. A history of architecture in Italy from the time of Constantine to the dawn of the renaissance. of Palermoand Cefalii, but the superiority of theeastern portion of the church overthe nave and aisles is even more pro-nounced than in those churches. Thenave arcades are each of eight pointedarches, much less stilted than in theexamples above cited, and narrower inproportion to their height, supported on columns of Oriental granite,with capitals very various in design, of which most or all are believedto have been taken from older buildings ; nine of them, of a floridcomposite character, with fi
. A history of architecture in Italy from the time of Constantine to the dawn of the renaissance. of Palermoand Cefalii, but the superiority of theeastern portion of the church overthe nave and aisles is even more pro-nounced than in those churches. Thenave arcades are each of eight pointedarches, much less stilted than in theexamples above cited, and narrower inproportion to their height, supported on columns of Oriental granite,with capitals very various in design, of which most or all are believedto have been taken from older buildings ; nine of them, of a floridcomposite character, with figures in the centre of the faces andcornucopias occupying the place of volutes, have been thought tohave belonged to a temple of Ceres. (Fig. 311.) All the capitalsare capped by very large stilt-blocks, a rare feature in the Normanchurches. The flat clerestory has a large pointed window over eachof the nave arches. The nave opens into the transept, as at Cefaliiand Palermo, by a pointed triumphal arch with a soffit nearly ninefeet broad. A peculiar arrangement is observable at the end of the. Fig. 308. Palermo. Chiesa deiVespri. improbability that such a church was built and decorated in six years. Similarly in thecase of the cathedral of Cefalu, of which the diploma of Hugo, archbishop of Messina,says the first stone was laid at Pentecost in 1131, while King Roger, writing in March,1132, ten months later, speaks of it as complete. SICILIAN ARCHITECTURE 105 nave arcades, where the final column stands free, and is followed bya piece of wall some thirteen feet long, against which on either sideabut the five steps which rise to the floor of the transept, and whichextend across the whole breadth of nave and aisles. This wall ispierced on each side the nave by a narrow arch for the passage ofmonks, indicating perhaps some peculiarity in the service not nowapparent. The transept, considerably broader than the nave, and projectingwell beyond the aisle walls, is divided, by broad point
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