Sexpartite vault

In architecture, a sexpartite vault is a rib vault divided into six bays by two diagonal ribs and three transverse ribs.^[1]

The principal examples are those in the Abbaye-aux-Hommes and Abbaye-aux-Dames at Caen (which were probably the earliest examples of a construction now looked upon as transitional), Notre-Dame de Paris, and the cathedrals of Bourges, Laon, Senlis and Sens; from the latter cathedral the sexpartite vault was brought by William of Sens to Canterbury, and it is afterwards found at Lincoln and in St Faith's Chapel,^[2] Westminster Abbey.^[3]