Aisles with Groined Vaults in Lombardy and Normandy
That the use of groined vaults was far more extensive in the aisles than in the naves of Romanesque churches has already been shown by the examples cited from the schools of Poitou, Auvergne, Bourgogne, and elsewhere. To these should be added a number of churches, chiefly of the schools of Lombardy and Normandy, which have groined aisles in combination with rib vaulted or wooden roofed naves. In Lombardy, where the naves are ribbed, this combination has been admirably explained by Porter[137] in connection with the use of wood for centering. Thus he shows that groined vaults, provided that they were sufficiently domed up, could be built over the small bays of the aisles and triforia with almost no wooden framework, but that when such vaults were attempted in the nave the bays were so large as to require a considerable amount of centering beneath the vault, and therefore the builders substituted permanent diagonal arches of very heavy character.
The Norman groined aisles are, however, of a different sort, for they either have level crowns or are but slightly domed up in type. [138] The abbey church of Jumièges (Seine-Inférieure) (1040-1067) is among the earliest examples of this construction and is the only Norman church with groined vaults in both the aisles and triforium.[139] La Trinité at Caen[140] and the abbey church of Lessay (Manche)[141] are also Norman churches with groined aisles, in both cases with level crowns. In La Trinité, as in the early churches of Poitou, the bays are not even separated by transverse arches.[142] In Saint Étienne at Caen, and in the choir of the cathedral of Gloucester, the aisles are vaulted in both stories like those of Auvergne, the lower groined, the triforia with half tunnel vaults, but it seems very probable that these latter were added only when vaulting took the place of the wooden roof in the central portions of the church.[143]
Curious instances of the persistence of groined vaulting are to be seen in the triforia of such transitional churches as Saint Germer-de-Fly (Oise)[144] and Vézelay, where the remaining portions of the church have ribbed vaults. For this persistence an explanation is later attempted.[145]