Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/433

the fall of the ground the upper galleries are on a level with the road at *ihe aast end, and vere originally entered from it. St Cross originally had similar galleries above the

arcade.

FIG. 11. Ground-Plan of Basilica of St Acmes at Rome. 1. Steps down to the church. 2. Narthcx. 3. Nave. 4. Side aisles with gal leries above. 5. Altar. 6. Bishop s throne. 7. 7, 7. Modern chapels.

FIG. 12. Section of Basilica of tit Agnes at Rome.

Though inferior in size, and later in date than most of the basilicas already mentioned, that of St Clement is not surpassed in interest by any one of them. This is due to its having retained its original ritual arrangements and church-fittings more perfectly than any other. These fittings have been removed from the earlier church, lying below the existing building, which at some unknown date and for some unrecorded reason, was abandoned, filled up with earth, and a new building erected upon it as a founda tion. The most probable account is that the earlier church was so completely overwhelmed in the ruin of the city in 1 084, when Robert Guiscard burnt all the public buildings from the Lateran to the Capitol, that it was found simpler and more convenient to build a new edifice at a higher level, than to repair the old one. The annexed plan and view show the peculiarities of the existing building. Tho church is preceded by an atrium, the only perfect example remaining in Rome, in the centre of which is the cantharus, or fountain for ablutions. The atrium is entered by a portico made up of earlier fragments very carelessly put together. The chorus cantorum, which occupies about one- third of the nave is enclosed by a low marble screen, about 3 feet high, a work of the 9th century, preserved from the old church, but newly arranged. The white marble slabs are covered with patterns in low relief, and are decorated with ribbons of glass mosaic of the 1 3th century. These screen-walls stand quite free of the pillars, leaving a pas sage between. On the ritual north stands the gospel-ambo, of octagonal form, with a double flight of steps westwards and eastwards. To the west of it stands the great Paschal candlestick, with a spiral shaft, decorated with mosaic. Opposite, to the south, is the epistle-ambo, square in plan, with two marble reading-desks facing east and west, for the reading of the epistle and the gradual respectively. The sanctuary is raised two steps above the choir, from which it is divided by another portion of the same marble screen. The altar stands- beneath a lofty ciborium, supported by marble columns, with a canopy on smaller shafts above. It retains the rods and rings for the curtains to run on. Behind the altar, in the centre of the curved line of the apse is a marble episcopal throne, bearing the monogram of Ana- stasius who was titular cardinal of this church in 1 108. The conch of the apse is inlaid with mosaics of quite the end of the 13th century. The subterranean church, disinterred by the zeal of Father Mullooly, the prior of the adjacent Irish Dominican convent, is supported by columns of very rich marble of various kinds. The aisle walls, as well as those of the narthex, are covered with fresco-paintings, of various dates from the 7th to the llth century, in a mar vellous state of preservation. (See St Clement, Pope and Martyr, and his Basilica in Rome, by Joseph Mullooly, O.P., Rome, 1873).

FIG. 13. Plan of Basilica of St Clement in Rome. 1. Porch 2. Atrium 3. Nave 4. Aisle for men 5. Aisle for women, n. Chorus cantorum. 7. Altar 8. Gospel ambo 9 Epistle ambo 10. Confessio 11. Bishop s throne.

FIG. 14. Interior of St Clement, Rome.

Out of Piome the most remarkable basilican churches are

the two dedicated to St Apollinaris at Ravenna. They are of smaller dimensions than those of Rome, but the design and proportions are better. The cathedral of this city, a noble basilica with double aisles, erected by Archbishop Ursus, 400 A.D. (Agincourt, pi. xxiii., No. 21), was unfortunately destroyed on the erection of the present tasteless building. Of the two basilicas of St Apollinaris, the earlier, S. Apollinare Nuovo, originally an Arian church erected by Theodoric, 493-525, measuring 315 feet in length by 115 feet in breadth, has a nave 51 feet wide, separated from the single aisles by colonnades of twenty- two pillars, supporting arches, a small prismatic block bearing a sculptured cross intervening with very happy effect between the capital and the arch. The clerestory wall is not stilted to the excessive height of the Roman

examples. Below the windows a continuous band of saintly