In recent years, such questions about medieval technology have been considered in the light of modern science. Laboratory analyses have allowed researchers to learn much about medieval techniques and materials. Sometimes this kind of analysis can settle a question, as we see from an article about sculptors in France and Spain. Elena Aguado-Guardiola, professor at the High School for conservation and restoration of cultural goods in Aragon, Ana María Muñoz-Sancho (a doctoral candidate) and Javier Ibáñez Fernández (a professor of art history at the University of Saragossa) are able to explain to us that sculptors’ practices, particularly those common in the 15^th century, are rather poorly documented, and not well known for that very reason. Thanks to information gleaned from laboratory analysis, the authors have been able to demonstrate that certain techniques perfected in Burgundy, adapted to the unfavourable climatic conditions in that region in relation to the conservation of pigments applied to sculptures, ended up being used in Spain. The durability obtained through these techniques, exported to the favourable environment of the Iberian Peninsula, allowed the polychromes of certain sculptures to be extremely well preserved. In the chapel of theCorporales of Daroca, the colours of the 15^th century, applied using the Burgundian method, stood up better after centuries than those of the 16^th century, applied using a local method.

Some techniques are transferred from one region to another, but the things that do not manage to be transferred also have an interesting side. Focusing on the Mosan region during the Gothic period, Frans Doperé, a researcher studying medieval architecture in Western Europe, observed that certain techniques, which were easily diffused over neighbouring regions, never affected Mosan production. This observation may indicate that local actors, despite their contacts with exogenous artisans, resisted the importation of techniques and know-how that was different from their own traditions, and thus failed to follow in the footsteps of the mainstream of development around them.

Whether we are talking about the diffusion of tin glazing in French ceramics, the  ronde-bosse style of enamelling of Parisian workshops on Spanish territory, or the architecture of Genoese colonies on the Black Sea, the examples the book goes in to attest the importance of taking technological transfers into account in attempting to comprehend artistic production in Gothic Europe. 

The socioprofessional dimension of transfers

Over and above the technical, stylistic and iconographic aspects of transfers, their socio-professional dimension has also attracted the attention of a number of researchers: what factors caused the artists to circulate? Was mobility rare? How did the itinerant artists fit in at the new locations? 

As regards the movement of artists, Philippe Bernardi, the director of research for CNRS at the Sorbonne, reminds us that in many cases, the decision of a patron is not the only motivation to be taken into account. Through a study of the archives of notaries, he managed to trace the movements of a sculptor and architect of the 15^th century, Hélion L’Auvergnat, and then to show that his movements, in succession – he moved to Arles, and then moved around more and more freely in Provence – do not indicate an artisan travelling in search of work, but rather a well-established man who progressively enlarges his territory.

The question of the integration of foreign artists into a new milieu is raised at several points in this book. Basing her study on the case of the Parler family in Bohemia in the 14^th and 15^th centuries, Klára Benešovská, director of the department of medieval art history of the Institute of Art History in Prague gives us an example of the integration exogenous artisans. The Parler family is an important group of stonecutters and sculptors. The most famous member is the maître d’œuvre of the St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague, Peter Parler. Prague is a city that is open to international influences, and welcomes artisans with different backgrounds, who are judged on the basis of talent, not on where they come from. Even if the fame of Peter Parler was tributary to the particular conditions in which he evolved, and to the exceptional commissions he received, his foreign origins do not constitute an obstacle to his career.