Sexpartite vault

Sexpartite vaulting, Laon Cathedral.

Sexpartite vault, in architecture, is a rib vault divided into six bays by two diagonal ribs and three transverse ribs.^[1]

The principal examples are those in the Abbaye-aux-Hommes and Abbaye-aux-Dames at Caen (which were probably the earliest examples of a construction now looked upon as transitional), Notre Dame de Paris, and the cathedrals of Bourges, Laon, Noyon, Senlis and Sens; from the latter cathedral the sexpartite vault was brought by William of Sens to Canterbury, and it is afterwards found at Lincoln and in St Faith's Chapel, Westminster Abbey.

See also

• Cathedral architecture

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.