s expedient is, of course,
economical, but to northern eyes it appears strange and out of place.
The Italians, however, take no pains to conceal it, and many of their
lighter works, such as canopies over tombs, porches, &c., would fall
to pieces at once were the iron ties removed.

Open timber roofs in the English fashion are unknown; but the wooden
ceilings already alluded to are found in San Zeno at Verona, and the
Eremitani at Padua. A kind of open roof of large span, carried by
curved ribs and tied by iron ties, covers the great hall of the
Basilica at Vicenza, and the very similar hall at Padua. The ribs of
these roofs are built up of many thicknesses of material bolted
together.

The design of Italian Gothic buildings presents many peculiarities,
some of which are due to the materials made use of. For example, where
brick and terra-cotta are alone employed, wide moulded cornices of no
great projection, and broad masses of enriched moulding encircling
arches are easily executed, and they are accordingly constantly to be
found; but bold mouldings, with deep hollows, similar to those of
Early English arches, could not be constructed of these materials, and
are not attempted. These peculiarities will be found in the Town Hall
at Cremona, of which an illustration (Fig. 50) has already been given.

[Illustration: FIG. 56.--WINDOW FROM TIVOLI.]

Where marble is used, the peculiar fineness of its surface, upon which
the bright Italian sun makes the smallest moulding effective,
combined with the fact that the material, being costly, is often used
in thin slabs, has given occasion to extreme flatness of treatment,
and to the use of modes of enrichment which do not require much depth
of material. Our illustration of a window from the Piazza S. Croce at
Tivoli, shows these peculiarities extremely well (Fig. 56), and also
illustrates the strong predilection which the Italian architects
retained throughout the Gothic period for squareness and for
horizontal lines. The whole ornamental treatment is here square; the
window rests on a strongly-moulded horizontal sill, and is surrounded
by flatly-carved enrichment, making a square panel of the entire
feature. Even in the richly-decorated window (Fig. 57), which is in
its pointed outline more truly Gothic than the Tivoli example, much of
the same quality can be traced. The arch and jamb are richly moulded,
but the whole mass of mouldings is flat, and the flat cuspings of the