Open Timber Roofs of the Middle Ages

Excerpt from The Open Timber Roofs of the Middle Ages: Illustrated by Perspective and Working Drawings of Some of the Best Varieties of Church Roofs; With Descriptive Letter-Press The conviction that, of the various branches of Ecclesiastical Architecture, the Open Timber Roofs of our ancient Churches had received the smallest portion of attention, induced us to undertake its investigation; most of the other parts of a sacred edifice present an inviting field to the artist and amateur, and we have to acknowledge many beautiful and valuable treatises from their hands: the subject of the present work, however, affords little such attraction, and, indeed, appears particularly appertaining to the province of the Architect, from whom alone could be expected that research into the constructive features which necessarily claim the devotion of much time and application. The urgency of a close inquiry will be at once manifest, when it is considered how valuable these excellent models must be to us, not so much for servile imitation, as to show the spirit with which the Medieval Architects always sought to give to necessary construction the most beautiful forms; how far they succeeded is seen in their universally admired works: let us imitate their example in our new churches, where vaulting is generally impossible, and rarely even desirable. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.