. A history of architecture in Italy from the time of Constantine to the dawn of the renaissance. ich unhappily the authoris not kno^vn, by which the present cathedral was to become thetransept of the completed edifice, a new nave and aisles being addedto the south of it. The project, says Mr. Norton, was broughtbefore the Council of the Bell on the 23d of August, 1339, andbefore the popular assembly broke up that afternoon, it was resolvedby 212 votes against 132, that a new nave should be built, accordingto the plan proposed ; provided, however, that the work now in pro-gress should be proce
. A history of architecture in Italy from the time of Constantine to the dawn of the renaissance. ich unhappily the authoris not kno^vn, by which the present cathedral was to become thetransept of the completed edifice, a new nave and aisles being addedto the south of it. The project, says Mr. Norton, was broughtbefore the Council of the Bell on the 23d of August, 1339, andbefore the popular assembly broke up that afternoon, it was resolvedby 212 votes against 132, that a new nave should be built, accordingto the plan proposed ; provided, however, that the work now in pro-gress should be proceeded with diligently. The new building wasbegun in Februaryof the next year,and seems to havegone forward withvigor, in spite offamine and pesti-lence, until in 1348Siena was strickenwith the frightfulplague which carriedoff in a single sum-mer eighty thousandof her people, andparalyzed for a gen-eration the life ofthe city. The worksof the cathedralcame to a stop, orprogressed but lan-guidly, until in 1357an examination ofthe newer portionsalready completedrevealed some alarm-ing defects and. Fig-. 356. Siena. East End of Cathedral. 184 ARCHITECTURE IN ITALY weaknesses in the piers and vaulting, and the experts by whomthe examination was made recommended that a considerable partof them should be taken down. This was the end of the si:)lendidproject. Yet, as late as 1435, we find the General Council appointingJacopo della Quercia master of the works, operaio, with a salaryof one hundred florins a year, donee vixeret. ^ The portions which remain standing of the newer work comprisetwo bays of the easterly aisle, with the nave arcade and a portion ofthe front wall. The architecture is of a noble simplicity and gran-deur, greatly superior in scale and design to that of the cathedralwhich we see to-day, though similar in character. The great navearches, five on each side, are nearly forty feet in span, and the navewould have had a breadth of some forty-five feet and a height ofover
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