Hey guys. This is my first time here, I just came to ask a quick question. I'm writing a script for a short film set in the middle ages. The main character is an architect's apprentice. Now, I'm no history buff, but I figure he wouldn't refer to himself as an "architect". What would be the term for the profession at the time?
Any further tips are welcome, such as "for fucks sake, don't make that mistake all medieval films make!" and shit like that.
Like make him a member of the secret society of stonemasons that runs the world behind the scenes.
Levi Edwards
you could probably look up the etymology of it to find something suitable.
Adam Gomez
They wouldnt be speaking modern english anyway, its fine to just translate it into "architect"
Jace Ross
Masons. They might have been schooled to receive literacy and numeracy, but most of what they learned was through years of apprenticeship.
In the renaissance education became more formalized, those who extensively used geometry and perspective to plan and rework designs largely on paper were generally called architects or engineers.
maybe you should do some actual research for your short film
Samuel Morgan
but user thats not a fantasy >Jews
Joseph Peterson
I am, I was just having trouble with this detail. Thankfully these kind anons have steered me on the right track. These are also good points. The short will have some fantasy elements, but I want to ground it in reality as much as possible.
Kayden Barnes
It's highly unlikely that there would be such a profession in the European Middle Ages, like this user said it wasn't until education became formalized that such a profession utilizing such things as geometry could be used. Unless your movie is set in Constantinople or in certain areas of Italy, then it would simply be a mason. Otherwise, your architect better be a Muslim. It wasn't uncommon for specialized professionals such as Masons to go throughout the Kingdom, employed by multiple lords. A mason could travel from one end of the kingdom to another as construction of new things was rare for a lord, so the movie might have lots of travelling.
Tyler Brown
It will indeed include traveling, that's very helpful information, thanks!
Levi Sanchez
medieval people used the title master a lot. master builder, or master mason would probably work fine and sounds cool.
Parker Moore
It would also depend on the more exact period of the MA and the region of Europe itself. Having details would help locating some historical sources and mentions for a definitive answer and probably some local particularities and differences.
Thomas Phillips
could be an italian architect hired by some distant kingdom
Charles Ortiz
He would be a master mason.
You should read Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth, it's about a master mason in charge of building a cathedral
>reading fiction to learn about history >implying properly made fiction cannot be historically accurate
You're an idiot. The guy is making a movie set during the middle ages, which requires to know more about the era's ambiance and way of life than pure medieval architecture
Owen Gutierrez
>which requires to know more about the era's ambiance and way of life than pure medieval architecture No, it doesn't the audience is not made of historians and so he doesn't need to be accurate. It's enough to confirm the pre-scientific ideas the audience has on the Middle Ages. >You're an idiot. Yeah yeah. Sorry I discredit the guy that wrote the book you got from your mum last year. Here: >In diesem populärkulturellen Mittelalterdiskurs ist wieder der historische Roman von besonderer Relevanz. Nach einer ZDF-Umfrage von 2004 erreichte Ken Folletts Die Säulen der Erde Platz drei der Lieblingsbücher der Deutschen. CHRISTINE KNUST (Aachen) untersuchte Folletts Säulen und seinen neuesten Mittelalterroman Die Tore der Welt im Hinblick auf die Darstellung mittelalterlicher Lebensbilder. Gegenstand der Diskussion war vor allem der Wahrheitsanspruch und die historiografische Rückversicherung des vom Schriftsteller Recherchierten (wobei Frau Knust zu Recht nuancierte, dass Follett recherchieren lässt). Die Beteuerung des „Wahrheitsgemäßen“ aber sei eine, auch kommerziellen Interessen geschuldete Beglaubigungsstrategie (Scherer) und resultiere aus Folletts Interesse an Realismus und Symbolismus, was Kontingenz zulasse (Keppler-Tasaki). Offen blieb in der Diskussion die Frage, ob die Entscheidung bei der Aufnahme bestimmter Mittelalterbilder beim Verfasser oder beim Rezipienten liege. h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=29251
Luis Reed
>No, it doesn't the audience is not made of historians and so he doesn't need to be accurate. Agreed. Which is why the papers you link are useless and irrelevant to the discussion.
I'll ignore the rest of your post
Cooper Myers
>ignore the rest of the post that is about historians specifically dealing with Ken Follett and the images of the Middle Ages he conjures in his works >Which is why the papers you link are useless and irrelevant to the discussion. >stating this before you even read them And this is how I now that you never set foot in a history department.
Carter James
I bet you get triggered by GGS
Michael Lewis
>It's highly unlikely that there would be such a profession in the European Middle Ages
lol, even the Nidaros Cathedral in Norway started to be built in the year 1070 m8.
Julian Morales
Oh yeah smartass so if I want this book: >The reign of Henry VII : proceedings of the 1993 Harlaxton symposium