AND HIS SKETCH-BOOK.

5

lament its loss, for it was destroyed at the Revolution. But in 1824, when itssite was levelled, the architect of the city, M. Aime Boileux, was enabled to makea complete plan, which was engraved in M. Leglay’s history of the Cathedral k .This plan coincides exactly with that given in our manuscript.

If the above reasoning be thought to have led us rather to probabilities than tocertain information respecting the practice of Wilars de Iionecort as an archi-tect, the facts appealed to will at least enable us to determine with mathematicalprecision the age of the manuscript, and thus the period of the author; for wehave only to extract from the histories of the two buildings of Cambray andRheims the dates of the respective portions already alluded to.

The Cathedral of Cambray was originally Romanesque throughout, but itseastern portions were reconstructed on an enlarged plan in the thirteenth century.The transepts were in building in 1227; the new choir was commenced at theback of the existing one, by the foundation of the first or western chapel to thenorth of the sanctuary in 1230, followed by the second chapel to the south in1239, the central chapel in 1241, and the second chapel on the north in 1243;the date of the first chapel on the south is not recorded, but was probably be-tween 1230 and 1239. Thus the radiating chapels which circumscribed the newapse of Cambray were built between 1230 and 1243. Finally, the completion ofthe choir itself is recorded by the fact that at Easter , 1251, the clergy tookformal possession of it.

Now the note attached to the plan of Cambray in the manuscript shews thatthe buildings were commenced, but so little advanced as to make their completionsomewhat problematical,—“The chapels will be like these if they be ever finished:’and not only were the chapels unfinished, but also the flying buttresses essentialto the choir, for the form of which our author refers to those of Rheims . Hencethe plan in the manuscript must have been drawn during the suspension of worksbetween 1243 and 1251.

The known dates of the works at Rheims are in perfect accordance with thisconclusion. The east end, commenced in 1211 by Robert de Couci, was finishedas far as the transepts when he died in 1241. The apse, or “chevet,” with itscircuit of chapels, was certainly finished in 1215 h As for the nave, of whichWilars has also given drawings, it was built between 1241 and 1257; and as thedrawing only embraces a single bay, it follows that if only one compartment were

k Vide plate 67. this is an oversight, for that author discredits the

1 M. Quicherat notes that the choir was conse- tradition which is the sole foundation for the date incrated October 18, 1215, according to Harlot; but question.—(W.)