CUSP

technically, the intersection of two curves; hence, in architecture, the intersections of lobed or scalloped forms, particularly in arches (cusped arches) and tracery (q.v.). Thus the three lobes of a trefoil (cloverleaf form) are separated by three cusps. Cusped forms appear commonly in early Islamic work, as in the Mosque of Ahmad ibn Tulun at Cairo (c. 879), and were especially common in the Moorish architecture of North Africa and Spain. The cusp is found occasionally in the Romanesque work of France, as in the chapel of Saint-Michel-d'Aiguilhe, Le Puy-en-Velay, France(10th11th century), where its occurrence may be due to influence from Spain. The form did not become popular in Europe until the Gothic period, during which builders used the cusp universally and frequently enriched it with representations of leaves, flowers, or even human heads at the tip.