[42] The capitals being formed by the flowers, or by a representation of the bulging out of the reeds at the top, under the weight of the architrave.
[43] I have not been at the pains to draw the complicated piers in this plate with absolute exactitude to the scale of each: they are accurate enough for their purpose: those of them respecting which we shall have farther question will be given on a much larger scale.
[44] The largest I remember support a monument in St. Zeno of Verona; they are of red marble, some ten or twelve feet high.
[45] The effect of this last is given in [Plate VI.] of the folio series.
[46] The entire development of this cross system in connexion with the vaulting ribs, has been most clearly explained by Professor Willis (Architecture of Mid. Ages, Chap. IV.); and I strongly recommend every reader who is inclined to take pains in the matter, to read that chapter. I have been contented, in my own text, to pursue the abstract idea of shaft form.
CHAPTER IX.
THE CAPITAL.
§ I. The reader will remember that in [Chap. VII.] § V. it was said that the cornice of the wall, being cut to pieces and gathered together, formed the capital of the column. We have now to follow it in its transformation.