§ XI. In less important positions and on smaller edifices, this cornice diminishes in size, while it retains its arrangement, and at last we find nothing but the spirit and form of it left; the real practical purpose having ceased, and arch, brackets and all, being cut out of a single stone. Thus we find it used in early buildings throughout the whole of the north and south of Europe, in forms sufficiently represented by the two examples in Plate IV.: 1, from St. Antonio, Padua; 2, from Sens in France.
§ XII. I wish, however, at present to fix the reader's attention on the form of the bracket itself; a most important feature in modern as well as ancient architecture. The first idea of a bracket is that of a long stone or piece of timber projecting from the wall, as _a_, Fig. XXXIX., of which the strength depends on the toughness of the stone or wood, and the stability on the weight of wall above it (unless it be the end of a main beam). But let it be supposed that the structure at _a_, being of the required projection, is found too weak: then we may strengthen it in one of three ways; (1) by putting a second or third stone beneath it, as at _b_; (2) by giving it a spur, as at _c_; (3) by giving it a shaft and another bracket below, _d_; the great use of this arrangement being that the lowermost bracket has the help of the weight of the shaft-length of wall above its insertion, which is, of course, greater than the weight of the small shaft: and then the lower bracket may be farther helped by the structure at _b_ or _c_.
§ XIII. Of these structures, _a_ and _c_ are evidently adapted especially for wooden buildings; _b_ and _d_ for stone ones; the last, of course, susceptible of the richest decoration, and superbly employed in the cornice of the cathedral of Monza: but all are beautiful in their way, and are the means of, I think, nearly half the picturesqueness and power of mediæval building; the forms _b_ and _c_ being, of course, the most frequent; _a_, when it occurs, being usually rounded off, as at _a_, Fig. XL.; _b_, also, as in Fig. XXXVIII., or else itself composed of a single stone cut into the form of the group _b_ here, Fig. XL., or plain, as at _c_, which is also the proper form of the brick bracket, when stone is not to be had. The reader will at once perceive that the form _d_ is a barbarism (unless when the scale is small and the weight to be carried exceedingly light): it is of course, therefore, a favorite form with the Renaissance architects; and its introduction is one of the first corruptions of the Venetian architecture.