Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/480

 448 FRENCH ARCHITECTURE. Part II. Pointed Arches. Before proceeding to describe these various styles in detail, it may add to the clearness of what follows if the mode in which the pointed arch was first introduced into Christian architecture is previously explained. It has already been shown that the pointed arch with radiating voussoirs Avas used by the Assyrians as early as the time of Sargon in the 8th century b.c, and by the Ethiopians as early as that of Tirhakah. The Etrurians and Pelasgi used the form probably twelve centuries before the Christian era, but constructed it with horizontal courses. To come nearer, however, to our own time, the Saracens cer- tainly adopted it at Cairo in the first century of the Hegira, and em- ployed it generally if not universally, and never apparently used a round arch after the erection of the mosque of Ebn Touloun, a.d. 885. The Romanesque traditions, however, prevented the Christians from adopting it in Europe till forced to do it from constructix'e necessities ; and the mode of its introduction into the early churches in Provence renders them singularly important in enabling us to arrive at a correct solution of this much mooted question. i It is hardly worth while discussing whether the form was borrowed from the East, where it had been used so long before it was known — or at least before we are aware of its being known — in Europe. It may be that the Pelasgic Greeks left examples of it in Provence, or that persons trading to the Levant from Marseilles became familiar with its uses ; or it may be, though very unlikely, that it was really re-invented for the purposes to which it was a})plied. In whatever way it was introduced, it at least seems certain that all the churclies of Provence, from the age of Chai'lemagne to that of St. Louis, were vaulted, and have their vaults constructed on the principle of the pointed arch. It has nevertheless long been a received dogma with the antiquaries of France, as well as with those of England, that the pointed arch was first introduced in the 12th century — the first example being assumed to be the Mork of Abbot Suger at St. Denis(1144-52), the result of which is that all mIio have written on the subject of Proven9al architecture have felt themselves forced to ascribe the age of the churches in question, or at least of their roofs, a date subsequent to this period. The use to which the Provencal architects applied the pointed arch will be evident from the annexed diagram, the left-hand portion of which is a section of the roof of one of the churches at Vaison. The object evidently was to lay the roof or roofing-tiles directly on the ^ For the detail of the argument I must refer the reader to a paper read by me to the Institute of British Architects on June 18th, 1849, and pubUshed in tlie '• Builder," and other papers of the time. See also a paper read in the same place in the following month (July, 1849), by Sir (Gardner Wilkinson.