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Some considerations on the early development of cross vaults and rib vaults in medieval architecture
(2023)
The fundamental shift in the geometric design of cross vaults that gave way to the development of Gothic vaults is usually associated with the introduction of cross ribs built with cut stone. And it is generally assumed that the development of the rib vault occurred in Norman architecture shortly before 1100, from where it was introduced to early Gothic vault architecture. In particular, the requirements of stone planning in the ribs has been interpreted as a guiding feature of the geometric design of the vaults.
However, surveys and geometric analyses carried out in some prominent vaulted structures suggest that this innovation in the geometric concept of vaults may have taken place at an earlier date, and that this development has a more complex relation to the use of ribs than it has been generally assumed. We discuss this in case studies on the geometric concept of the cross vaults in the Palatine Chapel at Aachen and in the two medieval building phases of Speyer Cathedral. In the latter, archaeological evidence shows that in the complex, wide spanned high vault of the nave one original bay still survives from the late 11th century. The research in progress on the earliest known rib vaults in central European architecture also raises questions regarding the early history of stereotomy.
In the lack of written or graphic sources about the design and building technology in these structures, the built object is an essential source for understanding the decision-making processes in planning of complex spatial structures stable by their shape. The interpretation of the geometric data and the evidence from building archaeology gives an insight also on the background of knowledge in the design of highly demanding spatial structures in the middle-ages.
The vaults over the choir and nave of Notre‐Dame in Paris play a key role in the development of Gothic vaults—regarding their sheer height and span, and in particular their complex stone structure. A considerable dynamic in the development of new construction details can be seen in solutions that in some cases are still quite distinct from the well‐known constructions of the great Gothic vaults, and that in other cases, although innovative, remain more or less singular. The design of the sexpartite vaults follows a scheme established in the early Gothic and at the same time displays groundbreaking conceptions in geometry and construction. The fire of the roof that in 2019 damaged part of the vaults, but also showed their remarkable structural performance, brought up the necessity of better understanding these structures while also giving deep insight into construction details. The ongoing research presented here correlates geometric analyses based on 3D‐scanning, carried out on the vaults in Notre‐Dame and on comparable structures, observations on construction details on site, and sources such as historical drawings, with large‐scale experiments reproducing the processes of construction, fabrication of building elements, as well as planning and information transfer from design to building. The approach that refers to the built object as its principal source can be characterized as reverse engineering.
The principles of the geometric design and construction of Gothic vaults mark a fundamental shift in vault conception. In reality, the underlying geometric conceptions were established well before the Gothic, and the relation to the development of rib vaults is more complex than it has been generally assumed.
The vaults in Speyer Cathedral, one of the most prominent church buildings in the Middle Ages, are exemplary for innovative vault design in the eleventh century. Moreover, here the first high vaults were built over a large church nave, and the first cross vaults with diagonal ribs appear. We intend to show the key position in the history of medieval vault construction, regarding the geometric design as well as the new structural system. The impact can be shown in prominent vaulted structures from the early Gothic, in particular the nave of the Cathedral of Angers and the high vaults in Notre-Dame in Paris. The study is based on surveys, 3-D-Scans, and geometric analyses, aiming to understand design and construction of the vaults, the details of the masonry and stonework, as well as the structural elements.
In the context of the historical development of applied geometry we also discuss the role of stereotomy in the architecture of the cathedral. This raises the question of the origins of the canon of design exercises that is connotated with Early Modern treatises of architecture.