Note 41

Since this upper range of flying buttresses is superfluous as far as the stability of the vaults is concerned, its presence has even been accounted for by mere “timidity” (J. Guadet, Eléments de théorie d’architecture, Paris, n.d., III, p. 188). To explain it as a countermeasure against wind pressure was proposed by K. J. Conant, “Observations on the Vaulting Problems of the Period 1088-1211,” Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 6th ser., XXVI, 1944, pp. 127 f.