William of Sens was a twelfth century French architect, supposed to have been born at Sens, France.
He is referred to in September, 1174, as having been the architect who undertook the task of rebuilding the choir of Canterbury cathedral, originally erected by Conrad, the prior of the monastery, and destroyed by fire in that year. William had supposedly worked upon the first major Gothic religious building, the Saint Denis Basilica near Paris and...
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William of Sens was a twelfth century French architect, supposed to have been born at Sens, France.
He is referred to in September, 1174, as having been the architect who undertook the task of rebuilding the choir of Canterbury cathedral, originally erected by Conrad, the prior of the monastery, and destroyed by fire in that year. William had supposedly worked upon the first major Gothic religious building, the Saint Denis Basilica near Paris and as such was brought in for his skills in the modern, lighter method of building.
William was an ambitious man, and the monks considered him perhaps a little too proud. He was working on the church when he slipped from the scaffolding. He was badly bruised and nearly died. The monks recorded that perhaps it was spite of the devil or vengeance from God.
He never was able to work again. He allegedly gave the job to a monk, but he felt that he would be outcast from monastic society and gave it to a man known only as William the Englishman. A...
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