274- Mr. A. Taylor on the Gothic Ornaments 



the fissure in some cases extending through a great part of the 

 height of the pillar. The tracery which springs from these 

 pillars diverges from a capital, corresponding in position, and 

 generally in design, with the cornice which marks the com- 

 mencement of the great circular arch. From this circumstance 

 it is evident that the capital of the half-\)]]]nr should blend 

 with that part of the cornice of the pilaster against which it is 

 placed ; this, if the whole work were of one time, would have 

 been accomplished by forming the capital on the same stone 

 with the cornice. The fact, however, is different ; in fifty in- 

 stances the cornice is cut, or rather broken away, to admit the 

 capital of the half-pillar, and in twelve, the capital is cut at 

 the top so as to fit it against the cornice. Of these two me- 

 thods, the former (probably from the friability of the stone) is 

 so very awkwardly practised, that the cornice is generally 

 much dilapidated, and the capital (which is always perfect and 

 entire) appears seated in a large irregular cavity. On the 

 north side, indeed, it will be found that nearly the whole face 

 of the cornice is sometimes destroyed ; an effect certainly not 

 produced by the injuries of time, and by no other cause than 

 the mallet of a careless workman. Thirdly; In those arches, 

 six in number, which form the passage ways to the inner 

 quadrangle, or burial ground, a portion of the top of the pe- 

 destal in the great pilasters has been cut out and replaced by 

 another piece formed to support and bind the half-pillar of the 

 tracery ; this operation, also, hath been performed with suffi- 

 cient mal-adroitness to leave no doubt as to an alteration from 

 the original plan of the building. It has been remarked that 

 the capitals of the Gothic pillars correspond generally in de- 

 sign with the cornice of the Roman arch ; it may be right to 

 add, however, that the enrichments of the former are always 

 more delicately cut, and that the similarity is merely that of a 

 free imitation. From the facts now stated, it is evident that the 

 Gothic tracery of the Campo Santo is certainly the addition 

 of a later age : it only remains to fix the period at which the 

 addition was made. For this purpose recourse will be had, 

 without hesitation, to the tablet on the north side of the 

 building itself, — an authority which has doubtless been cited 

 and discussed in former dissertations, but which it may not be 

 amiss to produce on the present occasion in a faithful copy from 

 the stone *. 



* The artist mentioned in the tablet is doubtless the Antonio Pisano of 

 Muratori : "Anno 1461, A?ito?iius Pisanus, gemmarum pretiosoriimque lapi- 

 diim scvlptwa claret." 



Whatever 



