translation studies. retrospective and prospective views

trefoils and quatrefoils which extends horizontally across the two side
divisions of the façade and continues to the towers, seemingly cutting off
the vertical course of the composition between the upper third and fourth
tier. Besides, the two square towers which flank the west front add very
little to the vertical upsurge of the design. Their slender appearance,
instead of highlighting elevation, conveys a sense of fragility and
architectural vulnerability partly confirmed by the square unpretentious
turrets and small octagonal pinnacles which crown them. In fact, the glory
and loftiness of Salisbury is in its central fourteenth-century tower and
spire which tops it.
The tall and massive crossing tower and spire which Alec Clifton-
Taylor describes as “disproportionately lofty” (1967: 105) do not
overwhelm the cathedral or spoil the overall impression of the Early Gothic
design. On the contrary, the tall silhouetted tower and the majestic almost
imperial appearance of the spire – the highest in Great Britain according to
the Guinness Book of Records – add to the vertical aspirations of the
ensemble a significant plus. This is due – apart from the impressive height,
404 ft. high – to the structural and decorative design which continues the
architectural and theological program of the façade. Consequently, the
tower is two-storey high pierced by eight two-light windows arranged in
two symmetrical tiers replicated exactly at corners by other eight blind
windows and double blind arcading. The stories are separated by
horizontal bands of lozenge-shaped traceries which allow the structure to
develop both vertically and horizontally, the way it does at Wells. The
great soaring octagonal spire which seems to collect the sacred energy of
the universe above rises aloof from between four diminutive but richly
decorated pinnacles replicated at each angle of the tower by other four
octagonal turrets each crowned with a small crocketed spire. Horizontally,
the lofty spire is carefully trimmed at well-judged intervals with three
carved ornamental bands which repeat the lozenge motif displayed both in
the central tower and on the west front.
Despite the obvious geometrical and numerical symmetry of the
tower-spire ensemble, the structure displays a manifest propensity towards
increased verticality. To the familiar repertoire of steeply pointed arches in
the gables which surmount the windows, pointed blind arcading, vertical
mouldings and slender colonnettes, the Decorated style which was
flowering in the fourteenth century added the ball-flower ornament: a
partly opened flower with a trefoil or quatrefoil opening which held a
slightly visible ball within its cup. The insertion of this ornament within the
continuous hollow mouldings that were grooving along the wall surface of
the tower contributed to creating a series of longitudinal strips which, in
turn, highlighted the axial projection of the tower-spire ensemble. They
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