Letaldus of Micy, Germigny-des-Prés, and Aachen: Histories, Contexts, and the Problem of Likeness in Medieval Architecture
Jenny H. Shaffer
Architectural historians, focused on whether form or meaning had primacy in the medieval “copy,” have debated significance and value of Letaldus Micy’s statement that Theodulf’s oratory at Germigny-des-Prés was “manifestly likeness” Aachen, as bore little formal resemblance to Charlemagne’s famous chapel. Letaldus’s quote, however, has been divorced from its textual historical contexts. Considered part his tenth-century Miracula Sancti Maximini circumstances production, association ninth-century buildings confirms Richard Krautheimer’s well-known assertion primary notions likeness, voicing an image a Carolingian past remembered light fierce present struggles within monastic world Orléanais. Indeed, rather than answering question built “copy” quote raises issue how buildings’ complex, layered, transforming meanings are rooted time place.
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