ch nicety, and which I have not been able as yet fully to
investigate: but the natural idea of the arrangement of these lines
(which in round arches are of course perpendicular to the curve) would
be that every voussoir should have the lengths of its outer and inner
arched surface in the same proportion to each other. Either this actual
law, or a close approximation to it, is assuredly enforced in the best
Gothic buildings.

Sec. XXIII. I may sum up all that it is necessary for the reader to keep
in mind of the general laws connected with this subject, by giving him an
example of each of the two forms of the perfect Gothic arch, uncusped
and cusped, treated with the most simple and magnificent masonry, and
partly, in both cases, Mont-Cenisian.

The first, Plate V., is a window from the Broletto of Como. It shows, in
its filling, first, the single-pieced arch, carried on groups of four
shafts, and a single slab of marble filling the space above, and pierced
with a quatrefoil (Mont-Cenisian, this), while the mouldings above are
each constructed with a separate system of voussoirs, all of them
shaped, I think, on the principle above stated, Sec. XXII., in alternate
serpentine and marble; the outer arch being a noble example of the pure
uncusped Gothic construction, _b_ of Plate III.

[Illustration: Fig. XXXIV.]

Sec. XXIV. Fig. XXXIV. is the masonry of the side arch of, as far as I
know or am able to judge, the most perfect Gothic sepulchral monument in
the world, the foursquare canopy of the (nameless?)[49] tomb standing
over the small cemetery gate of the Church of St. Anastasia at Verona. I
shall have frequent occasion to recur to this monument, and, I believe,
shall be able sufficiently to justify the terms in which I speak of it:
meanwhile, I desire only that the reader should observe the severity
and simplicity of the arch lines, the exquisitely delicate suggestion of
the ogee curve in the apex, and chiefly the use of the cusp in giving
_inward_ weight to the great pieces of stone on the flanks of the arch,
and preventing their thrust outwards from being severely thrown on the
lowermost stones. The effect of this arrangement is, that the whole
massy canopy is sustained safely by four slender pillars (as will be
seen hereafter in the careful plate I hope to give of it), these pillars
being rather steadied than materially assisted against the thrust, by
iron bars, about an inch thick, connecting them at the heads of