Early English groined vaulting in Salisbury Cathedral, drawn by Banister F. Fletcher:

Early English Groined Vaulting

Banister F. Fletcher

Salisbury Cathedral

Source: A History of Architecture on the Comparative Method (5th ed), plate 112J (p. 285)

Scanned image and text by George P. Landow (2007).

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The pointed arch became permanently established, surmounting all the difficulties of difference in span, and enabling vaults of varying sizes to intersect without stilting or other contrivances. The cells, also known as "severies" or "infilling" were quite subordinate to the ribs and were of clunch or light stone in thin beds, resting upon the back of the ribs. These severies were of arched form, but often had winding surfaces, and were constructed so that their pressure was directed towards the piers and not the wall rib. The "ploughshare twist," so called from its resemblance to a ploughshare, was produced by stilting or raising the springing of the wall rib, when forming the window arch bordering on a vaulting compartment, above that of the diagonal and transverse ribs. This was a common arrangement, and was necessary in order to obtain greater height for the clerestory windows.

The geometry of the Gothic system was a rough use of mathematical truths in which beauty was sought for, and not a strict regard for the exactitude of scientific demonstration. The curvature of the ribs was obtained from arcs struck from one or more centres, and designed without reference to the curvature of adjoining ones, as is seen in the setting out of Gothic vaulting compartment. In this lies the whole difference between the Roman and mediaeval systems, for in the former the vaulting surface is everywhere level in a direction parallel to the axis of the vault, and any horizontal section of a spandrel or meeting of two cross vaults would be a rectangle. In the ribbed Gothic vault, however, the plan thus formed would have as many angles as ribs, varying according to the curve of the latter.

The plain four-part (quadripartite) ribbed vault, primarily constructed as a skeleton framework of diagonal and transverse ribs, was chiefly used in this period, as in the naves of Durham, Salisbury, and Gloucester, and the aisles of Peterborough. [pp.286-87]

References

Fletcher, Banister, and Banister F. Fletcher. A History of Architecture on the Comparative Method for the Student, Craftsman, and Amateur. 5th ed. London: B. T. Batsford, 1905.

Last modified 29 August 2007