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MySQL and Java
Developer’s Guide
Mark Matthews
Jim Cole
Joseph D. Gradecki
Publisher: Robert Ipsen Copyeditor: Elizabeth Welch
Editor: Robert M. Elliott Proofreader: Nancy Sixsmith
Managing Editor: Vincent Kunkemueller Compositor: Gina Rexrode
Book Producer: Ryan Publishing Group, Inc.
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
C O N T E N TS
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction xv
iii
iv Contents
Updates 47
Deletes 50
Using SHOW 51
More on Tables 53
Transactions 55
Functions/Operators 56
Joins 56
NULL 59
What’s Next 59
BLOB 168
MEDIUMBLOB 168
LONGBLOB 169
SET 169
ENUM 169
Using Character Types 169
Date and Time Column Types 171
DATE 172
TIME 172
DATETIME 172
YEAR 173
TIMESTAMP 173
Using Date and Time Types 173
Numeric Column Types 175
TINYINT 176
SMALLINT 176
MEDIUMINT 176
INT 177
BIGINT 177
FLOAT 177
DOUBLE 177
DECIMAL 178
Using Numeric Types 178
What’s Next 180
Index 401
A C K N O W L E D G M E N TS
Dedication
To my wife Diane, for all her support in my "geeky" endeavors, and to our
new daughter Lauren.
I would also like to dedicate this work to Monty, David, and the rest of the
fine group of developers at MySQL AB. Without their contribution to the
software community and dedication to free software and open source ideals,
this book would not have been possible.
--Mark Matthews
I would like to dedicate this book to my parents. Their ever-present love and
encouragement have made so many things possible.
—Jim Cole
This book is dedicated to the trinity: God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.
—Joseph D. Gradecki
Acknowledgments
I need to acknowledge the patience and support of my beautiful and loving wife
and our boys. Thank you for the opportunity to be your husband and father.
Tim, thank you for the opportunities. Jim, welcome to this new adventure and I
look forward to many more in the future. Thank you to Liz Welch for the excel-
lent review.
xi
A B O U T T H E CAOUNTTHEO
NRTS
xiii
Introduction
H
ave you ever been assigned a project and realized that you had no idea
how you were going to accomplish it? Many developers have experi-
enced this feeling when asked to interface their code with a database.
With a few exceptions, most developers were busy learning Lisp, linked lists,
and big-O notation during their formal education instead of learning the funda-
mentals of relationship database management systems. When the time comes
to interface their code with a database, they turn to a book like the one you are
holding.
Your challenge might be to write a Web-based system using servlets and Enter-
prise JavaBeans (EJBs) to transfer shipping records from the home office in
Bend, Oregon, to a satellite shipper in New Jersey. Or perhaps your father just
opened his new medical office and you volunteered to create a scheduling sys-
tem over the weekend.
Whatever the situation, interfacing an application to a database is one of the
most fundamental tasks a developer is required to perform. This book is
designed for developers who either have a pressing task ahead of them or who
are curious about how to read database information into their application.
By combining MySQL, the number-one open source database available, with
Java, the most portable language ever developed, you can create an undis-
putable champion. So, sit back in your desk chair with a hot chocolate and get
ready to supercharge your coding.
xvi I NTRO D U CTI O N
NOTE
All the code and examples in this book can be found on the the support Web site at
www.wiley.com/compbooks/matthews.
Two different versions of MySQL are used throughout this book: 4.0.4 and
3.23.52. JDBC connectivity is handled using MySQL’s Connector/J driver, and
we cover both versions 2.0.14 and development 3.0.1.
Book Organization
The first four chapters of this book provide an overview of databases, JDBC,
and installation of the tools you will be using. The remainder of the book is an
in-depth guide to building database applications with MySQL, Connector/J,
JDBC, and Java.
All of the coding examples in this book are built using MySQL as the primary
database, Java as our coding language, and Connector/J, MySQL’s JDBC dri-
ver. Although the installation of these components isn’t overly difficult, this
chapter provides comprehensive instructions for obtaining all of the neces-
sary components and performing a step-by-step installation. We also provide
simple examples for testing the installation.
queries instead of one. This chapter looks at inserting multiple pieces of infor-
mation into multiple tables, what problems can arise, and how transactions can
be used to solve these problems.
all together using a Certificate Authority application. Using JSP, servlets, and
EJB, the application shows how to create new accounts, request certificates,
and enable the verification of certificates. All of the information, including
the binary certificate, is stored in a MySQL database with multiple tables.
I
n this chapter, we explain why you might choose to use a database system
with your software. We also provide an overview of the MySQL database
server and the Connector/J JDBC driver.
For many years, large corporations have enjoyed the ability to deploy relational
database management systems (RDBMSs) across their enterprise. Companies
have used these systems to collect vast amounts of data that serve as the “fuel”
for numerous applications that create useful business information.
Until recently, RDBMS technology has been out of reach for small businesses
and individuals. Widely used RDBMS systems such as Oracle and DB2 require
complex, expensive hardware. License fees for these systems are in the tens to
hundreds of thousands of dollars for each installation. Businesses must also
hire and retain staff with specialized skill sets to maintain and develop these
systems. Smaller enterprises have relied on systems like Microsoft Access and
FoxPro to maintain their corporate data.
Early on, during the explosive growth of the Internet, open source database
systems like mSQL, Postgres (now PostgreSQL), and MySQL became available
for use. Over a relatively short amount of time, the developers of these systems
have provided a large subset of the functionality provided by the expensive
commercial database systems. These open source database systems also run
on less-expensive commodity hardware, and have proven in many cases to be
easier to develop for and maintain than their commercial counterparts.
1
2 An Overview of MySQL
Finally, smaller businesses and individuals have access to the same powerful
level of software tools that large corporations have had access to for over a
decade.
Multiuser Access
Many programs use flat files to store data. Flat files are simple to create and
change. The files can be used by many tools, especially if they are in comma- or
tab-delimited formats. A large selection of built-in and third-party libraries is
available for dealing with flat files in Java. The java.util.Properties class
included with the Java Development Kit is one example.
Flat file systems can quickly become untenable when multiple users require
simultaneous access to the data. To prevent corrupting the data in your file, you
must lock the file during changes, and perhaps even during reads. While a file is
locked, it cannot be accessed by other users. When the file becomes larger and
the number of users increases, this leads to a large bottleneck because the file
remains locked most of the time—your users are forced to wait until they can
have exclusive access to the data.
RDBMSs avoid this situation by employing a number of locking strategies at
varying granularities. Rather than using a single lock, the database system can
lock an individual table, an individual page (a unit of storage in the database,
usually covering more than one row), or an individual row. This increases
throughput when multiple users are attempting to access your data, which is a
common requirement in Web-based or enterprise-wide applications.
Storage Transparency
If you use flat files in your software, you are also responsible for managing their
storage on disk. You have to figure out where and how to store the data, and
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CHARTRES
No less than nine spires were originally designed and their towers
actually commenced. What a magnificent effect would have been produced
had they been completed! Standing on the high ground of the city, Chartres
with its clustering pinnacles would have been one of the wonders of
Christendom. The magnificent glass of the thirteenth century is so deep in
tone that upon entering the building one is conscious of a darkness that can
almost be felt, so much at variance with the effect of the interior of most
large French Cathedrals.
The two porches placed outside the transept doors are the subject of a
panegyric from the pen of Viollet-le-Duc. He considers them as the most
beautiful and harmonious additions ever made to an existing building, and
their architects proved themselves to be artists of the very first rank. No
more beautiful specimen of a portal of the thirteenth century can elsewhere
be found to exist; glorious and rejoicing in colour and in gold, and of
surpassing sculpture and full of impressive and solemn statuary.
RUE DE LA PORTE GUILLAUME, CHARTRES
Near Chartres there are two small towns which might well be taken in a
day’s excursion; both are connected with Chartres historically and both
have a certain interest of their own certainly not devoid of attraction to one
in search of antiquities. One is Châteaudun, whose fall during the war of
1870 was, as has been quoted above, the signal for the surrender of
Chartres; the other is Vendôme, the township of the ancient feudal county.
From Chartres it is Châteaudun that lies first in our road. It is a straight,
neat little town—most of the streets cut one another at right angles—and
the smoke of the Franco-Prussian war still seems to hover about the place;
one of its chief memories, indeed, is the great fight in October, 1870, when
a bare thousand franc-tireurs of the national guard kept the town for half a
day against a Prussian army of ten times their strength, and the quiet
market-square—now called the Place du 18 Octobre—was transformed into
a battle-field. All the heroism that the day called forth, however, could not
save the town from being sacked and burnt—the last of a long series of
conflagrations, lasting from the sixth to the nineteenth century, that has won
for the little town its cheerful, hopeful motto: “Extincta revivisco.”
Certainly Châteaudun has risen from the flames with a fresh lease of its
quiet life, but it has been completely modernised, and except for a few
narrow alleys sloping down towards the river, which would seem to have
escaped the general devastation, there is little that does not belong to to-day.
This is, however, making an exception of the Château overlooking the
Loire; a great exception, since at present all that there is to see in
Châteaudun consists in this square pile on the brow of the hill; the rest,
whatever it may once have been, is only a memory; and even the Château
itself hardly seems a part of the town, since it is not until we have left the
little white-painted streets behind that we realise its existence, and then it
comes as a gigantic surprise; a huge, square, turreted mass, on its platform
of rock, looking away over the rolling meadow lands, untroubled through
all the years of siege and conflagration. Thibaut le Tricheur, Count of
Champagne, built it in the tenth century; it was rebuilt in the twelfth
century, and again by its seigneur, the famous “Bastard of Orléans,” one of
the most devoted followers of Joan the Maid. Finally, under Louis XII.,
François d’Orléans-Longueville applied himself to fresh renovations, and
built the splendid façade overhanging the Loire.
Considering that the Duc de Vendôme has always been a title of some
importance in France since the early part of the sixteenth century, and the
Comtes de Vendôme a power in the feudal world before that, one might feel
rather surprised not to find the town itself presenting a more imposing
aspect. Vendôme is a picturesque place, but it is more of a long straggling
village than anything else, and it is only the ivied ruins on the cliff that take
one back—with a stretch of imagination, it must be confessed—to the days
of feudalism. Vendôme was originally, it is thought, a Gallic township under
the name of Vindocinum; it was then fortified by the Romans, evangelised
by Saint Bienheuré, and finally became the seat of a feudal count about the
end of the tenth century. In 1030 was founded the abbey of La Trinité,
whose church is one of the first “monuments” of Vendôme. It dates from the
thirteenth and fifteenth centuries; the beautiful Transition façade is well
worth notice, and so is the belfry tower, separated from the church and
tapering up to a tall stone spire. Inside the church there are some fine choir
stalls of the fifteenth century, of which the carving of the miséricordes is
very interesting in its variety and quaintness of design.
The Loire at Vendôme divides into several small streams, and in walking
through the town one appears continually to be crossing a succession of
bridges and coming upon fresh pictures of clear green water fringed by low-
roofed houses and dark lavoirs with their curtains of snowy linen. Outside
the town the river winds smoothly away past the cool quiet of the public
gardens, to join its tributaries and cut its silver channels through the distant
water-meadows.
“The route lay along the plateau until the heights were reached which
enclose the valley of the Loir; the road winds down to the river beside
hanging woods, red with autumn leaves not yet fallen, and crowned with a
ridge of firs. A corner is turned and Vendôme comes in sight, lying beneath
the shelter of the old ruined castle on the hill. As the horsemen enter the
town the people all come to the doors of their houses and gaze with every
sign of interested curiosity. There is an anxious expression in their faces.
They do not welcome, though they obey their visitors with alacrity. They
bring forth bread and meat and wine, and lay the tables for breakfast, but
good cheer they have none to give.”—The Times: “Prussian Occupation of
Vendôme.”
ORLÉANS, BOURGES, AND NEVERS
HE thought that the name of the city itself is most likely to call up
is that of the Maid who, born far away from Orléans, has taken its
name as a kind of surname.... We have got into a way of thinking ...
as if Orléans had its chief being as the city of the Maid.” Orléans certainly
does share with Rouen the chief honours of association with Joan of Arc,
the “Victrix Anglorum,” as she is described on a memorial tablet in the
Cathedral, and the town is equally full of monuments to her memory,
though the memory in this case is that of a great triumph, whereas at Rouen
it marks the last stage, captivity and death.
Orléans was the key of central and southern France, and if the English
once got possession of it they would certain overrun all the land south of
the Loire; hence its importance to France as a stronghold. Joan set out from
Blois late in April, 1429, in charge of a convoy of provisions for the
beleaguered city, and arrived opposite the town, on the left bank of the
Loire.
From November to the end of April the English had lain before the town,
and, although the inhabitants were not actually starving, provisions were
very scanty, and the bringing in of fresh supplies was practically an
impossibility, since the usual means of approach, the bridge across the
Loire, was blocked by the enemy, who occupied the outstanding fortress of
Les Augustins at the bridge, and on the right bank. On the Orléans bank the
English had built several strong bastilles, guarding the city and effectually
preventing any communication by means of the western highways. The
weak spot was on the east side, where the besiegers had one stronghold
only, the fortress of Saint Loup; and from this point Dunois, the general-in-
chief, and La Hire, the leader of Joan’s army, intended to effect an entrance;
but the Maid herself, with that love of directness which characterises her
whole career, desired to attack the English, not at their strongest, but at their
weakest point. Both wind and stream were against their ferrying over to
Saint Loup; and in the end Joan’s simple tenacity and childish belief in the
counsel of her “voices” carried the day. The army was sent back to Blois,
there to cross to the right bank and attack Orléans from the west, and
meanwhile she herself, the wind having turned, crossed in a boat by night
and entered the town with La Hire and Dunois. She was hailed by the
people of Orléans as an angel of deliverance, and lodged in the house of the
treasurer Boucher, near the Porte Regnart at the north-west angle of the city
walls; and from this vantage point Joan watched the enemy’s movements,
appearing from time to time upon the ramparts and bidding defiance to the
English, who, as was perhaps natural, retorted by showering insults upon
her. On May 4 she rode out in full state to meet her army which had arrived
from Blois. Three days later the great fight began. All this time the English
troops had scarcely moved a finger to hinder the French operations, but
when the enemy crossed the river by a bridge of boats and made a feint of
attacking the fortress on the left bank, retreating apparently in confusion,
the English sallied forth after them, thus provoking a real attack upon the
bridge fort. During the fray the girl-leader was wounded; never for a
moment did she give in, but stood in the fosse grasping the white banner—
sword she would not wield—and cheering on her companions; with the
result that by nightfall the position was gained, the English were driven out,
and Joan returned in triumph into Orléans by the bridge. The greater part of
her victory was now accomplished. On the following day the French forces
marched outside the walls of the town to meet the English line; but Talbot
and his men had not reckoned with what they, in the superstition of their
time, believed to be “a force not of this world,” and the morning light shone
upon their helmets and spears in full retreat towards the north. France was
saved, and a clear field was left for Charles the Dauphin—the gates of his
kingdom were flung open wide, that he might enter in and possess it.
ORLÉANS
But the greatness of Orléans belongs to an earlier day, before Joan heard
the voices in the Domrémy meadows, probably before Domrémy ever
existed. It was Attila the Hun who indirectly brought the town up the ladder
of fame. Aurelianum in the fifth century was a desirable stronghold, and as
such, Attila spied it afar from his Asiatic plains, and set out to conquer, and,
as one authority has it, to “vainly besiege” it, though Freeman inclines to
the opinion that “the business of West Goth and Roman was, in the end, not
to keep them (the Huns) out, but to drive them out.” However that may be,
Attila was eventually forced to give up his project, and Aurelianum
emerged from the struggle glorious and triumphant, to become the seat and
stronghold of kings, and, until its union with Paris in 613, the capital of a
separate kingdom. Since then it has been the scene of siege, martyrdom and
persecution, down to the days of the Franco-Prussian war, when it finished
an eventful history by a Prussian occupation in October, 1870, a sequel to
the battles of Patay and Bonbay.
Orléans is beautifully placed on a hillside overlooking the Loire. With
this physical advantage, and its long list of historical associations, one
cannot help feeling that it might have done better for itself, and have
become more than just a quiet, unobtrusive and rather dull city, with all its
monuments easily attainable. The Cathedral is an example of the last
lingering phase of Gothic architecture, and was rebuilt, so we are told—
after its destruction by the Huguenots—during the interval between 1600
and 1829. The building as a mass has great merit, for the architects have
made an effort to clothe it with dignity, and one feels that the church itself is
conceived in a spirit to make it, certainly at a distance, not unworthy of the
stronghold of Clovis and his successors.
The train which we took from Orléans to Bourges was slow enough to
enable us to look out, almost as easily as from a voiture, at the richly
wooded country. Here and there a small pyramidal church tower peeps out
from the trees, but, as a rule, there is little sign of life in this pleasant
country, and even the fields and the gorse-covered commons are bare of
sheep and cattle. This train-d’omnibus, in discharge of its functions as a
mail train, distributed letter-bags at every station. Here were waiting young
girls acting as postmistresses, many of whom had come from a considerable
distance, having ridden on bicycles, bare-headed, in the scorching sun,
along dusty roads, to deliver up their heavy loads and to enjoy a chat with
the travelling postman, who was evidently welcomed by them as bringing
all the latest bits of gossip along the line.
About a mile away there is a very beautiful view of the town, and the
general effect is a grey one. Roofs and houses—the latter perhaps originally
built of yellow-white stone—have all weathered to a beautiful grey, and
there is an air of mediævalism about the place. Bourges, indeed, like many
other towns in France, goes back to early days for its greatness, and belongs
far more to the past than to the present. The fifteenth century saw it at the
height of its fame as a king’s residence; Charles VII., perhaps finding the
more northerly towns too hot for him during the English occupation, took
up his abode there and became for the time being “King of Bourges”; and
Louis XI. founded a university in the town.
Here was born the famous Bourdaloue, and Boucher, the painter of
Versailles before “le Déluge,” Boucher who was
and who now, his Grasshopper days ended, lies buried beside his mother in
the Church of Saint Bonnet.
BOURGES
MOULINS
The Cathedral at Moulins has a curious misfit of nave and chancel. The
former is of the thirteenth century, with a high clerestory and rather low
triforium arches; the latter is Flamboyant, with a flat wall termination to the
east end, and seems to have been built without any regard to the pre-
existing nave; at any rate, the main piers do not meet, and a small bay of no
particular style is introduced literally as a stop-gap.
An excellent hotel—the “Central”—makes Limoges a convenient
stopping-place on the southern road, irrespective of its attractions to those
interested in faïence and enamel work; but there are plenty of other interests
within the town, and Limoges may, indeed, speak for itself in this respect,
by reason of its standing on a hill, overlooking a river, and containing, in
the old quarter at least, ancient houses and crooked streets enough to satisfy
any craving for the picturesque. The town slopes up a hill rising from the
Vienne, and really divides into two distinct parts, ville and cité; the ville is
the newer town straggling up the slope, while the cité, the original camping-
ground of the Lemovices, occupies the quarter near the river. So distinct
were these two in the Middle Ages that we even read of war between them
as between two separate states, the ville led by the abbot of Saint Martial,
the cité by the bishop. The great church of the river quarter is the Cathedral
of Saint Etienne, built, so tradition has it, upon the remains of a former
church erected by Saint Martial, and dating from 1273-1327, with a few
later alterations. The west end terminates in the substructure of an old
Romanesque campanile, resting on pillars. “The lowest story,” says
Freeman, “after a fashion rare but not unique, stood open. Four large
columns with their round arches supported a kind of cupola.” Under the
choir is a crypt, dating from the eleventh century, and thus at each end of
the later church is a relic of an older time.
Limoges had formerly been favourable to the English, but since the
dukes of Berri and Bourbon had laid siege to the town, and had been aided
by Bertrand du Guesclin, the inhabitants, including the bishop and the
governor, gave up their somewhat wavering allegiance and turned to
France. On hearing of this defection the Prince of Wales flew into a great
passion and “swore by the soul of his father, which he had never perjured,
that he would not attend to anything before he had punished Limoges; and
that he would make the inhabitants pay dearly for their treachery.” The
price they had to give was the safety of their city. Edward marched upon
Limoges from Cognac with a large force; but the new masters had
garrisoned the town so strongly that it was impossible to take it by assault.
He therefore resolved upon another and a more terrible way. He undermined
the fortifications, and set fire to the mine, so that a great breach was made.
Froissart describes the inhabitants of the town as very repentant of their
treachery, but adds poignantly that their penitence did little good, now that
they were no longer the masters; and certainly it was not rewarded by
mercy. The English troops rushed into the breach and poured down the
narrow streets, massacring right and left, plundering and burning, sparing
neither women nor children; and when the Prince at last turned back to
Cognac, he left behind him ruin and desolation where, a few days before,
had been strength and prosperity. During this terrible time the Church of
Saint Etienne happily escaped from damage, although all the rest of the old
town—“old” even in 1370—seems to have been destroyed. An interesting
reminder of more modern history remains in the name of one of the streets.
The Cathedral is connected with the Place Jourdan by the “Rue du 71ième
Mobiles”; and this street is so named in recognition of the valour shown by
this regiment in the field, and in the memory of those killed during the
Prussian war. It is an assurance that their heroism and endurance in a
hopeless struggle are not forgotten, and that an equal devotion to their
country will be shown, should the need arise, by succeeding generations of
their fellow-citizens. Monuments are not readily subscribed for, nor are
places where they may be erected easily found. A permanent testimony to
the gallant services of a regiment might be borne by calling a street after its
name. London accorded a great welcome to its volunteers at the termination
of the Boer war. Is there any street or place called after the name of the City
Imperial Volunteers?
LIMOGES
In a cathedral city like Limoges, where the church itself has a good deal
of interest and the town is not devoid of attraction, one is not readily
inclined to place its industrial interests very high on the list of things to be
seen; yet the fact remains that in this particular place the chief industry is
closely bound up with the town’s history. The Limoges school of enamel
workers had attained celebrity as early as the twelfth century, when the
champ-levé, or engraving process, was in vogue, the ground-work of the
plates consisting of graven copper and the cavities filled in with enamel.
This kind of work may well be seen in Westminster Abbey upon the tomb
of Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke. In the fourteenth century France
borrowed from Italy the art of transparent enamelling, which the artists at
Limoges developed into enamel-painting, and this branch was carried on at
Limoges for upwards of two centuries, until it fell into decay under Louis
XIV. and gave place to the modern miniature style.
Under François Ier this art of enamel-painting attained to a high degree
of perfection. The sixteenth-century taste inclined always towards the
brilliant and magnificent, and the same love of display and richness which
showed both in dress and in architecture found also expression in the art of
enamelling. One of the most famous artists of this school came from
Limoges, whence he was known as Léonard Limousin. His work became
the pattern of excellence after which all lesser artists strove. “While some of
the works were executed in brilliant colours, most of them were in
monochrome. The background was generally dark, either black or deep
purple, and the design was painted en grisaille, relieved, in the case of
figure subjects, by delicate carnation. The effect was occasionally
heightened by appropriate touches of gold, and in many of the coloured
enamels brilliancy was obtained by the use of silver foil, or paillon, placed
beneath a transparent enamel.”
At Périgueux we seem to have left Northern France in the far distance
and to have taken the first definite step into the Midi. The architectural
pilgrim as he wanders southward is conscious of the existence of two
distinct styles, possessing features dissimilar in construction and design; in
one case he finds barrel-vaulted churches, in another large churches roofed
with pointed domes, whose origin it is difficult to determine. Of the latter
type the church of Saint Front is a notable instance. It rises above the old
quarter, which occupies the centre of the town, the modern portion, quite
distinct from the rest, as was the case at Limoges, sloping up the hill, and
the remnant of the old Roman city fronting the river. The original Vesunna
of the Petrocorii stood on the left bank of the Isle; the Roman Vesunna
crossed to the other side, and is now represented by the ruins of an
amphitheatre, dating from the third century, and some second-century baths.
The old Château Barrière is also built on Roman fortifications, and two of
the Roman towers still remain, besides the “Tour de Vésone,” which was
probably part of a pagan temple.
PÉRIGUEUX FROM THE RIVER
It is a curious fact that here the ancient remains of the Roman city should
be so much more prominent than is usually the case. At Bourges we saw the
house of Jacques Cœur built upon a Roman foundation, and many other
places keep, in part at least, their Roman walls; but Périgueux has Roman
remains which absorb quite half the interest aroused by the city on the Isle
—the other half being devoted to the church. From the site of the Gallic
Vesunna, on the left side of the river, the Tour de Vésone is the foremost
object, so old that, as Freeman says, it looks almost modern. “It is a singular
fact that, while a mediæval building can scarcely ever be taken for anything
modern, buildings of earlier date often may. The primeval walls of Alatri
might at a little distance be taken for a modern prison, and this huge round,
it must be confessed, has to some not undiscerning eyes suggested the
thought of a modern gasworks.” Then the partly mediæval Château Barrière
attracts notice, dating at its latest from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries,
and by its name recalling one of the noblest families of mediæval Périgord.
With the rise of the abbey of Saint Front, a new town arose also, and the
old quarter shrank up within itself, remaining still the abode of the nobles
and gentlemen and the clergy of Saint Etienne, but yielding the real
precedence to the vigorous new puy higher up the hill. “Here, as in some
measure at Limoges, the tables are turned. The ville stands apart on the hill,
with the air of the original cité, while the real cité abides below, putting on
somewhat the look of a suburb.” Even Saint Etienne, the old Cathedral-
church of La Cité, has, owing to its partially ruined condition, practically
renounced its importance both in intrinsic position and in external
appearance. The great tower, which once stood at the west end, has gone
entirely; the cupolas which crown each bay show the relation to those at
Saint Front, and in place of the eleventh-century apse stands a flat wall,
terminating in a choir of a century later.
The church of St. Front is “the only domed church in France with the
Greek cross for its plan.” The original building is said to have been
consecrated in 1047 by the Archbishop of Bourges and burnt down in a
great fire in 1120. It was not until after this date that the five-domed church
and the tower on the west side were constructed. “By this time the Church
of Saint Mark at Venice was completed, as far as its main structure was
concerned, and already the panelling of the walls with marble and the
decoration of its vaults and arches with mosaic had made some progress. It
was one of the wonders of Europe, and the idea of copying its plan and
general design would appeal at once to a race of builders who for more than
a century, as I shall prove later on, had been building domed churches
throughout Aquitaine, who were perfectly acquainted with their own
methods of building domes and pendentives, and therefore would not be
obliged to trust to foreign workmen to execute them.”—MR. R. PHENÉ
SPIERS.
ST. FRONT, PÉRIGUEUX
It would be quite out of our province to follow out Mr. Spiers’ arguments
in support of this theory, as it would lead us into the entangled byways of a
discourse on methods of “bedding” and centring arches and pendentives.
Suffice it to say that he clearly points out the difference which exists
between French and Byzantine domes, capitals and voussoirs and the
prevalence of the Aquitaine style, and on this evidence maintains that
French, and not Greek or Venetian architects, built the abbey church of
Saint Front. This conclusion is also supported by Viollet-le-Duc, who
expresses his opinion that Saint Front was undoubtedly built by a
Frenchman who had studied either the actual Church of Saint Mark at
Venice or who had had opportunities of seeing the design of the Venetian
architects. Its general conception, it is true, was Venetian and quasi-
Oriental, but its construction and details do not recall in any way the
decorative sculpture or method of building which obtained at St. Mark’s at
Venice. As to the ornament, it belongs to the late Romanesque style.
Saint Front must indeed have appeared a strange erection and unique in
conception amongst its sister churches, and no doubt exercised a great
influence over the builders of churches north of the Garonne in the eleventh
and twelfth centuries. The infusion of Oriental art into this part of the
country is explained by the distinguished French archæologist, M. Félix de
Verheilh, as partly due to the presence of Venetian colonies established at
Limoges. He says that the commerce of the Levant was carried into France
and into England along trade routes existing between Marseilles or
Narbonne and La Rochelle or Mantes. The landing of Eastern produce at
these ports on the Mediterranean and its carriage overland to the north-
western seaboard of France was rendered necessary to protect it from the
Spanish and Arab pirates who infested the coasts of Spain and Africa, and
also to avoid the risk of storms and heavy seas of the Straits of Gibraltar.
ANGOULÊME AND POITIERS
ANGOULÊME
To the south of the Cathedral lies what alone would make Poitiers worth
a visit, without the other churches which call for notice—the little Temple
Saint-Jean, said to be the oldest baptistery in France, and dating probably
from the fourth century. Once inside, we can realise the position of the
officiating priest and the place occupied by the rooms where the converts
disrobed themselves and whence they were conducted to the central basin,
fed by a continual stream of water, where stood the bishop, the typical
representative of the first Baptist. Freeman says: “It is the one monument of
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