Rib vault

The ribs transmit the load downward and outward to specific points, usually rows of columns or piers.

This feature allowed architects of Gothic cathedrals to make higher and thinner walls and much larger windows.

These elements made it possible to construct buildings with much higher and thinner walls than before, with immense bays, and larger stained glass windows filling the structure with light.

The severies can be filled with small pieces of masonry, eliminating much of the massive weight of barrel vaults.

[14] The Romans also used these embedded ribs concealed within the structure to strengthen the concrete surface of domes, such as the Pantheon.

[16] The first known example of ladder ribs used on cross vaults is the one documented in the Villa of the Sette Bassi in Rome, dating from the mid-second century AD.

One notable example is found in the Great Mosque of Córdoba, which was begun in the 9th century and extended between 922 and 965 by Al-Hakam II.

[18] The Chapel of Villaviciosa, as this part of the mosque became known when it was converted to a Roman Catholic church in the 13th century, has a dome which rests upon ribs and pendentives.

[8] The crossed-arch vaults of the mosque-cathedral of Córdoba served as models for later mosque buildings in the Islamic West, including al-Andalus and the Maghreb.

Even before the Norman Conquest in 1066, King Edward the Confessor of England had introduced Romanesque features to Westminster Abbey (1055–65).

[22] Construction of the new church at Durham Cathedral began in 1093 under the direction of its Norman bishop, William de St-Calais.

[23] It was originally intended to build the cathedral entirely with rounded-arch groin vaults, but as work continued on the nave the Norman builders experimented with pointed arches, which directed the weight outward and downwards.

The vault panels in the chancel were made of plastered rubble, and were heavier than expected, and began to crack, and had to be replaced in 1235.

[23] In the meanwhile, experimentation in pointed rib vaults moved to France, where thinner and lighter panels were made of small cut pieces of stone, rather than rubble.

[25] The Romanesque Cefalù Cathedral in the Norman Kingdom of Sicily, begun in 1131, has a Gothic rib vault.

[30] The ribs transmitted the weight outwards and downwards through slender columns to the piers on the lower level.

[23][31] Early examples of sexpartite rib vaults are found at the Abbaye-aux-Hommes (begun 1066) and Abbaye-aux-Dames at Caen.

Ribbed vaults were built by William the Englishman at Canterbury Cathedral and in St Faith's Chapel in Westminster Abbey (1180).

[30] The ribs of this vault distributed the weight more equally to the four supporting piers below, and established a closer connection between the nave and the lower portions of the church walls, and between the arcades below and the windows above.

[30] This allowed for greater height and thinner walls, and contributed to the strong impression of verticality given by the newer Cathedrals.

[30] The 11th century Durham Cathedral (1093–1135), with the earlier six-part rib vaults, is 73 feet (22 meters) high.

The 12th-century nave of Notre-Dame de Paris, also with six-part rib vaults, is 115 feet, or 35 meters high.

[35] The later Amiens Cathedral (built 1220–1266), with the new four-part rib vaults, has a nave that is 138.8 feet (42.3 meters) high.

[36] An octagonal tierceron vault completed in 1306 roofs the chapter house of Wells Cathedral, where 32 ribs spring from a single central pillar.

[citation needed]The development of the rib vault was the result of the search for greater height and more light in the naves of cathedrals.

[13] The problem was ultimately solved by the introduction of the pointed arch for the transverse and dividing ribs of the vault.

The pointed arch had long been known and employed, on account of its much greater strength and of the lessened thrust it exerted on the walls.

The lierne, a term in France given to the ridge rib, in English refers to short ribs that cross between the main ones; these were employed chiefly as decorative features, for example in stellar vaults, one of the best examples of which is in the vault of the oriel window of Crosby Hall, London.

Next, a precise wooden frame was constructed on top of the scaffold in the exact shape of the ribs (French: nervures).

[38] The construction of a medieval rib vault was a complex operation involving a team of specialized workers.