[326] España Sagrada, xliii. p. 200, and Appendix, p. 453.
[327] In my first design for the Crimean Memorial church which I am building at Constantinople, I had a vault thirty-eight feet in clear span, and this was objected to by a really accomplished critic as too bold and hazardous an experiment! What would have been said then of a vault twice as wide?
[328] I subjoin the dimensions of some of the largest French and other churches, in order that the dimensions of the nave of Gerona may be really appreciated.
| Albi | 58 | feet between the walls. | ||
| Toulouse Cathedral | 63 | do. | ||
| S. Jean Perpiñan | 60 | do. | ||
| Amiens | 49 | centre to centre of column of nave. | ||
| Paris | 48 | do. | ||
| Bourges | 49 | do. | ||
| Chartres | 50 | do. | ||
| Cologne | 44 | do. | ||
| Narbonne | 54 | do. | ||
| Canterbury | 43 | do. | do. | of choir. |
| York | 52 | do. | do. | of nave. |
| Westminster Abbey | 38 | do. | ||
[329] Liber Notularum, fol. 31.
[330] The church was originally intended to have octagonal towers at the angles of the west front. Of these the south-west tower has been built up in Pagan style, and the north-west has never been built.
[331] España Sagrada, vol. xlv. p. 8. Villanueva, Viage Lit., xii. 175, gives the name of this artist as Antonio Claperos “obrer de ymagens.”
[332] See the description of this silver frontal in España Sagrada, vol. xlv. p. 8. The Historia de S. Narciso y de Gerona, by P. M. Roig y Yalpi, is quoted as authority for the statements given. See also the act of consecration of the cathedral in A.D. 1038 (España Sagrada, xliii. p. 437), in which among the list of signatures at the end occurs the following passage:—“S. Ermessendis comitissæ quæ eadem die ad honorem Dei et Matris Ecclesiæ trescentas auri contulit uncias ad auream construendam tabulam;” and in a necrologium, from 1102 to 1313, occur the following entries: “1254. Pridie Kalendas Februarii obiit Guillelmus de Terradis, sacrista major, qui tabulam argenteam altari Beatæ Mariæ Cathedralis fieri fecit.” “1229. Kalendis Martii obiit Ermesendis Comitissa quæ hanc sedem ditavit et tabulam auream ac crucem Deo et Beatæ Mariæ obtulit, et ecclesiam multis ornamentis ornavit.”
[333] “Hic jacet Amaldus de Solerio, Archidiaconus Bisalduenensis qui etiam suis expensis propriis fecit fieri cimborium seu coopertam argenteam super altaro majori ecclesiæ Gerundensis. Obiit autem anno Dni. M.CCCXX. sexto, viii. Kal. Augusti.”