Arch
arch
In architecture, a structure built of separate and rigid blocks shaped like wedges and put together on a curved line so as to keep their position by mutual pressure when the arch is supported only at its two ends. The separate blocks are called voussoirs or arch-stones, the lowest members of which are termed springers, and the uppermost or central one, when a single stone is thus used, is called the keystone. The under or concave side of the voussoir is called the intrados or soffit; the upper or convex, the extrados. The supports of the arch are called piers, pillars, and abutments, the two former receiving the vertical pressure and the latter resisting the lateral thrust. The upper part of the pier is the impost, the span being the distance between the opposite imposts, above the line of which the highest point of the intrados is called the rise. The thrust is the pressure exerted outward, and is counteracted by the abutments or buttresses. Of the various types exemplified in the illustration the pointed arch is stronger than any other kind.
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
arch-
(Greek: archos, chief, head)
In etymology, a prefix forming, with other terms, compounds signifying a person, unit, or institution that has preeminence over other persons or institutions, e.g., archbishop .
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Arch
A structure composed of separate pieces, such as stone or bricks, having the shape of truncated wedges, arranged on a curved line so as to retain their position by mutual pressure. This method of construction is called arcuated, in contradistinction to the trabeated style used in Greek architecture, where the voids between column and column, or between column and wall, were spanned by lintels.
The separate stones which compose the curve of an arch are called voussoirs, or arch-stones. The lowest voussoirs are called springers. The springers usually have one or both joints horizontal. The upper surface of the springer, against which the first voussoir of the real arch (that is, in which both joints radiate) starts, is said to be skewbacked; the uppermost or central voussoir is called the keystone. The under, or concave, side of the voussoir is called the intrados or soffit, and the upper, or convex, side, the extrados of the arch. The supports which afford resting and resisting points to the arch are called piers and abutments. The upper part of the pier or abutment where the arch rests — technically, where it springs from — is the impost. The span of an arch is, in circular arches, the length of its chord, and generally, the width between the points of its opposite imposts whence it springs. The rise of an arch is the height of the highest point of its intrados above the line of the impost; this point is sometimes called the underside of the crown, the highest point of the extrados being the crown. If an arch be enclosed, or is imagined as being enclosed, in a square, then the spaces between the arch and the square are its spandrels.
FORMS OF ARCH
In Rome and Western Europe, the oldest and normal type of arch is the semicircular. In this the centre is in the middle of the diameter. Where the centre is at a point above the diameter, it is called a stilted arch. When the arch is formed of a curve that is less than a semicircle (a segment of a circle), with its centre below the diameter, it is called a segmental arch. Or if the curve is greater than a semicircle and has its centre above the diameter, it is called the horseshoe arch. All these arches are struck from one centre. The second class is struck from two centres. This arch is the pointed. There are three chief varieties. The first is the equilateral. In this the two centres coincide with the ends of the diameter. The second, more acutely pointed, is the lancet. In this the centres are on the line of the diameter, but outside it. The third is the obtuse, or drop, arch. In this the centres are still on the line of the diameter, but inside. The third class consists of arches struck from three centres. This is the three-Centred or “basket-handle” arch. The fourth class consists of arches struck from four centres. The first variety is the four-centred, or Tudor, arch. The curves can be struck in different ways, and the long curves sometimes replaced by straight lines with a short curve at the juncture. Another variety of arch struck from three or four centres is the ogee arch. In this, one or two of the centres are below, but the other two are above the arch. So the two upper curves of the arch are concave, the two lower convex.
Foiled arches have three or more lobes or leaves. The simplest are the round-headed trefoil; the pointed trefoil; the square-headed trefoil: which goes by the name of the shouldered arch. A trefoliated arch is a trefoiled arch enclosed in a pointed arch. A trefoiled arch is not enclosed in any other arch. Besides the trefoiled, there is the cinquefoil arch, with five lobes or foils, and the multifoile arch with several.
FLAT ARCH
In a flat arch the voussoirs are wedge-shaped, but the extrados and intrados are composed of straight lines. Sometimes, to strengthen a flat or slightly curved arch, the voussoirs are notched or joggled.
COMPOUND ARCHES
If the arch needs to be unusually strong, it is better to construct two independent arches, one on the top of the other. Or it may be constructed in three separate rings. Each of these sub-arches, or rings, of which the whole compound arch is composed, is called an order. It is a safer form of arch than the simple arch. This system of concentric arches was employed by the Romans early in the sixth century B. C., in the Cloaca Maxima at Rome; three occur where it enters the Tiber. In some compound orders the faces are in the same plane. But as a rule the orders are successively recessed, i. e. the innermost sub-arch, or order, is narrow, the next above it broader, the next is broader still, and so on.
SEMICIRCULAR ARCH
This arch is specially characteristic of Romanesque architecture. Gothic semi-circular arches sometimes occur in the architecture of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
STILTED ARCH
By stilting, a narrow semicircular arch can be made to rise to the same level as a broad arch, so that the crowns may be on the same level.
SEGMENTAL ARCH
This arch occurs occasionally in Norman work.
HORSESHOE ARCH
They are not uncommon in Norman ribbed vaults. They occur in the aisled basilica of Diana, near the Euphrates, which has the inscription A. D. 540. In Eastern work the horseshoe arch is frequently not round-headed, but acutely pointed. This facilitates construction, as the upper or more difficult portion of the arch or dome can then be constructed by corbelling and without centering, as in many Indian domes.
POINTED ARCH
Of the antiquity of the pointed arch in the East there can be no question; in many districts it is as much the normal form as is the semicircular in the Romanesque of Europe. But it does not follow that the latter borrowed it. It has probably been invented again and again, as necessity arose. In countries where there was no timber, or no tools to work it, the natives had to build shelters in stone. Frequently the only way known of roofing these was to pile flat stones on one another, i. e. with horizontal bed, not with radiating joints, each course projecting a little further inward as the wall went up. Plainly, these walls would topple in if a semicircular roof had been attempted, but they could be got to stand if the roof was built in the form of a pointed arch — at any rate, if the arch was very acutely pointed.
Although the Romanesque architects had solved the greatest problem of the Middle Ages, viz. how to vault throughout with stone a clerestoried church, Basilican in plan, without the aid of the pointed arch, yet the employment of the pointed arch greatly facilitated building construction. Next to the use of diagonal ribs and flying buttresses it was the greatest improvement introduced into medieval architecture (Francis Bond). The pointed arch is stronger than any other kind of arch; it has a more vertical and a less lateral thrust than a semicircular one. It was of the greatest use in vaulting.
FOUR-CENTRED ARCHES
These arches are parts of four different circles. The position of the centres varies greatly, and with them the beauty of the arch. Perhaps the most usual position is for the upper and lower centres of each side of the arch to be in the same vertical line. The four-centred arch has been considered peculiar to England; but it was common enough in Flanders at the same time it was in England.
OGEE ARCH
As the upper curves of this arch are reversed, it cannot bear a heavy load, and it does not occur in pier arches. In France, the ogee arch does not seem to have come into general use till late in the fourteenth century. In late English Decorated and French Flamboyant the ogee arch is used to the greatest advantage. Its origin is unquestionably Oriental. It is used in India on a vast scale in those domes which are constructed by corbelling. In England it was not used constructionally, but only decoratively. The ogee arch, like the pointed arch, may vary greatly in form, according to the character of the arch whose curve is reversed to give the upper part of the ogee, and according to the length assigned to the upper curve.
FOILED ARCH
Like the ogee, it is of decorative, not of structural, value. The round-headed, trefoiled arch is less common than the pointed. The cinquefoil is usually later than the trefoil arch.
ELLIPTICAL ARCHES
It may be doubted whether any true elliptical arches ever occur otherwise than accidentally. The origin of the arch is not known. It was largely used by the Assyrians, and by the Egyptians as well, at a very early date;. but for some unknown reason they did not introduce it into their greatest works. The practical introduction and use of the arch was due to the Romans. The pointed arch came into use about the twelfth century, and was destined to give birth to a new style of architecture. The pointed arch, whatever its origin, made its appearance almost at the same time in all the civilized countries of Europe. As this was immediately after the first Crusade, it has been conjectured that the Crusaders came to know it in the Holy Land, and introduced it into their respective countries on their return from the East. It was in use among the Saracenic and Mohammedan nations, and was extensively employed in Asia. But exactly with what nation in the East the pointed arch originated, and in what manner, are problems equally difficult to solve.
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THOMAS H. POOLE. Transcribed by Douglas J. Potter Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume ICopyright © 1907 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, March 1, 1907. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Arch
(only in the plur. , eylammim, masc., and , felamoth , fe),an architectural term occurring only in Eze 40:16; Eze 40:22; Eze 40:26; Eze 40:29, and difficult of definition, but prob. allied with , a’yil, a ram, hence a column or pilaster (1Ki 6:31; Eze 41:3, etc.). Most interpreters understand the term (sing. , eylam’) to be the same as , ulam’, a vestibule or porch, following the Sept., Vulg., and Targums (, vestibulum, ); but it is manifestly distinguished from this
(Eze 40:7-9; Eze 40:39-40), since the latter contained windows (Eze 40:16; Eze 40:29), whereas this was carried round the building, even in front of the ascent to the gate (Eze 40:22; Eze 40:26), and is usually associated with pillars. Of the other ancient interpreters Symmachus and the Syr. translate sometimes surrounding coliumns, sometimes threshold. The word appears either to denote a portico with a colonnade, or (according to Rabbi Menahen) is about equivalent to , from which it is derived, i.e. some ornament, perhaps the volute or moulding at the top of a column (comp. Bottcher, Proben alttest. Schrifverkl. p. 319).
Arches with vaulted chambers and domed temples figure so conspicuously in modern Oriental architecture, that, if the arch did not exist among the ancient Jews, their towns and houses could not possibly have offered even a faint resemblance to those which now exist; and this being the case, a great part of the analogical illustrations of Scripture which modern travelers and Biblical illustrators have obtained from this source must needs fall to the ground. Nothing against its existence is to be inferred from the fact that no word properly signifying an arch can be found in the Hebrew Scriptures (see above). The architectural notices in the Bible are necessarily few and general; and we have at this day histories and other books, larger than the sacred volume, in which no such word as arch occurs. There is certainly no absolute proof that the Israelites employed arches in their buildings; but if it can be shown that arches existed in neighboring countries at a very early period, we may safely infer that so useful an invention could not have been unknown in Palestine.
Until within a few years it was common to ascribe a comparatively late origin to the arch; but circumstances have come to light one after another, tending to throw the date more and more backward, until at length it seems to be admitted that in Egypt the arch already existed in the time of Joseph. The observations of Rosellini and of Wilkinson (who carries back the evidence from analogy and probability to about B.C. 2020, Anc. Egyptians, 2, 116; 3, 316) led them irresistibly to this conclusion, which has also been recently adopted by Cockerell (Lect. 3, in Athenceumm for Jan. 28, 1843) and other architects. Wilkinson suggests the probability that the arch owed its invention to the small quantity of wood in Egypt, and the consequent expense of roofing with timber. The evidence that arches were known in the time of the first Osirtesen is derived from the drawings at Beni-Hassan (Wilkinson, 2:117). In the secluded valley of Deir el-Medineh, at Thebes, are several tombs of the early date of Amenoph I. Among the most remarkable of these is one whose crude brick roof and niche, bearing the name of the same Pharaoh, prove the existence of the arch at the remote period of B.C. 1540 (Wilkinson, Topography of Thebes, p. 81). Another tomb of similar construction bears the ovals of Thothmes 3, who is supposed by many to have reigned about the time of the Exode (Anc. Egyptians, 3, 319). At Thebes there is also a brick arch bearing the name of this king (Hoskins, Travels in Ethiopia). To the same period and dynasty (the 18th) belong the vaulted chambers and arched door-ways (fig. 4, above) which yet remain in the crude brick pyramids at Thebes (Wilkinson, Anc. Egyptians, 3, 317). In ancient Egyptian houses it appears that the roofs were often vaulted, and built, like the rest of the house, of crude brick; and there is reason to believe that some of the chambers in the pavilion of Rameses III (about B.C. 1245), at Medinet Habu, were arched with stone, since the devices in the upper part of the walls show that the fallen roofs had this form (fig. 3).
The most ancient actually existing arches of stone occur at Memphis, near the modern village of Sakkara. Here there is a tomb with two large vaulted chambers, whose roofs display in every part the name and sculptures of Psammeticus II (about B.C. 600). The chambers are cut in the limestone rock, and this being of a friable nature, the roof is secured by being, as it were, lined with an arch, like our modern tunnels. To about the same period that of the last dynasty before the Persian invasion-belong the remarkable doorways of the enclosures surrounding the tombs in the Assasif, which are composed of two or more concentric semicircles (fig. 2) of brick (Wilkinson, Anc. Egyptians, 3, 319). Although the oldest stone arch whose age has been positively ascertained does not date earlier than the time of Psammeticus, we cannot suppose that the use of stone was not adopted by the Egyptians for that style of building previous to his reign, even if the arches in the pyramids in Ethiopia should prove not to be anterior to the same era. Nor does the absence of the arch in temples and other large buildings excite our surprise, when we consider the style of Egyptian monuments; and no one who understands, the character of their architecture could wish for its introduction. In some of the small temples of the Oasis the Romans attempted this innovation, but the appearance of the chambers so constructed fails to please; and the whimsical caprice of Osirei (about B.C. 1385) also introduced an imitation of the arch;in a temple at Abydus. In this building the roof is formed of single blocks of stone, reaching from one architrave to the other, which, instead of being placed in the usual manner, stand upon their edges, in order to allow room for hollowing out an arch in their thickness; but it has the effect of inconsistency, without the plea of advantage or utility. Another imitation of the arch occurs in a building at Thebes, constructed in the style of a tomb. The chambers lie under a friable rock, and are cased with masonry, to prevent the fall of its crumbling stone; but, instead of being roofed on the principle of the arch; they are covered with a number of large blocks, placed horizontally, one projecting beyond that immediately below it, till the uppermost two meet in the center, the interior angles being afterward rounded off to form the appearance of a vault (fig. 1, above). The date of this building is about B.C. 1500, and consequently many years after the Egyptians had been acquainted with the art of vaulting (Wilkinson, Anc. Egyptians, 2, 321). Thus, as the temple architecture of the Egyptians did not admit of arches, and as the temples are almost the only buildings that remain, it is not strange that arches have not oftener been found. The evidence offered by the paintings, the tombs, and the pyramids is conclusive for the existence and antiquity of arches and vaults of brick and stone; and if any remains of houses and palaces had now existed, there is little doubt that the arch would have been of frequent occurrence. We observe that Wilkinson, in portraying an Egyptian mansion (Anc. Egyptians, 2, 131), makes the grand entrance an archway. After this it seems unreasonable to doubt that the arch was known to the Hebrews also, and was employed in their buildings. Palestine was indeed better wooded than Egypt; but still that there was a deficiency of wood suitable for building and for roofs is shown by the fact that large importations of timber from the forests of Lebanon were necessary (2Sa 7:2; 2Sa 7:7; 1Ki 5:6; 1Ch 22:4; 2Ch 2:3; Ezr 3:7; Son 1:17), and that this imported timber, although of no very high quality, was held in great estimation.
Mr. Layard found evident traces of the arch among the Assyrian ruins. He first discovered a small vaulted chamber, the roof of which was constructed of baked bricks placed sideways, one against another, in the usual manner of an arch (Nineveh, 1, 38). He afterward came upon several vaulted drains beneath the palace of Nimroud, built of sun-dried bricks, and finally a perfect brick arch; showing the knowledge of this architectural element among the Assyrians at a very early date (Babylon and Nineveh, 2d ser. p. 163, 164). SEE ARCHITECTURE.
That the Greeks likewise understood the principle of the construction of the arch in very ancient times is evident from monuments as early as the Trojan war (Smith’s Dict. of Class. Ant. s.v. Arcus), a cut of one of which is subjoined.
Triumphal arches were frequently erected by the Roman emperors to commemorate signal conquests, and several such are yet standing. The most noteworthy of these is that of Titus, on the interior of which are delineated the spoils of the Jewish temple.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Arch
an architectural term found only in Ezek. 40:16, 21, 22, 26, 29. There is no absolute proof that the Israelites employed arches in their buildings. The arch was employed in the building of the pyramids of Egypt. The oldest existing arch is at Thebes, and bears the date B.C. 1350. There are also still found the remains of an arch, known as Robinson’s Arch, of the bridge connecting Zion and Moriah. (See TYROPOEON VALLEY)
Fuente: Easton’s Bible Dictionary
Arch
ARCH.It is usually stated that the Hebrews were unacquainted with the architectural principle of the arch, but in view of the extreme antiquity of the arch in Babylonian mason work, as e.g. at Nippur, of the discovery of early arches by recent explorers, and of the vaulted roofs of later Jewish tombs, this view is now seen to be erroneous, although the arch is not mentioned in Scripture. The word arch does, indeed, occur in the EV [Note: English Version.] of Eze 40:16 ff., but this is a mistake for porch, porches. See Temple.
A. R. S. Kennedy.
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Arch
arch (, ‘ayil; Septuagint , ta ailam, in sense of posts or colonnade): Referred to repeatedly in Eze 40:16, but translation is an error for porch or portico. the Revised Version (British and American) gives in marg, or, colonnade. The meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain. The principle of arch construction was known to the Jews and examples of early Jewish rude arches have been found in Palestine. An arched form need not necessarily be constructed with radiating joints; it can be corbelled as at Mycenae (Treasury of Atreus). This type of construction has been found also in Palestine.
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Arch
The word elam occurs only in Eze 40:21-36, and in the A.V. is translated ‘arch;’ but this is judged not to be its meaning, though it is not at all certain as to what it really refers. In the margin it reads, ‘galleries’ or ‘porches,’ elsewhere ‘vestibule,’ and again ‘projection.’