Page:A history of architecture on the comparative method for the student, craftsman, and amateur.djvu/283

 ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE IN EUROPE. 225 Germany, as at Worms (No. 105 g), Mayence and Spires ; in France, as at the Abbaye-aux-Hommes (No. 112 e, f), and Abbaye-aux-Dames at Caen, and Notre Dame, Paris (No. 157); and in England, as at Canterbury ; the difficulty of spanning oblong compartments was surmounted by including two of them in one square bay of vaulting, each main bay corresponding with two square compartments of the side aisles (Nos. 94 a, b, e and 105). In some instances the intermediate pier was carried up as a vaulting shaft and formed the vaulting compartment into six parts on plan, which was then known as " sexpartite " (six part) vaulting (Nos. 100 c, 105 b and 112 f). The weight of the vaulting in this case was therefore supported by alternate piers, which were accordingly strengthened (No. 105 c). During the following centuries this principle of rib design became more complex by the multiplication of the frame-work of ribs described under Gothic vaulting (page 272). It will also be found that all these difficulties of accommodating the heights of ribs of different spans, especially in oblong compartments, were surmounted by the introduction of the pointed arch (Nos. hid and 112 d). 3. EXAMPLES (refer to each country). 4. COMPARATIVE. A. Plans. — In church architecture further developments from the type of the Early Christian Church took place. Charlemagne gathered around him artists and skilled workmen, and calling architecture out of its sleep, took the Roman basilica as a model for the new churches. Transepts were usually added, and the chancel prolonged further east than in the basilicas, the church partaking more and more of a well-defined cross on plan, as at S. Michele, Pavia (Nos. 94 and 95). The transepts were the same breadth as the nave, which was usually twice the width of the aisles. The choir was raised considerably by means of steps, and underneath, supported on piers, was formed a vaulted crypt as at S. Miniato, Florence (No. 93) and S. Michele, Pavia (No. 94), in which the saints and martyrs were buried. The earlier examples have choirs without aisles, the latter, however, being continued round in later examples. The cloisters in connection with the churches are often of great beauty and have capitals and other features elaborately carved. The towers are special features, and of great prominence in the design, as at the Church of the Apostles at Cologne (Nos. 104