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Image of a vaulted ceiling showing stereotomy in the stonework. Image credit: Sara Galletti
Image of a vaulted ceiling showing stereotomy in the stonework. Image credit: Sara Galletti

Mapping Stereotomy

Project Lead(s): Sara Galletti

2017present

Mapping Stereotomy is on hold while Professor Galletti is on leave.

Mapping Stereotomy is a database dedicated to stereotomy, the art of cutting stones into particular shapes for the construction of vaulted structures. Stereotomy is best known for the variety of acrobatic masterpieces produced in early modern France and Spain. Yet the art is neither early modern nor European; it has been practiced over a wide temporal span, from Hellenistic Greece to contemporary Apulia, and across a broad geographical area, centered on the Mediterranean Basin but reaching far beyond—from Cairo to Gloucester and from Yerevan to Braga. Mapping Stereotomy consolidates and visualizes information on stereotomic vaults from antiquity through early modernity, with the aim of furthering and broadening research in the fields of construction techniques and Mediterranean studies.

Banner Image: Image of a vaulted ceiling showing stereotomy in the stonework. Image Credit: Sara Galletti

Past Collaborators

Margarete Calmar
Kristin Love Huffman
Angela Tawfik
Hannah Wolfe

Scholarship

Articles

  • Galletti, Sara. “Philibert de L’Orme’s theory of stereotomy in the Premier tome de l’architecture.” Thinking3D. April 16, 2018. Galletti, Sara. “Stereotomy and the Mediterranean: Notes Toward an Architectural History.” Mediterranea. International Journal on the Transfer of Knowledge 2 (2016): 73-120. doi:10.21071/mijtk.v0i2.6716.

Presentations

  • Galletti, Sara. “Mapping Stereotomy: Vaulting in the Ancient and Medieval Mediterranean.” Paper presented at Digital Matters in Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Duke University, Durham, NC, April 6-7, 2018.
  • Galletti, Sara. “Stereotomy: A Mediterranean History.” Society of Architectural Historians, Annual International Conference. April 18, 2018 – April 22, 2018.
  • Galletti, Sara. “Stereotomy: a Mediterranean History.” Vanderbilt University. October 29, 2018.