CHAPTER II
GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE
By France in this chapter, and indeed throughout this book, is meant the France of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries—that is, the Royal Domain of the Capetian Dynasty and portions of a few contiguous provinces, chiefly Champagne, Burgundy, Picardy, Orleanais, and Berry. To this region the early Gothic movement was confined. Indeed, its earliest manifestations were circumscribed by even narrower limits, those, namely, of the Ile-de-France—that is, of the region of which the larger part is now included in the departments of the Seine and the Oise.
Though many of the works of this early art have perished, much yet remains, and the beginning and course of development of the new style may, by careful examination and comparison of the characteristics of existing buildings, be made out with substantial correctness, though no other sources of information exist. For such scanty written records of building as have been preserved are wholly devoid of information respecting principles and methods of construction. We are compelled, therefore, to rely upon independent study of the buildings themselves.
We need not stop to consider the earlier innovations in buildings in which the round arch alone continues to be employed—as in the apse of St. Martin des Champs at Paris, and in the Collegiate Church of Poissy, where the vaulting compartments are merely separated by transverse ribs,—but rather begin our investigation of the growth of Gothic in France, with those monuments in which the pointed arch first appears as a constructive device in vaulting.
