Square Nave and Rectangular Aisle Bays continued
Fig. 25.—Nevers, Cathedral.
Returning to the churches later in date than Bury but vaulted on the same plan, it will be found that there are but few examples in France, an interesting fact for which an explanation will later be attempted.[174] The lower story of the Sainte Chapelle at Paris (cir. 1250) furnishes one of the rare examples, but here the nave and aisles are of the same height and so do not exactly resemble the system at Bury. Because of their narrowness, the side aisle vaults of the Sainte Chapelle did not furnish proper abutment for those of the nave, and the builders found it necessary to add tie-rods and even transverse half arches forming veritable interior flying buttresses at about half the height of the transverse ribs. This is, however, a most unusual arrangement.
It was in Italy more than elsewhere that the method of square nave and rectangular aisle bays was adopted. Many of the largest churches of the Gothic period in that country were thus constructed. Among these, Santa Maria Novella at Florence (end of the thirteenth and beginning of the fourteenth centuries) has nave bays which are practically square, while the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore (fourteenth century) in the same city is a much larger church more strictly following the type.[175] This vast edifice presented such a vaulting problem that the builders did not hesitate to resort to the use of iron tie-rods to counteract the thrusts,—a subterfuge common enough in Italian architecture, of which the church of the Frari at Venice (after 1250) presents an exaggerated example.