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Sexpartite Vault

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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In architecture, a name given to the single bay of a vault, which, in addition to the transverse and diagonal ribs, has been divided by a second transverse rib, forming six compartments. 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, 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.