THE STYLE OF LOUIS XII. 



29 



25. " BUREAU DBS FINANCES," ROUEN. 



lawyers (parkments) in cities appointed by the king as centres of royal, 

 as distinguished from seigniorial justice, e.g., Paris, Rouen, Grenoble, 

 were known as " Palais de Justice." That of Grenoble, partly built at 

 this period, shows but slight Renaissance admixture. In the Cour 

 des Comptes, built under Louis XII. within the precincts of the Paris 

 Law Courts, west of the Ste Chapelle, and burnt down in 1737, the 

 design, which is probably due to Fra Giocondo (see p. 16), is Gothic 

 in its general aspect, but contained Italian elements, e.g., a frieze of 

 dolphins and fleurs-de-lys. Its most notable feature, an external stair- 

 case, in one straight flight in an open loggia, is not necessarily an 

 Italian idea. The two elements are mixed in almost equal proportions 

 in the " Bureau des Finances," a building opposite the cathedral at 

 Rouen (Fig. 25), still charming in spite of mutilations. 



INTERIORS: CEILINGS, FLOORS. In the interiors of houses a great 

 variety of more or less complicated rib-vaults were used, especially in 

 stairs and passages, and basement and tower rooms, often enriched 

 with pendents. In wooden ceilings the constructional timbers were 

 usually exposed to view and only concealed during the occupation of 

 the room by temporary cloth or tapestry testers hung to them by 

 hooks in the same way as hangings to the walls. In upper halls the 

 timbers were sometimes boarded in the form of a barrel vault divided 

 by wood ribs. Panelled ceilings fixed to the underside of the joists 

 made their appearance with the Renaissance. 



