ABSTRACT
Knowledge transfer in construction may be analysed starting from actual constructions, rather than archival sources. Recent surveying technologies can furnish precise three-dimensional models of complex construction members. This paper deals with a remarkable study case. An idiosyncratic stone-cutting school arose in Valencia in the fifteenth century, specialising in Gothic ribless vaults. The layout of these pieces features typical Late Mediaeval vaulting elements, such as diagonals, tiercerons, and liernes, but its construction does not differentiate between ribs and severies. Pérouse de Montclos remarked the connections of a vault in Assier, in Southwestern France, dated in the 1540s, with Valencian examples. We have prepared a precise survey of the vaults in Assier, using automated photogrammetry. Next, using these surveys, we have analysed the geometrical features of the vaults, comparing them with models of Valencian vaults, confirming that both share similar conceptions and methods, although details in Assier show a freer approach.
