Identifier: monumentsofearly00lowr (find matches)
Title: Monuments of the early church
Year: 1901 (1900s)
Authors: Lowrie, Walter, 1868-1959
Subjects: Christian antiquities Christian art and symbolism Church architecture Church history -- Primitive and early church, ca. 30-600
Publisher: New York, The Macmillan Company London, MacMillan & Co.
Contributing Library: New York Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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Fig. 37. — S. Apollinare Nuovo, Kavenua. Sixth centurj-. of the clergy. This part of the church was known by variousnames according as one or another aspect of it was present to the mind. The name iweshyterium was given it as the place ofthe higher clergy; apsis, exedra, and concha refer to its form;bema refers to the fact that it was raised by several steps abovethe floor of the church; and tribunal (also tribuna), to its like-ness to the platform occupied by the magistrates in the civil 122 ARCHITECTURE basilica. A good deal that belongs to this topic has alreadybeen anticipated incidentally in the course of the precedingparagraphs ; still other subjects which one might expect to findtreated here must be postponed, so far as any detailed descrip-
Text Appearing After Image:
Fig. 38. — S. Maria in Cosmedin, Eome. Eighth century (restoration). tion is concerned, to a later page, —all, that is, which belongsnot so strictly to the architecture as to the furniture of thechurch, as the altar and its ciborium, the chancels, the pulpits,and the seats. In this connection, however, attention needs to be called to THE BASILICA—The Transept 123 the architectural importance of the ciboriiim, or canopy, whichsurmounted the altar. The nearest analogy of the ciborium isto be found in the temple-like structure which frequently sur-mounted a tomb or covered a sarcophagus. The immediatesuggestion of its use was obviously the desire to do honor to the altar by covering it, and by separating it ideally from therest of the building. But, besides this, with the construction ofgreat basilicas there arose an architectural necessity for this orfor some similar device. The altar, no matter what might bethe size of the church, retained always the same very limiteddimensions. O

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