Note 246 — Chapter VIII · Gothic in the Midi (continued 2)

Mende lies in the mountains of western Languedoc. Its cathedral was begun (1365) under the auspices of Urban V, whose statue stands in the square close by. Practically it is a XV-century church, without capitals, flying buttresses, or transept. During twelve years the architect was Pierre Juglar, an associate, at Riom, of those Flamboyant Gothic masters, the Dammartin brothers. The cathedral was finished with its two towers in 1512. From 1286 to 1296 the bishop of Mende was Guillaume Durandus, author of Rationale, the famous book on church symbolism. He was governor under the popes of the marches of Ancona and the Romagna, and led the papal forces in battle. The Italian city of Castel Duranti was named after him. When he died at Rome in 1296, Giovanni Cosmati made his tomb, a masterpiece in the only Gothic church of Rome, Santa-Maria-sopra-Minerva. Urban V was generous also to St. Flour (which lies south of Mende), whose abbatial was rebuilt in the XIV century; John XXII had raised it to cathedral rank in 1317. Congrès Archéologique, 1857, Mende.