Page:Charles Moore--Development and Character of Gothic Architecture.djvu/65

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II
GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE
41

vaults do not belong to the original construction, and it is quite possible, indeed perhaps probable, that no vaults were originally intended, but that the main piers carried at first mere transverse arches, such as may still be seen in the

FIG. 15.

basilica of San Miniato at Florence, and such as were constructed also in the Church of Notre-Dame du Pre at Mans. [1] In these cases the intermediate trusses of the timber roofs rest on the walls without any supporting shafts, which are, of course, not required. But in the Abbaye-aux-Hommes (Fig. 16) the shafts of the intermediate piers are carried up

  1. See ViolIet-le-Duc, s.v. Travée, p. 242.