297. 3. From the framed construction of timber buildings. — This is an hypothesis which it would be loss of time to examine, inasmuch as all the forms and details undoubtedly arise from the vault and arch; and a close examination of the buildings of the 13th century proves that the ancient ecclesiastical style involves the scientific construction of stone vaulting, all timber construction being limited to the framing of the roof.

298. 4. From the imitation of the aspiring lines of the pyramids of Egypt. This hypothesis is the fancy of Murphy, the ingenious and useful editor of a work on the convent of Batalha, in Portugal, and also of some of the finest edifices of the Moors in Spain. The following is the reasoning of the author :- The pyramids of the Egyptians are tombs; the dead are buried in churches, and on their towers pyramidal forms are placed; consequently, the pyramids of the towers indicate that there are graves in the churches; and as the pyramidal form constitutes the essence of the pointed arch style, and the pyramids of the towers are imitations of the Egyptian pyramids, the pointed arch is derived from the latter. The reader, we are sure, will not require from us any examination of the series of syllogisms here enumerated.

299. 5. From the intersection of semicircular arches which occurs in late instances of the Romanesque style. - This was the hypothesis of the late Dr. Milner, a Catholic bishop of great learning and most amiable bearing, and a person so intimately acquainted with the subject on which he wrote, that we regret his reasons for the conjecture are not satisfactory to us, albeit the combination (fig. 153.) whereof he speaks is, in the Romanesque style, of

frequent occurrence. The venerable prelate seems to have lost sight of a principle familiar to every artist that in all art the details of a style are subordinate to and dependent on the masses, and that the converse never occurs; how, then, could the leading features of a style so universal have had their origin in an accidental and unessential decoration, like that of the theory in question? None of the above hypotheses are satisfactory; and Möller well observes, that the solution of the question, whether the pointed style belongs to one nation exclusively, is attended with great difficulties. And it may be said that the problem for solution is not, who invented the pointed arch, but, in what way its prevalence in the 13th century is to be accounted for.

Fig. 153.

MILNER'S ORIGIN OF THE POINTED ARCH.

300. We are not of opinion that it is of much importance that this vexata quæstio should be settled; and that it will now satisfactorily be done, we consider very much out of the limits of probability. But we suppose that the reader will be inclined to ask for our own bias on the subject; and, as we are bound to answer such a question, the reply is, that we are of the faith of the Rev. Mr. Whittington, to whose work we have before referred, that the pointed arch was of Eastern extraction, and that it was imported by the first crusaders into the West. "All eastern buildings," says that ingenious writer, "as far back as they go (and we cannot tell how far), have pointed arches, and are in the same style; is it not fair to suppose that some of these are older than the 12th century, or that the same style existed before that time? Is it at all probable that the dark ages of the West should have given a mode of architecture to the East?" Lord Aberdeen, whose taste and learning in matters of this nature well qualified him for the posthumous introduction to the public of the author we are using, observes, in his preface to Whittington's work, that, "if we could discover in any one country a gradual alteration of this style [the Romanesque], beginning with the form of the arch, and progressively extending to the whole of the ornaments and general design; - after which, if we could trace the new fashion slowly making its way, and by degrees adopted by the other nations of Europe; the supposition of Mr. Walpole [that it arose from what was conceived to be an improvement in the corrupt specimens of Roman taste then exhibited, and was afterwards gradually carried to perfection] would be greatly confirmed. Nothing, however, of this is the case. We find the Gothic [pointed] style, notwithstanding the richness and variety it afterwards assumed, appearing at once with all its distinctive marks and features, not among one people, but, very nearly at the same period of time, received and practised throughout Christendom. How will it be possible to account for this general and contemporary adoption of the style, but by a supposition that the taste and knowledge of all on this subject were drawn from a common source? and where can we look for this source but to the East, which, during the crusades, attracted a portion of the population, and, in a great degree, occupied the attention, of the different states of Europe?" This was an opinion of Sir Christopher Wren, at least greatly so, his leaning being rather to deducing the origin of the style from the Moors in Spain. It is the fashion of modern half-educated critics to place little reliance on such authorities as Wren. We have, from experience, learned to venerate them. The noble author whom we have been quoting proceeds by stating that "the result receives confirmation from the circumstance of there being no specimen of Gothic [pointed] architecture erected in the West before the period in question." Exception, however, is to be made for the rare occurrence of a very few examples,

whose construction may perhaps be placed higher than the 12th century, and the cause of whose existence may be satisfactorily explained. "It may be sufficient here to observe, that no people versed in the science of architecture could long remain ignorant of the pointed form of the arch, the most simple and easy in construction, as it might be raised without a centre by the gradual projection of stones placed in horizontal courses; and, whether produced by accident or necessity, we may reasonably expect to meet with it occasionally in their works." It is certain that, though neglected in their general practice, the ancients were acquainted with this mode of building and the occurrence of an arch merely pointed and unaccom panied with any other characteristic of the style, is no better evidence of the prevalence of Gothic (pointed) architecture, than that the appearance of Corinthian capitals in Romanesque buildings must give them the right to be called classical edifices. It is not easy to answer the question, In what part of the East are we able to point to buildings constructed in the pointed style, of a date anterior to those erected in the West? A little reflection, however, will solve the difficulty; and here we must again trespass on the author we have so copiously used, though our limits will not allow us to follow him in his own words. It is manifest that the frequent wars and revolutions of the East entailed the same fate on works of art and utility as attended the princes and chiefs of the states subverted. Thus the number of architectural examples, and especially those of early date, was greatly di minished. Again, the people of the East with whom we are best acquainted, in a great measure sacrificed their less durable mode of building to that which they found established by the Greeks. Thus, the church of Santa Sophia was a model, after the conquest of Constantinople, for all the mosques that were erected, with the addition occasionally of minarets more or less lofty, as the piety and magnificence of the sultans might dictate. Previously to the conquest of the metropolis of the East, such a practice was prevalent, and in the cities of the empire many christian edifices were adapted to the purposes of Mohammedan worship. Yet, notwithstanding these causes, which form an impediment to full information on the state of the early architecture of the East, there is an abundance of facts to give probability to our notion, except in the eyes of those who view the subject through the medium of prejudice and established system; at least so we opine.

301. "If a line," says our author, "be drawn from the north of the Euxine, through Constantinople to Egypt, we shall discover in every country to the eastward of this boundary frequent examples of the pointed arch, accompanied with the slender proportions of Gothic [pointed] architecture; in Asia Minor, Syria, Arabia, Persia; from the neighbourhood of the Caspian, through the wilds of Tartary; in the various kingdoms, and throughout the whole extent of India, and even to the furthest limits of China. It is true that we are unable, for the most part, to ascertain the precise date of these buildings; but this in reality is not very important, it being sufficient to state the fact of their comparative antiquity, which, joined to the vast diffusion of the style, appears adequate to justify cur conclusion. Seeing, then, the universal prevalence of this mode in the East, which is satisfactorily accounted for by the extensive revolutions and conquests effected by Eastern warriors in that part of the world, it can scarcely appear requisite to discuss the probability of its having been introduced from the West, or, still less, further to refute the notions of those who refer the origin of the style [as some have very ignorantly done] to the invention of English artists. Had it been adopted from the practice of the West, such a peculiarity of taste and knowledge must have been imparted by some general communication: this has only occurred at one period, during which no building of the species in question existed in Europe. The inhabitants of the West could not convey a knowledge which they did not possess; but, as it became pretty general amongst them shortly after the epoch alluded to, it is reasonable to infer that they acquired it from those nations they are said to have instructed. On the whole, it is probable that the origin of the Gothic style, notwithstanding the occasional imitation of a corrupt and degraded species of Roman architecture, is sufficiently indicated by the lofty and slender proportions, by the minute parts, and the fantastic ornaments of Oriental taste."

302. Möller, a writer for whose opinions we entertain the highest respect, is not, however, of opinion that the pointed arch originated with the Arabs; and he observes that a scrutiny of their buildings will exhibit nothing that bears upon the Gothic, or pointed, style. He says that their arches are in the shape of a horseshoe; that the columns are low, that they stand single, and are not connected in groups; that the windows are small, the roofs flat, and that the prevalent general forms are horizontal: that, in the ancient churches of the 13th century, the arches are pointed, the pillars high and composed of several columns, windows large, and roofs and gables high. But at the end of his argument he admits that the solution of the question, "which of the European nations first introduced or improved the pointed style is not so easy, for we find this style of building almost contemporary in all parts of Europe." Now, though we are not about to use the argument which is not always valid, post hoc ergo propter hoc, we must observe, that the introduction of the pointed arch immediately after the first Crusade, and not before, is a most singular oorurrence; and we are inclined to give it the same force as that used by old Bishop

Latimer on the subject of the Goodwin Sands and Tenterden steeple. One of the points of Moller's reasoning we do not think at all fortunate; it is that on the forms of the Moresque arches. Now, it must immediately occur to the reader that one of the forms (as at the side), and that a common one, is to be found in their arches, that of contrary flexure; a form in the architecture of this country in the time of the Tudors universally adopted, though, it must be allowed, much flattened in the application. Another point seems to have been altogether overlooked by Moller, namely, the practice of diapering the walls, whereof an instance occurs in Westminster Abbey; and one which has a very strong affinity to the practice of the Moors, who left no space unornamented. The higher-pitched gables of the northern roofs, we admit, fostered the discovery, by the introduction of forms from necessity, which were admirably calculated to carry out to their extreme limits the principles of which the Crusaders had acquired some notion for practice on their return to their respective countries. As to the objection that the Arabs had no original architecture, it is admitted. They must, however, have had that of the tent, whose form inverted would give all that is sought. These observations we do not throw out as partisans ; the hypothesis adopted by us is sanctioned, in addition to the learned author upon whom we have drawn so much, by Warburton, and T. Warton, and Sir Christopher Wren; and though none of these had the opportunity of basing their opinions upon the labours of the recent travellers whom we have been able to use, we do not think, upon this mooted question, either of them would be reduced to the necessity of retracting what he has respectively written.

303. In glancing over the many writers on the subject, it is amusing to see the difference of opinion that exists. For instance, twenty are of opinion that it originated in Germany; fourteen, that it was of Eastern or Saracenic origin; six, that it arose from the hint suggested by the intersection of the Norman arches; four, that it was the invention of the Goths and Lombards; and three, that its origin was in Italy. Sprung, however, from whatever place, it appears to have given in every sense an independence to the art not before belonging to it, and to have introduced principles of far greater freedom, in respect of the ratio of points of support to the whole mass, than were previously exhibited or probably known. Those who may feel desirous of consulting these views in detail, will find notices of sixty-six theories in the fifth volume of Britton's Architectural Antiquities. Only two of these theories attempt to account for the introduction of the pointed arch on the ground of usefulness; one was put forward by Dr. Whewell as regarded vaulting; the other by Dr. Young and Mr. Weir, who urged that the use of the pointed arch was originally due to a discovery of its diminishing lateral pressure. Mr. Sharpe has advocated the same view. These theories will also be found in Ramée, Manuel de l'Histoire Générale de l'Architecture, 1843, ii., 238, 248.

303a. Michelet (Histoire de France) observes, “Or, lors de l'apparition de l'ogive en Occident vers 1200, Innocent III est le dernier rayon de cette puissance universelle, le pouvoir de l'Eglise Catholique s'affaiblit. La tentative des ordres des mendiants, des pères prêcheurs est infructueuse. Le pouvoir des prêtres tombe dans la main des laïques. La puissance du droit canonique, de ce robuste auxiliaire de l'Eglise, s'efface en France devant ces lois sages faites par le pieux Roi St. Louis, et ses établissements immortels servent de code nouveau à ses sujets. En Angleterre le Roi Jean-sans-terre donne, en 1215, la grande Charte. En Allemagne, au commencement du treizième siècle, paraît le Sachsenspiegel. Au milieu du quatorzième, où le règne de l'ogive est à son apogée, l'Empereur Charles IV donne la Bulle d'or. Au treizième siècle se terminent les Croisades qui mirent le Pape au dessus des pouvoirs temporels. Ces guerres saintes avaient fait prévaloir l'autorité de l'Evêque de Rome. Mais au treizième siècle l'activité des peuples chrétiens avait prit une autre direction, et ils finirent par secouer toute espèce de domination." It is impossible, in naming the pontificate of Innocent III., to refrain from noticing that it was an epoch, in which such men appeared on the scene as St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Dominic, St. Francis of Assisi, John Gerson, author of the "Imitation of Jesus Christ," a composition that has been oftener printed than any other work; and in literature and the arts, about the same period, are to be found the names of Dante, Robert de Lusarches, Etienne de Bonneveil, Pierre de Montereau, Lapo or Jacopo, besides a host of others.

304. The foregoing remarks comprise a resumé of the early views on this subject, but we must not omit to mention those held by the learned writer, Mr. James Fergusson, who observes that Dr. Whewell, in his Notes on German Churches, has very distinctly stated the question of such inquiries ::-"These only tend to show how the form itself, as an arch, may have been suggested, not how the use of it must have become universal" (see also 299). Fergusson then (Builder Journal, 1849, p. 290, 303, 317), treating the history of the pointed arch succinctly by certain facts, brings forward four sets of pointed arches. I., the ancient buildings extending down to the period of the Roman empire; II., the decline of the Roman influence, extending to the present day, in the countries of the East to which these two classes of arches are confined; III., the arch appearing in the south of France alone, in the age of Charlemagne, extending to the 11th century, when it was superseded by the

round arch style; and IV, the true Gothic pointed arch, prevailing almost universally over the whole of Europe till the time of the Reformation, in the 16th century. In the East, "arches still are more frequently constructed by placing the stones horizontally than in a radiating position." The history of the subject will never be correctly understood till we take both kinds into account, for the second almost certainly arose out of the first. The first example put forth by him is from the third pyramid at Gizeh, in the roof of the sepulchral chamber (fig. 154), consisting

only of two stones, showing how early the curvilinear form, with a point in the centre, was used, and consequently how familiar it must have been to the architects of all ages. Another early form is here given from the tomb called "Campbell's Tomb," fig. 155. The pyramids at Meröe, in Ethiopia, dating about 1000 to 805 years B. C., at all events being of a period anterior to the age of the Greek and Roman influence, were discovered by Mr. Hoskins. Here, stone arches show both circular and pointed forms (fig. 156); and Mr. Layard discovered, at Nimroud, drains with pointed vaults of the same age as those at Meröe. A tumulus near Smyrna, in Asia Minor, presents an example almost a counterpart of that from the third pyramid; a gateway, near Missolonghi, is formed by the courses of masonry projecting beyond one another till they meet in the centre. Other examples are seen in the tomb of the Atride at Mycenae (figs. 14 and 16, tomb called treasury of Atreus); in a city gateway at Arpino, in Italy; in an aqueduct at Tusculum; and in a gateway at Assos, in Asia Minor (fig 157). This is known from the character of its

Fig. 156.

PYRAMID AT MERÖE.

Fig. 157. GATEWAY AT ASSOS. masonry and other circumstances to belong to the best period of Greek art, in fact to be coeval, or nearly so, with the Parthenon, These examples explain all the peculiarities of

this mode of construction.

305. With the appearance of Rome, this form entirely disappears from the countries to which her influence extended, and is supplanted so completely by the circular radiating form, that not a single instance is probably known of a pointed arch of any form or mode of construction during the period of the Roman supremacy. The moment, however, that her power declined, the pointed form reappears in Asia, its native seat; and we recur to the very few that remain in Syria and Western Asia for examples. The first of these are in the church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, built by Constantine the Great, and now known as the Mosque of Omar. Its arches are throughout pointed, but so timidly as to be scarcely observable at first sight. Fergusson also states the reasons for his inability to give other specimens; and describes the cathedral of Ani, in Armenia, (see al o Donaldson, in the Civil Engineer, &c. Journal, 1843, p. 183) which is built with pointed arches throughout, and contains an inscription proving that it was finished in the year 1010: he quotes M. Texier's assertion (Descr. de l'Armenie, fol. 1842) that "it results that, at a time when the pointed arch was altogether unknown, and never had been used, in Europe, buildings were being constructed in the pointed arch style in the centre of Armenia." Diarbekr, Mr. Fergusson continues, "there is an extremely remarkable building, now converted into a mosque; the Armenians call it, with much plausibility, the palace of Tigranes; the friezes and cornices are executed according to the principles of Roman art of the 4th century, nevertheless the pointed arch is found everywhere mixed with the architecture, as if it were currently practised in the country." The palace at Modain, the ancient Ctesiphon,

At

a building of the 6th century, is remarkable for the gigantic portal which has not a pointed but an elliptical arch. The pointed arch, however, was employed in Mesopotamia long before it was known in Europe.

306. In the Roman empire, the aqueducts that supplied Constantinople with water, which were commenced under Constantine immediately after the founding of the city, but completed under Valens, A.D 364 and 378, exhibit pointed arches, generally in the lowest story, and always in the oldest part, as near Pyrgos-" I would have no hesitation," he says, "in asserting the general use of the pointed arch by the Mahomedans from the earliest years of their existence to the present hour. The Arabs, it must be recollected, when they left their deserts to subdue the world, were warriors and not architects; they consequently employed the natives of the conquered countries to erect their mosques; yet, with scarcely a single exception, all their edifices are built with pointed arches. They are used in the oldest part of the mosque of Amrou, at Old Cairo; this portion was built in the twenty-first year of the Hegira, A.D. 643. Except the two mosques of Amrou, in Egypt, I do not know of any erections of the Saracens anterior to the end of the 7th century. The pointed arch is used throughout the mosque erected by the Calif Walid at Jerusalem, in the year 87, or about A D. 705. The great mosque at Damascus is of the same age; and from that period to the present time there is no difficulty. In Sicily, too, which the Saracens occupied for two centuries preceding 1037, they used the pointed arch in all the monuments they have left there. In Spain, however, although pointed arches occur in the baths at Gerona, at Barcelona, and other places in the north, whose date is tolerably well ascertained to be of the 9th or 10th centuries, as a general rule the Moors us.d the round or horseshoe arch (see fig. 85), almost universally in their erections in that c untry. One other example that should be noted, occurs at the celebrated mosque of Kootub, at Delhi. When the Pathans conquered India, in the beginning of the 13th century, they brought with them their own style of architecture. This building, carried out by the Hindoos, was commenced about the year 1230, and completed in about ten years. The principal arch, 22 feet span and about 40 feet high, though of the pure equilateral Gothic form, is erected with horizontal courses to nearly the summit, when courses of stone are placed on their ends, as done in the aqueduct at Tusculum, before mentioned.

307. "With the Western styles, the first series to be noticed is that found in the south of France, comprised to the south of the Loire and the north of the Garonne, extending from the Gulf of Nice to the shores of the Bay of Biscay; being, in date, from about the ag of Charlemagne till the middle or end of the 11th century, when it was superseded by the round arch styles. This assertion may startle some readers, but it would long ago have been received as well established facts, had it not been for the preconceived opinion that no pointed arch existed in Europe anterior to the 12th century. One of the best known examples is that of the cathedral at Avignon, where the porch and general details of the church are so nearly classical, that they are usually ascribed to the age of Charlemagne,

and even carlier. At Vaison are two wellknown churches, so classical also, that they are often called Roman temples; both are roofed with wagon vaults of a pointed form, and must certainly date before the middle of the 12th century, when Vaison was destroyed and deserted; they are probably of the 9th or 10th centuries. The same remark appli s to the churches at Pernes, Souillac (fig. 158), Moissac, Carcassone, and many other churches of that age, all of which are covered with pointed vaults, but of a form extremely different from the true Gothic vaults of the 13th and 16th centuries." The chapel in the castle of Loches in Lorraine is given by Mr. Fergusson in his Handbook, as explaining most of the peculiarities of the style. The original building was founded by the Count of Anjou in the year 962, and the western tower certainly belongs to him. The nave is either a part of the original edifice, or was erected by his son, Foulques Nerra, -between 992 and 1040. The supposition that it belongs to the latter receives confirmation from its singularly Eastern aspect, and the fact that this Count three times visited the Holy Land, and died there in the year above quoted. The churches of Moissac, Souillac, and St. Frond at Périgueux, with several others, are still more eastern in their appearance. This latter building, of which

Fig. 158.

CHURCH AT SOUILLAC.