1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Vault

by Richard Phené Spiers

VAULT^[1] (Fr. voute, Ital. volta, Ger. Gavolbe), in architecture, the term given to the covering over of a space with stone or brick in arched form, the component parts of which exert a thrust and necessitate a counter resistance. In the case of vaults built under the level of the ground, the latter gave all that was required, but, when raised aloft, various expedients had to be employed, such as great thickness of walls in the case of barrel or continuous vaults, and cross walls or buttresses when intersecting vaults were employed. The simplest kind of vault is that known as the barrel, wagon Or tunnel vault, which is generally semicircular in section, and may be regarded as a continuous arch, the length of which is in excess of its diameter; like the arch (q.v.), the same provision is required as regards its temporary support whilst the voussoirs constituting one of its rings are being placed in position, for until the upper voussoir, or keystone, is introduced it is not self-supporting. At the present day, when timber of all kinds is easily procurable, this temporary support is given by centring, consisting of a framed truss with semicircular or segmental head, which carries the voussoirs until the ring of the whole arch is completed and is then, with a barrel vault, shifted on to support other rings; in early times, and particularly in Chaldaea and Egypt, where timber was scarce, other means of support had to be contrived, and it would seem that it was only in Roman times that centring was regularly employed.

The earliest example known of a vault is that found under the Chaldaean ziggurat at Nippur in Babylonia, ascribed to about 4000 B.C., which was built of burnt bricks cemented with clay mortar. The earliest tunnel vaults in Egypt are those at Requaqnah and Denderah, c. 3500 B.C.; these were built in unburnt brick in three rings over passages descending to tombs: in these cases, as the span of the vault was only 6 ft., the bricks constituting the voussoirs were laid flatwise, and adhered sufficiently to those behind to enable the ring to be completed without other support; in the granaries built by Ramessu II., still in part existing behind the Ramesseum, at Thebes, the span was 12 ft., and another system was employed; the lower part of the arch was built in horizontal courses, up to about one-third of the height, and the rings above were inclined back at a slight angle, so that the bricks of each ring, laid flatwise, adhered till the ring was completed, no centring of any kind being required; the vault thus formed was elliptic in section, arising from the method of its construction. A similar system of construction was employed for the vault over the great hall at Ctesiphon, where the material employed was burnt bricks or tiles of great dimensions, cemented with mortar; but the span was close upon 83 ft., and the thickness of the vault was nearly 5 ft. at the top, there being four rings of brickwork. It is probable that the great vaults of the Assyrian palaces were constructed in the same way, but with unburnt bricks dried only in the sun: one of the drains discovered by Layard at Nimrud was built in rings sloping backwards. From the fact that each Assyrian monarch on his accession to the throne commenced his reign by the erection of a palace, it is probable that, owing to the ephemeral construction of these great vaults, half a century was the term of their existence. This may also account for the fact that no domed structures exist of the type shown in one of the bas reliefs from Nimrud (fig. 1); the tradition of their erection, however, would seem to have been handed down to their successors in Mesopotamia, viz. to the Sassanians, who in their palaces at Serbistan and Firuzabad built domes of similar form to those shown in the Nimrud sculptures, the chief difference being that, constructed in rubble stone and cemented with mortar, they still exist, though probably abandoned on the Mahommedan invasion in the 7th century.

Fig. 1.

Fig. 1.

In all the instances above quoted in Chaldaea and Egypt the bricks, whether burnt or sun-dried, were of the description to which the term "tile" would now be given; the dimensions varied from 18 or 20in. to 10 in., being generally square and about 4 to 2 in. thick, and they were not shaped as voussoirs, the connecting medium being thicker at the top than at the bottom. The earliest Egyptian examples of regular voussoirs in stone belong to the XXVIth Dynasty (c. 650 B.C.) in the additions made then to the temple of Medinet-Abou, and here it is probable that centring of some kind was provided, as the vaults are built in rings, so that the same centring could be shifted on after the completion of each ring. The earliest example of regularly shaped voussoirs, and of about the same date, is found in the cloaca at Graviscae in Etruria, with a span of about 14 ft., the voussoirs of which are from 5 to 6 ft. long. The cloaca maxima in Rome, built by Tarquin (603 B.C.) to drain the marshy ground between the Palatine and the Capitoline Hills, was according to Commendatore Boni vaulted over in the 1st century B.C., the vault being over 800 ft. long, 10 ft. in span, with three concentric rings of voussoirs.

Fig. 2.

Fig. 2.

So far, all the vaults mentioned have been barrel vaults, which, when not built underground, required continuous walls of great thickness to resist their thrust; the earliest example of the next variety, the intersecting barrel vault, is said to be over a small hall at Pergamum, in Asia Minor, but its first employment over halls of great dimensions is due to the Romans. When two semicircular barrel vaults of the same diameter cross one another (fig. 2) their intersection (a true ellipse) is known as a groin, down which the thrust of the vault is carried to the cross walls; if a series of two or more barrel vaults intersect one another, the weight is carried on to the piers at their intersection and the thrust is transmitted to the outer cross walls; thus in the Roman reservoir at Baiae, known as the piscina mirabilis, a series of five aisles with semicircular barrel vaults are intersected by twelve cross aisles, the vaults being carried on 48 piers and thick external walls. The width of these aisles being only about 13 ft. there was no great difficulty in the construction of these vaults, but in the Roman Thermae the tepidarium had a span of 80 ft., more than twice that of an English cathedral, so that its construction both from the statical and economical point of view was of the greatest importance. The researches of M. Choisy (L'Art de bâtir chez les Romains), based on a minute examination of those portions of the vaults which still remain in situ, have shown that on a comparatively slight centring, consisting of trusses placed about 10 ft. apart and covered with planks laid from truss to truss, were laid—to begin with—two layers of the Roman brick (measuring nearly 2 ft. square and 2 in. thick); on these and on the trusses transverse rings of brick were built with longitudinal ties at intervals; on the brick layers and embedding the rings and cross ties concrete was thrown in horizontal layers, the haunches being filled in solid, and the surface sloped on either side and covered over with a tile roof of low pitch laid direct on the concrete. The rings relieved the centring from the weight imposed; and the two layers of bricks carried the concrete till it had set. As the walls carrying these vaults were also built in concrete with occasional bond courses of brick, the whole structure was homogeneous. One of the important ingredients of the mortar was a volcanic deposit found near Rome, known as pozzolana, which, when the concrete had set, not only made the concrete as solid as the rock itself, but to a certain extent neutralized the thrust of the vaults, which formed shells equivalent to that of a metal lid, the Romans, however, do not seem to have recognized the extra-ordinary value of this pozzolana mixture, for they otherwise provided amply for the counteracting of any thrust which might exist by the erection of cross walls and buttresses. In the tepidaria of the Thermae and in the basilica of Constantine, in order to bring the thrust well within the walls, the main barrel vault of the hall was brought forward on each side and rested on detached columns, which constituted the principal architectural decoration. In cases where the cross vaults intersecting were not of the same span as those of the main vault, the arches were either stilted so that their soffits might be of the same height, or they formed smaller intersections in the lower part of the vault; in both of these cases, however, the intersections or groins were twisted, for which it was very difficult to form a centring, and, moreover, they were of disagreeable effect: though every attempt was made to mask this in the decoration of the vault by panels and reliefs modelled in stucco.

The widest hall vaulted by the Romans was that of the throne room in the palace of Diocletian on the Palatine Hill, and this had the enormous span of 100 ft., its thrust being counteracted by other halls on, either Iside with buttresses outside. In provincial towns and in other parts of the Roman Empire, where the material pozzolana was not procurable, the Romans had to trust to their mortar as a cementing medium, but this, though excellent of its kind, was not of sufficient cohesive strength to allow of the erection of vaults of more than about 40 ft. span, which were generally built in rubble masonry. There still, exist in Asia Minor and Syria some vaulted halls, generally attached to thermae, which are. carried on walls of great thickness. There were many varieties of the Roman vault, whether continuous or intersected, such as those employed over the corridors on the Colosseum and the theatre of Marcellus, but in these Cases the springing of the vault was above the summit of the Arches of the main front, so that there was no intersection; on the other hand, over the corridors were either elliptical or semicircular, or over the staircases rising vaults, all of which were more difficult to construct; there were also numerous solutions of vault over circular halls, of which that of the Pantheon was the most important example, having a diameter of 142 ft., and over the hemicycles,: which were sometimes of great size; that known as Canopus in Hadrian’s villa at Tivoli had a diameter of 75 ft., and was vaulted over with a series of ribs, between which were alternating rampant flat and semicircular webs and cells; in the same villa and in Rome were octagonal halls with various other combinations of vault. Another type of vault not yet referred to is that of the Tabularium arcade where the cloister vault was employed. Fig. 3 compared with fig. 2 will show the difference; in the former the angles of intersection are inset and in the latter they are groins with projecting angles at the base, which die away at the summit.

The vault of the basilica, commenced by Diocletian and completed by Constantine, Was the last great work carried out by the Romans, and two centuries pass before the next important development is found in the church of Sta Sophia at Constantinople. It is probable that the realization of the great advance in the science of vaulting shown in .this church owed something to the eastern tradition of dome Vaulting seen in the Assyrian domes, which are known to us only by the representations in the bas-relief from Nimrud (fig. 1), because in the great water cisterns in Constantinople, known as the Yeri Batan Serai (the underground palace) and Bin bir-derek (cistern with a thousand and one columns), both built by Constantine, we find the intersecting groin vaults of the Romans already replaced by small cupolas or domes. These domes, however, are of small dimensions when compared with that projected and carried out! by Justinian in Sta Sophia. Previous to this the greatest dome was that of the Pantheon at Rome, but this was carried on an immense wall 20 ft. thick, and with the exception of small niches or recesses in the thickness of the wall could not be extended* so that Justinian apparently instructed his architect to provide an immense hemi cycle or apse at the eastern end, a similar apse at the western end, and great arches on either side, the walls under which would be pierced with windows.

Fig. 3.

Fig, 4.

Fig. 5.—AA, pendentive.

The diagram (fig. 4) shows the outlines of the solution of the problem. If a hemispherical dome is eut by four vertical planes, the intersection gives four semicircular arches ; if cut in addition by a horizontal plane tangent to the, top of these arches, it describes a circle; that portion of the : sphere which is below this circle and between the arches, forming a spherical spandril, is the pendentive (fig. 5), and its radius is equal to the diagonal of the square on which the four arches rest. Having obtained a circle for the base of the dome, it is not necessary that the upper portion of the dome should spring from the same level as the arches, or that its domical surface should be a continuation of that of the pendentive. The first and second dome of Sta Sophia apparently fell down, so that Justinian determined to raise it, possibly to give greater lightness to the structure, but mainly in order to obtain increased light for the interior of the church. This was effected by piercing it with forty windows—the effect of which was of an extraordinary nature, as the light streaming through these windows gave to the dome the appearance of being suspended in the air. The pendentive which carried the dome rested on four great arches, the thrust of those crossing the church being counteracted by immense buttresses which traversed the aisles, arid the other two partly by smaller arches in the apse, the thrust being carried to the outer walls, and to a certain extent by the side walls which were built under the arches. From the description giy#h by Procopius we gather that theicentring employed for the great arches consisted of a wall erected to support them during their erection. The construction of the peridenrives is not known, but it is surmised that to the top of the pendentives they were built in horizontal courses of brick, projecting one oyer the other, the projecting angles being cut off afterwards and covered with stucco in which the mosaics were embedded ; this, was the method employed in the erection of the Perigordian domes to which we shall return; these, however, were of less diameter than those of Sta Sophia, being only about 40 to 60 ft. instead of 107 ft. The apotheosis of Byzantine architecture, in fact, was reached in Sta Sophia, for although it formed the model on which all subsequent; Byzantine churches were based, so far as their plan was concerned, no domes approaching the former in dimensions were even attempted. The principal difference in some later examples is that which took place in the form of the pendentive on which the dome was carried. Instead of the spherical spandril of Sta Sophia, large niches were formed in the angles, 3s: in the .mosque of Damascus, which was built by Byzantine workmen for the Sherif al Walid in A.D. 705; these gave, an -octagonal base on; which the hemispherical dome rested (fig". 6); for again, as in the Sassanian palaces of Serbistan and Firuzabad of, the 4th and 5th century of our era, when a series of concentric arch rings, projecting one in front of the other, were built, giving also an octagonal base; each of these pendentives is known as a squinch.

Fig. 6.—BB, niche or squinch pendentive.

There is one other remarkable vault, also built by Justinian, in the church of S. Sergius and Bacchus in Constantinople. The central area of this church was octagonal on plan, and the dome is divided into sixteen compartments; of these eight consist of broad flat bands rising from the centre of each of the walls, and the alternate eight are concave cells over the angles of the octagon, which externally and internally give to the roof the appearance of an umbrella.

Although the dome constitutes the principal characteristic of the Byzantine church, throughout Asia Minor are numerous examples in which the naves are vaulted with the semicircular barrel vault, and this is the type of vault found throughout the south of France in the 11th and 12th centuries, the only change being the occasional substitution of the pointed barrel vault, adopted not only on account of its exerting a less thrust, but because, as pointed out by Fergusson (vol. ii. p. 46), the roofing tiles were laid directly on the vault and a less amount of filling in at the top was required. The continuous thrust of the barrel vault in these cases was met either by semicircular or pointed barrel vaults on the aisles; which had only half the span- of the naVe; of this there is an interesting example hi the chapel of St John in the Tower of London—and sometimes by half-barrel vaults. The great thickness of the walls, however, required in such constructions would seem to have led to another solution of the problem of roofing Over churches with incombustible material, viz. that which is found throughout Perigord and La Charente, where a series of domes carried on pendentives covered over the nave, the chief peculiarities of these domes being the fact that the arches, carrying them form part of the pendentives, which are all built in horizontal courses.

The intersecting and groined vault of the Romans. was employed in the early Christian churches in Rome, but only over the aisles, which were comparatively of small span, but in these there was a tendency to raise the centres of these Vaults, which became slightly domical; in all these cases centring was employed.

Reference has been made to the twisting of the groins in Roman work, where the intersecting barrel vaults were not of the same diameter; their construction must at all times have been somewhat difficult, but where the barrel vaulting was carried, round over the choir aisle and was intersected, as in St Bartholomew’s, Smithfield, by semicones, instead of cylinders, it became worse and the groins more complicated; this would seem to have led to a change of system, and to the introduction of a new feature, which completely revolutionized the construction of the vault. Hitherto the intersecting features' were geometrical surfaces, of which the diagonal groins were, the intersections, elliptical in form, generally weak in construction and often twisting (Plate I. fig. 13). The medieval builder reversed the process, and set up the diagonal ribs first, which were utilized as permanent centres, and on these he carried his vault or web, which henceforward took its shape from the ribs. Instead of the elliptical curve which was given by the intersection of two semicircular barrel vaults, or cylinders, he employed the semicircular arch for the diagonal ribs; this, however, raised the centre of the square bay vaulted above the level of the transverse arches and of the wall ribs, and thus gave the appearance of a dome to the vault, such as may be seen in the nave of Sant’ Ambrogio, Milan. To meet this, at first tjie transverse and wall ribs were stilted, or the upper part of their arches was raised, as in the Abbaye-aux-Hommes at Gaen, and the abbey of Lessay, in Normandy. The problem was ultimately solved by the introduction of the pointed arch for the transverse and wall ribs—the pointed arch had long been known and employed, on account of its much greater strength and of the less thrust it exerted on the walls. When employed for the ribs of a vault, however narrow the span might be, by adopting a pointed arch, its summit could be made to range in height with the diagonal rib; and, moreover, when utilized for the ribs of the annular vault, as in the aisle round the apsidal termination of the choir, it was not necessary that the half ribs on the outer side should be in the same plane as those of the inner side; for when the opposite ribs met in the centre of the annular vault, the thrust was equally transmitted from one to the other, and being already a broken arch the change of its direction was not noticeable.

The first introduction of the pointed arch rib would seem to have taken place in the choir aisles of the abbey of St Denis, near Paris, built by the Abbé Suger in 1135, and it was in the church at Vezelay (1140) that it was extended to the square bay of the porch. Before entering into the question of the web or stone shell of the vault carried on the ribs, the earlier development of the great vaults which were thrown over the naves of a cathedral, or church, before the introduction of the pointed arch rib, shall here be noted. As has been pointed out, the aisles had already in the early Christian churches been covered over with groined vaults, the only advance made in the later developments being the introduction of transverse ribs^[2] dividing the bays into square compartments; but when in the 12th century the first attempts were made to vault over the naves, another difficulty presented itself, because the latter were twice the width of the aisles, so that it became necessary to include two bays of the aisles to form one square bay in the nave. This was an immense space to vault over, and, moreover, it followed that every alternate pier served no purpose, so far as the support of the nave vault was concerned, and this would seem to have suggested an alternative; viz. to provide a supplementary rib across the church and between the transverse ribs. This resulted in what is known as a sexpartite, or six-celled vault, of which one of the earliest examples is found in the Abbaye-aux-Hommes (S. Étienne) at Caen. This church, built by William the Conqueror, was originally constructed to carry a timber roof only, but nearly a century later the upper part of the nave walls were partly rebuilt, in order that it might be covered with a vault. The immense size, however, of the square vault over the nave necessitated some additional support, so that an intermediate rib was thrown across the church, dividing the square compartment into six cells, and called the sexpartite vault (fig. 7);

Fig. 7.—Sexpartite.

this was adopted in the cathedrals of Sens (1170), Laon (1195), Noyon (1190), Paris (1223–35), and Bourges, (1250). The, intermediate rib, however, had the disadvantage of partially obscuring one side of the clerestory windows, and it threw unequal weights on the alternate piers, so that in the cathedral of Soissons (1205) a quadripartite (fig. 8) or

Fig. 8.—Quadripartite.

four-celled vault was introduced, the width of each bay being half the span of the nave, and corresponding therefore with the aisle piers. To this there are some exceptions, in Sant’ Ambrogio, Milan, and San Michele, Pavia (the original vault), and in the cathedrals of Spires, Mainz and Worms, where the quadripartite vaults are nearly square, the intermediate piers of the aisles being of much smaller dimensions. In England sexpartite vaults exist at Canterbury (1175) (set out by William of Sens), Rochester (1200), Lincoln (1215), Durham (east transept), and St Faith’s chapel, Westminster; Abbey.

In the earlier stage of rib vaulting, the arched ribs consisted of independent or separate Voussoirs down to the springing; the difficulty, however, of working the ribs separately led to two other important changes: (1) the lower part of the transverse diagonal and wall ribs were all worked out of one stone; and (2) the lower courses were all made horizontal, constituting what is known as the tas-de-charge (q.v.) or solid springer. Fig. 9 is a diagram made by Professor Willis taken from the south transept of Westminster Abbey. The horizontal courses rise to N. or about half the height of the vault, but the ribs are freed from one another from the point M. The tas-de-charge, or solid springer, had two advantages: (1) it enabled the stone courses to run straight through the wall, so as to bond the whole together much better; and (2) it lessened the span of the vault, which then required a centring of smaller dimensions. As soon as the ribs were completed, the web or stone; shell of the vault was laid on them. In some English work, as may be seen in fig. 9, each course of stone was of uniform height from one side to the other; but, as the diagonal rib was longer than either the transverse or wall rib, the course dipped towards the former, and at the apex of the vault were cut to fit one another. At an early

Fig. 9.—AB, springing of transverse and diagonal ribs; P, centre of the same; DE, longitudinal ridge rib; DF, intersection of webs; M, top of solid springer; KN, starting level of web; LK, springing of wall rib; EBD, bosses at intersection of ribs.

period, in consequence of the great span of the vault and the very slight rise or curvature of the web, it was thought better to simplify the construction of the web by introducing intermediate ribs between the wall rib and the diagonal rib and between the diagonal and the transverse ribs; and in order to meet the thrust of these intermediate ribs a ridge rib was required, and the prolongation of this rib to the wall rib hid the junction of the web at the summit, which Was not always very sightly, and constituted the ridge rib. In France, on the other hand, the web courses were always laid horizontally, and they are therefore of unequal height, increasing towards the diagonal rib. Each course also was given a slight rise in the centre, so as to increase its strength; this enabled the French masons to dispense with the intermediate rib, which was not introduced by them till the 15th century, and then more as a decorative than a constructive feature, as the domical form given to the French web rendered unnecessary the ridge rib, which, with some few exceptions, exists only in England. In both English and French vaulting centring was rarely required for the building of the web, a template (Fr. cerce) being employed to support the stones of each ring until it was complete. In Italy, Germany and Spain the French method of building the web was adopted, with horizontal courses and a domical form. Sometimes, in the case of comparatively narrow compartments, and more especially in clerestories, the wall rib was stilted, and this caused a peculiar twisting of the web, as may be seen in fig. 9, where te springing of the wall rib is at K: to these twisted surfaces the term "ploughshare vaulting" is given.

One of the earliest examples of the introduction of the intermediate rib is found in the nave of Lincoln Cathedral, and there the ridge rib is not carried to the wall rib. It was soon found, however, that the construction of the web was much facilitated by additional ribs, and consequently there was a tendency to increase their number, so that in the nave of Exeter Cathedral three intermediate ribs were provided between the wall rib and the diagonal rib. In order to mask the junction of the various ribs, their intersections were ornamented with richly carved bosses, and this practice increased on the introduction of another short rib, known as the lierne, a term in France given to the ridge rib. Lierne ribs in English vaults are sport ribs crossing between the main ribs, and were employed chiefly as decorative features, as, for instance, in the stellar vault (see Plate I. fig. 16), one of the best examples of which exists in the vault of the oriel window of Crosby Hall, London. The tendency to increase the number of ribs led to singular results in some cases, as in the choir of Gloucester (see Plate II. fig. 17), where the ordinary diagonal ribs become mere ornamental mouldings on the surface of an intersected pointed barrel vault, and again in the cloisters, where the introduction of the fan vault, forming a concave-sided conoid, returned to the principles of the Roman geometrical vault. This is further shown in the construction of these fan vaults, for although in the earliest examples each of the ribs above the tas-de-charge was an independent feature, eventually it was found easier to carve them and the web out of the solid stone, so that the rib and web were purely decorative and had no constructional or independent functions. The fan vault would seem to have owed its origin to the employment of centrings of one curve for all the ribs, instead of having separate centrings for the transverse, diagonal wall and intermediate ribs; it was facilitated also by the introduction of the four-centred arch, because the lower portion of the arch formed part of the fan, or conoid, and the upper part could be extended at pleasure with a greater radius across the vault. The simplest version is that found in the cloisters of Gloucester Cathedral, where the fans meet one another at the summit, so that there are only small compartments between the fans to be filled up. In later examples, as in King's College chapel, Cambridge (see Plate II. fig. 18), on account of the great dimensions of the vault, it was found necessary to introduce transverse ribs, which were required to give greater strength. Similar transverse ribs are found in Henry VII. 's chapel (see Plate II. fig. 19) and in the divinity schools at Oxford, where a new development presented itself. One of the defects of the fan vault at Gloucester is the appearance it gives of being half sunk in the wall; to remedy this, in the two buildings just quoted, the complete conoid is detached and treated as a pendant.

One of the most interesting examples of the fan vault is that over the staircase leading to the hall of Christ Church, Oxford, and here the complete conoid is displayed in its centre carried on a central column. This vault, not built until 1640, is an exceptional example of the long continuance of traditional workmanship, probably in Oxford transmitted in consequence of the late vaulting of the entrance gateways to the colleges. Fan vaulting is peculiar to England, the only example approaching it in France being the pendant of the Lady chapel at Caudebec, in Normandy, In France, Germany and Spain the multiplication of ribs in the 15th century led to decorative vaults of various kinds, but with some singular modifications. Thus in Germany, recognizing that the rib was no longer a necessary constructive feature, they cut it off abruptly, leaving a stump only; in France, on the other hand, they gave still more importance to the rib, by making it of greater depth, piercing it with tracery and hanging pendants from it, and the web became a horizontal stone paving laid on the top of these decorated vertical webs. This is the characteristic of the great Renaissance work in France and Spain; but it soon gave way to Italian influence, when the construction of vaults reverted to the geometrical surfaces of the Romans, without, however, always that economy in centring to which they had attached so much importance, and more especially in small

Fig. 10.

Fig. 10.

structures. In large vaults, where it constituted an important element in expense, the chief boast of some of the most eminent

Fig. 11.

Fig. 11.

architects has been that centring was dispensed with, as in the case of the dome at Florence, built by Brunelleschi, and Ferguson cites as an example the great dome of the church at

Plate I.

Photo, Valentine & Sons.
Fig. 13.—INTERSECTING GROINED VAULTING. Early example, St John's Chapel, Tower of London.
Photo, F. Frith & Co. Ltd.
Fig. 15.—EARLY ENGLISH VAULTING. Winchester Cathedral, Waynfleet's Chantry.

 Photo, Valentine & Sons.

Fig. 14.—INTERSECTING RIBBED VAULTING. Late example. Chapter House, Bristol Cathedral.

 Photo, F. Frith & Co. Ltd.

Fig. 16.—EARLY ENGLISH LIERNE VAULTING. Tower of Salisbury Cathedral.

Plate II.

Photo, The Photochrome Co.		Photo, G. W. Wilson & Co.
Fig. 17.—DECORATED OR LIERNE VAULTING. Choir of Gloucester Cathedral. (See also Plate VIII., Fig. 82, Architecture.)		Fig. 18.—FAN VAULTING. King's College Chapel, Cambridge.

 Photo, G. W. Wilson & Co.

Fig. 19.—FAN VAULTING. Henry VII. Chapel, Westminster.

Mousta in Malta, erected in the first half of the 19th century, which was built entirely without centring of any kind. Fig. 10 is a plan and section of the vault of Henry VII.'s chapel and fig. 11 a perspective view, in which it will be seen that the transverse rib thrown across the chapel carries the pendant, the weight of the latter probably preventing a rise in the haunches.

There are two other ribbed vaults in India which form no part of the development of European vaults, but are too remarkable to be passed over; one carries the central dome of the Jumma Musjid at Bijapur (a.d. 1559), and the other is the tomb of Mahommed (A.D. 1626–1660) in the same town. The vault of the latter was constructed over a hall 135 ft. square, to carry a hemispherical dome. The ribs, instead of being carried across the angles only, thus giving an octagonal base for the dome, are carried across to the further pier of the octagon (fig. 12) and consequently intersect one another, reducing the central opening to 97 ft. in diameter, and, by the weight of the masonry they carry, serving as counterpoise to the thrust of the dome, which is set back so as to leave a passage about 12 ft. wide round the interior. The internal diameter of the dome is 124 ft., its height 175 ft. and the ribs struck from four centres have their springing 57 ft. from the floor of the hall. The Jumma Musjid dome was of smaller dimensions, on a square of 70 ft. with a diameter of 57 ft., and was carried on piers only instead of immensely thick the tomb; but any thrust which might exist was

Fig. 12.—Plan of Bijapur Dome.

Fig. 12.—Plan of Bijapur Dome.

counteracted by its transmission across aisles to the outer wall.

(R. P. S.)

1. For the form of safe so called see Safes.
2. Transverse ribs under the vaulting surfaces had been employed from very early times by the Romans, and utilized as permanent stone centrings for their vaults; perhaps the earliest examples are those in the corridor of the Tabularium in Rome, which is divided into square bays, each vaulted with a cloister dome. Transverse ribs are also found in the Roman Piscinae and in the Nymphaeum at Nimes; they were not introduced by the Romanesque masons till the 11th century.