Abstract

About ‘citation’ in medieval architecture. ‐ The knowledge of art‐historical terms deriving from linguistics, especially concerning the term ‘citation’, is methodologically interesting. In the first instance, it is necessary to take a look at the meaning of the term regarding the history of architecture. The next step turns to the development of the linguistic model of the Indo‐European language and its influence on art‐historical vocabulary. The aspect of language starts with a remark on Gotthold Ephraim Lessing's Laokoon or About the borderline between painting and literature (‘Laokoon oder Über die Grenzen der Malerei und Poesie’). The paper carries on with the usage of the term ‘citation’ in architecture by discussing some leading scholars of architectural history. The appendix of the paper includes some good examples of architectural citation in textual sources of the middle ages.