The Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi

     In order to study contemporary stained glasses and artists, we need to know the History of this art since its creation. An international foundation exists to establish extensive knowledge about stained glass in the western countries. We call this world initiative the “Corpus Vitrearum International”: international research on stained glass.

The destruction of religious sites during the Second World War was the origin of this enterprise: in fact, the Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi was founded in 1949 by Hans R. Hahnloser. This is a systematic working on medieval stained glass: photographic documentation is combined in order to constitute a tool for research. It is the first initiative about the inventory and study of this art at a world level. Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, the USA, the Netherlands and Switzerland are members: this project exceeds European borders.

     

        This foundation is controlled by the Comité International d’Histoire de l’Art (CIHA) and the Union Académique Internationale (UAI). Each member country selects a National Committee and defines its own terms of reference. The National Committees are responsible for choosing authors, for the organization and scholarly supervision of research and for their own finances. They are responsible for the scholarly content and the publication of individual volumes.

Those guidelines explain differences between publications of France and Belgium for example. In France, volumes are dedicated to the history of a building like the cathedral of Chartres and its stained glass program but in Belgium, volumes are dedicated to a complete inventory and study about the stained glass of a land like the Wallonia, for example. In this case, each church or building is described and studied but integrated in global geographical history.

LECOCQ Isabelle, Les vitraux de la seconde moitié du XVIe et de 
la première moitié du XVIIe siècles conservés en Belgique, Provinces
 du Brabant Wallon, du Hainaut, de Liège et de Namur, Louvain, 2011,
 Corpus Vitrearum Belgique VI.

PASTAN Elizabeth, Les vitraux du chœur de la cathédrale de Troyes, XIIIe siècle, Paris, 2006, Corpus Vitrearum France II.

  In the website available in Franch, English and Deutsch, we can see a short introduction of this project and its history since 1949, year of the foundation. In this text, researchers, founders and collaborators are presented in an historical context. Guidelines and organization of the association are explained just as the aims of the foundation. We can find all of publications of all member countries and so the state of search about stained glass in the different land.