ulpture of the southern portal and
the relics and works of art in the interior are of some interest. The
law-court, built in 1640 as the bishop's palace, contains in its
courtyard a small but well-preserved triumphal arch of the Gallo-Roman
period. Other important buildings are the hospital, an imposing
structure of the 18th century, opposite which is a statue of its
founder, Malachie d'Inguimbert, bishop of Carpentras; and the former
palace of the papal legate, which dates from 1640. Of the old
fortifications the only survival is the Porte d'Orange, a gateway
surmounted by a fine machicolated tower. Their site is now occupied by
wide boulevards shaded by plane-trees. Water is brought to the town by
an aqueduct of forty-eight arches, completed in 1734.

Carpentras is the seat of a sub-prefect and of a court of assizes, and
has a tribunal of first instance, communal college for girls and boys, a
large library and a museum. Felt hats, confectionery, preserved fruits
and nails are its industrial products, and there are silk-works,
tanneries and dye-works. There is trade in silk, wool, fruit, oil, &c.
The irrigation-canal named after the town flows to the east of it (see
VAUCLUSE).

Carpentras is identified with _Carpentoracte_, a town of Gallia
Narbonensis mentioned by Pliny, which appears to have been of some
importance during the Roman period. Its medieval history is full of
vicissitudes; it was captured and plundered by Vandal, Lombard and
Saracen. In later times, as capital of the Comtat Venaissin, it was
frequently the residence of the popes of Avignon, to whom that province
belonged from 1228 till the Revolution. Carpentras was the seat of a
bishopric from the 5th century till 1805.

CARPENTRY, the art and work of a carpenter (from Lat. _carpentum_, a
carriage), a workman in wood, especially for building purposes. The
labour of the sawyer is applied to the division of large pieces of
timber or logs into forms and sizes to suit the purposes of the
carpenter and joiner. His working-place is called a sawpit, and his most
important tool is a pit-saw. A cross-cut saw, axes, dogs, files,
compasses, lines, lampblack, blacklead, chalk and a rule may also be
regarded as necessary to him. But this method of sawing timber is now
only used in remote country places, and in modern practice logs, &c.,
are converted into planks and small pieces at saw-mills, which are
equipped with modern machinery to drive all kinds of cir