Identifier: historyofarchit01cumm (find matches)
Title: A history of architecture in Italy from the time of Constantine to the dawn of the renaissance
Year: 1901 (1900s)
Authors: Cummings, Charles Amos, 1833-1905
Subjects: Architecture
Publisher: Boston, New York, Houghton Mifflin and company
Contributing Library: PIMS - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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s of theouter aisle contigu-ous on either side.The present exteriorwall is built in be-tween the colunmsand piers of the outerring. This churchwas built at a periodwhen the resourcesof the popes weremuch reduced andwere no longer rein-forced by the treas-ury of the emperors;the materials anddecoration indicatethis. All the detailsare of the simplest description.^ The construction of the churchillustrates the same fact. Not only in the East, where the scienceof building was now in a high degree cultivated, but also in Italy,the circular buildings of this date and earlier were almost invariablyroofed with a central dome. In the present instance even thewooden roof of the central space proved too serious a ))ioblem for thebuilders, for at some date not now determinable a wall was carriedacross that space, supported by three arches, in order to give a cen-tral bearing to the roof timbers. The stilt-blocks which surmountthe capitals of the outer ring are similar in profile to those of Sti.
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Fig. .54. S. hjtefano Rotondo. ^ Yet a lialf century later, under Pope.Tolin I. and liis successor Felix, the church wasadorm-d witli mosaics and rit-h marbles, and was said to have been one of the most splen-did churolus in Home. KAULY CliinsriAN AUCIIIlKCTrUK Hi Anj:^cH at Itiugia, and their usu iiidii-ates the presence of Ryz«intinebuililers. The importanb church of San Vitalo at Havcniia is nearly con-teini)orary with the buildings of Theodoric ; havin<^ been, s. vitaie.according to some authorities, actually begun before his Ravenna,death, in l)2i). This seems improbable. There is, however, nodoubt that the church was closely contemporary with the buildingof S. Sofia at Constantinoi)le. According to Agnellus, Ecclesius,bishop of Ravenna, making a visit to the Eastern capital in 525, incompany with Pope John 1., was so impressed by the magnificenceof the Eastern churches in process of buikling that he returned fullof emulation, bringing with him Julianus Argentarius (Julian th

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