Origin and Use of the Ridge Rib
Naturally enough the ridge rib was the first to be added to those already constituting the four-part vault ([Plate I-j.]). But the vaults thus formed should be divided into two groups. The first most frequently found in France and already discussed in connection with the churches of Anjou,[222] is that in which the surface of each severy has a curved crown and the rib follows this curve, with the object, probably, both of subdividing the large rectangular bays, of marking with absolute exactness the crown line, and of aiding in rigidly fixing the central keystone, or even in the case of a six-part vault, of giving the same apparent division to the transverse severies as is found in those running longitudinally.
Though very similar to this first type, the second, which was developed and most used in England, is different, in that the ridge line is here
Fig. 35.—Lincoln, Cathedral.
perfectly horizontal, and the main purpose of the rib is to mark this horizontal line with absolute exactness and to give, what Bond terms a spine,[223] to the vault skeleton. In the earliest example in England, the transept aisle of Ripon cathedral (cir. 1170),[224] the ribs are so small as to be purely decorative. This leaves the choir of Lincoln cathedral (begun 1192) [(Fig. 35)] as the first English example of importance in which a true ridge rib appears. It is not yet absolutely horizontal since there is a slight curve to each severy. Its presence would seem to be due to the peculiar form of the vault, in which the ribs enclosing the window cells do not meet at a common point of intersection but at two points somewhat distant from each other along the ridge line where each pair is abutted by a single rib running to the nearest impost on the opposite wall ([Plate I-l.]). This arrangement, which was probably planned to increase the amount of centering in the large transverse panels and thus render their construction easier,[225] gives an extra keystone in each bay and it is quite possible that the ridge rib was introduced in order to unite these intersections and fix them in a straight line. It does not appear in the window cells where it would of course have been at an awkward angle with the outer walls.
Once introduced into English architecture the ridge rib was destined to play a most important part in its development. In the first place, it provided an easy method of assuring an absolutely level and straight ridge line and was thus especially welcome to English builders, who had been trained in the construction of vaults which were never more than slightly and often not at all domed up, and who were, besides, rather inferior masons, and not particularly skillful in making their masonry courses intersect in a perfect manner. In the second place, it furnished admirable abutment for tiercerons or intermediate ribs,[226] which were perhaps suggested by such a vault as Lincoln choir as being valuable additions to the rib skeleton and were thereafter very generally used to provide more permanent centering and to further reduce the size of the vault panels.
It is, however, notable that a longitudinal ridge rib appears added to simple four-part vaults without the introduction of tiercerons or transverse ridge ribs at a comparatively early date in Worcester cathedral choir (after 1224),[227] Westminster Abbey choir (1245-1260), and Gloucester cathedral nave (1245), and that it is used in France in a number of churches where there are no tiercerons.[228] In such cases it serves the primary purpose of clearly marking the ridge line, which is especially difficult to adjust in vaults with level crowns. That it was the longitudinal effect thus produced which was desired is evidenced by the fact that except when there were tiercerons in the longitudinal cells, the transverse ridge rib was rarely added to such vaults ([Plate I-k.]). Among the very few examples are the cathedral of Tulle (Corrèze) (twelfth century) and the fifteenth century chapel of the château at Blois, both of them in France. [229]