Translation:Dictionary of French Architecture from the 11th to 16th Century/Volume 2/Baguette

BAGUETTE
(literally: ROD) A cylindrical moulding of a small diameter, which forms part of the cornices, the stringcourses, the archivolts and channels. The baguette has a diameter from 0,01 to 0,05m. (3/8"–2"); above this size, it takes the name of "boudin" (lit.: roll). But what especially distinguishes the baguette from the roll is its secondary function. Thus in the profiles shown here, of the arc-ogive of the 14th century (1), A is a baguette and B a roll. In the Romanesque architecture of Poitou and Normandy, the baguette is sometimes decorated with pearls (2); its profile C in this case is often flat, so that the light clearly cuts out each pearl or small bean. In the architecture of the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries, the architects made use of the baguette among the beams of columns to accentuate their diameter by opposition, and give them more force (3) to the eye. One often finds in the buildings of the 13th and 14th centuries of the baguette engaged in the angles of the square piers, and especially in the jambs of the doors, to avoid the sharp edges which are degraded easily or sharp edges which can wound (4). The baguette then does not go down to the ground, but stops on the sharp angle reserved with the lower part, either by penetrating a bevel D, or ending straight E, or while masked behind an ornament F, frequently seen in the buildings of Burgundy which date from the end of the 12th century or the beginning of the 13th (see: "Leave"). In joinery, the baguette is one of the members of mouldings most often employed.



Source document

 * Dictionnaire raisonné de l'architecture française du XIe au XVIe siècle (French language)

Dictionnaire raisonné de l’architecture française du XIe au XVIe siècle/Baguette