Do not forget also the coherency and perfect balance of the structure, weights and measures, columns ecc ecc of a Greek temple.
Daniela

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Da: Societies for the History of Economics [[log in to unmask]] per conto di Marcel Claessen [[log in to unmask]]
Inviato: mercoledì 13 luglio 2011 0.05
A: [log in to unmask]
Oggetto: Re: [SHOE] GET and gothic cathedrals

To the editor of  the List.

I cannot contribute to our list a new link, as requested by Alain Alcouffe, between GET and gothic cathedrals. But I can point to a pre-GET link between the "economic reglementization in medieval towns" and "the most beautiful monuments of Gothic architecture". In my 2002 PhD thesis on Condorcet's "Monopole et Monopoleur", his little known 1775 letter in tacit support of Turgot's liberalization policy, I referred to the 1916 Dutch pdh thesis about the "Food supply policy in the towns of the Low Countries during the Middle Ages" by Willem Sybrand Unger [Amsterdam, 1916, in Dutch: "De levensmiddelenvoorziening der Hollandsche steden in de middeleeuwen", Amsterdam, 1916; a digital copy on www.archive.org]. On my p.89 I mentioned Unger's view on his p.16, that the combination of urban growth and poor development of trade and traffic had necessitated a need for economic selfsufficiency in the medieval towns, that induced a detailed regulation of  economic life, which was, according to Unger "to be considered, in its sort, a masterpiece". In my n.164 I then encapsulated Unger's quote, in his n.48, from the well known Belgian historian Henri Pirenne, with whom Unger had studied in Gent in 1912-1913. On p.107 of his "Les anciennes démocraties des Pays-Bas" [Paris, Flammarion, 1910; repr. 1922; a copy of pp.106-113 on www.unibuc.ro/CLASSICA/pirenne/cap43.pdf<http://www.unibuc.ro/CLASSICA/pirenne/cap43.pdf>], Pirenne had characterized the strict reglementation of the economic system in the medieval towns as a "municipal socialism" that was "aussi conséquente dans ses principes, aussi cohérente dans ses parties, aussi riche dans ses détails que les plus beaux monuments de l'architecture gothique ou que les grandes 'sommes' des philosofiques scolastiques". Or in my English translation: "as consequent in its principles, as coherent in its parts, as rich in its details as the most beautiful monuments of Gothic architecture or the great 'sommes' by the scholastic philosophers".

Marcel Claessen, Dordrecht, The Netherlands.

==

At 10:18 12-7-2011, you wrote:
Hi ,

Werner Hildenbrand wrote in his  Introduction, to Mathematical economics : twenty papers of Gerard Debreu, Cambridge , Cambridge university press, 1983

?The edifice of General Equilibrium Theory has been compared to the great gothic cathedrals. These cathedrals were designed by inspired architects and constructed by great master builders who quite often extended and improved on the original design?. p. 29

I'm not sure  whom is alluded to by WH.

To describe the GET, or more exactly the neoclassical theory, Richard Swedberg and alii 1987 used the same metaphor which he traced back to Gudmund Hernes, Forhandlingsokonomi og blandingsadministrasjon (Bergen: Universitetsforlaget, 1978) where the latter wrote : ?If I, in all friendliness, were to allow myself a frivolous analogy, I would liken neo-classical theory to a gothic cathedral.? (quoted and translated by Swedberg p. 172 from pages 201-202).

Richard Swedberg, Ulf Himmelstrand, Göran Brulin, The Paradigm of Economic Sociology: Premises and Promises, in Theory and Society, Vol. 16, No. 2 (Mar., 1987), pp. 169-213.

I have no idea if WH knew about Hernes 1978 and/or alluded to him.

Of course, some intertextual hints could be found previoulsly. For example, in Oskar Lange 1937 where Oskar Lange quoted an other use of the same image of ?gothic cathedral? related to great achievements. Lange quoted the Manifesto where Marx wrote ?The bourgeoisie has been the first to show what man's activity can bring about. It has accomplished wonders far surpassing Egyptian pyramids, Roman aqueducts, and Gothic cathedrals; [..] The bourgeoisie, during its rule of scarce one hundred years, has created more massive and more colossal productive forces than have all preceding generations together. (quotation is on page 128 in ?On the Economic Theory of Socialism?: Part , Oskar Lange, The Review of Economic Studies, Vol. 4, No. 2 (Feb., 1937), pp. 123-142.

I will be thankful if anybody knows about previous links between the GET and gothic cathedrals.

Thanks in advance
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