Avril Behan
Department of Spatial Information Sciences, School of Spatial Planning
Dublin Institute of Technology, Bolton Street
Dublin 1, IRELAND

Rachel Moss
Department of the History of Art and Architecture
School of Histories and Humanities, University of Dublin, Trinity College
Dublin 2, IRELAND

St. Nicholas' Collegiate Church, North Window E

The aim of this paper is to examine the extent to which detailed empirical analysis of the metrology and proportional systems used in the design of Irish ecclesiastical architecture can be analysed to provide historical information not otherwise available. Focussing on a relatively limited sample of window tracery designs as a case study, it will first set out to establish what, if any, systems were in use, and then what light these might shed on the background, training and work practices of the masons, and, by association, the patrons responsible for employing them.

About the author
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. is a lecturer in Geomatics (specifically remote sensing, photogrammetry, CAD, and land surveying) at the Department of Spatial Information Sciences, Dublin Institute of Technology. She holds a Master of Science Degree from Dundee University, Scotland, in Remote Sensing, Digital Image Processing and Applications and is completing Ph.D. studies at the Department of History of Art and Architecture, University of Dublin, Trinity College on the application of geomatics techniques to the analytical study of medieval window tracery in Connaught and Ormond, Ireland. Her other research interests include heritage applications of terrestrial laser scanning, CAD and visualisation, satellite remote sensing, airborne laser scanning, and the usage of Web 2.0 applications for higher education. She has presented at conferences such as CIPA/VAST 2006 on "Close-Range Photogrammetric Measurement and 3D Modelling for Irish Medieval Architectural Studies" and ISPRS Congress 2000 "On the Matching Accuracy of Raterised Scanning Laser Altimeter Data".

Dr This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. is a lecturer at the Irish Art Research Centre in Trinity College, Dublin. A specialist in the field of medieval architecture and sculpture, research projects with which she has been involved include the electronic capture and archiving of medieval architectural details with the department of Computer Science at Trinity College Dublin, and she is currently working on a project that looks at medieval buildings as documents of social and economic change. She was also involved, in a consultative role, with the establishment of a state-sponsored national database of movable Irish field antiquities. She has published numerous articles on medieval art and architecture and edited/co-edited two books, Art and Devotion in Late Medieval Ireland (2006) and Making and Meaning in Insular Art (2007).

The correct citation for this paper is:
Avril Behan, Rachel Moss, "Metrology and Proportion in the Ecclesiastical Architecture of Medieval Ireland", pp. 171-183 in Nexus VII: Architecture and Mathematics, ed. Kim Williams, Turin: Kim Williams Books, 2008.