae in north-western Italy, described in his fifth book, but in which the sources of light remain disputed by scholars (Saliou 2009). The present project addresses both classical antiquity and the Middle Ages and, by applying the latest scientific theories in lighting, as well as architectural and lighting
theory, aims to understand better how the illumination of the built environment has the potential to enhance spirituality and human wellbeing.
There is no better place to consider the impact of light in architecture than the so-called “Galilee Chapel”, added by Bishop Hugh of Le Puiset to the west end of Durham Cathedral in the early 1170s as a replacement for an aborted extension to the east end of the cathedral. As Douglas Pocock has written:
“It is the Galilee’s quality of light which may beckon in the first instance, out of the grey of the nave, especially after noon and most particularly when the low evening rays of the sun irradiate the whole interior.” (Pocock 1996, 380)
There are remarkable similarities between the two buildings. The Galilee consists of an inner core of columns, four wide by three deep, laid in a rectangle in a ratio 2:1 (approximately 24 by 48 feet) within a walled outer rectangle with sides in proportions of just over 1.5 to 1; Vitruvius describes his basilica as consisting of an inner colonnade 60 by 120 feet, and the perimeter wall has been reconstructed as around 110 by 170 feet. Like Vitruvius’ basilica, the Galilee was
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