Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 02.djvu/651

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BASILICA.
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BASILICA ÆMILIA.

of similar plan, but connected with theatres, baths, temples, and even palaces and villas. The largest room in sumptuous houses, with a higlier roofed centra! section with windows and two rows of columns fonning lower side-aisles, frc<|uently served wealthy converts to Chris- tianity in the earliest times as a place of wor- ship. As the only type of covered structure suitable for large gatherings was known as a basilica, it was natural that this name should be adopted for Christian churches. The arrange- ments suited the requirements of the Christian liturgj'. The hemicycle Ijceame the apse; the bishop and presbyters sat where the judge and his assessors had been: the congregation could convenient!_y be arranged along the side porticoes or aisles, men on one side, women on the other (nr, in the East, men below and women in the giilleries). The type of Roman basilica, which was walled in on all sides, was selected, not that with open arcades. The main change was the omission of the cross-galleries across the short ends. Tn the article Church, the difl'erent types and names used for the Christian place of wor- ship are given. It is customary tocall all churches built before the Gothic period 'basilicas,' except certain Byzantine domical churches, built in a shape altogether different — squarer than that of the basilicas. Then, when the mediieval builders of the north of Europe developed the transept and the choir, the prevailing type was no longer the basilical. Only in Italy do we find the lirimitive type preserved as late as the Twelfth anil Tliirteenth centuries in certain provinces, es- pecially that around Rome and in Tu.scany. There was greater uniformit.v in Christian Iiasilical churches than there had been in Roman basilicas. The oblong plan gave almost alwaj's a length equal to one and one-half widths or a little over;

BA8IL1CA OF SAINT CLEMENT'S, ROME (RESTORATION).

the two (or four) rows of columns (or very seldom square piers) dividing the nave from the aisles supported sometimes a straight architrave, sometimes a row of narrow arches; the walls were thin, supporting only wooden roofs, with the rafters and frame showing; sometimes there was a narthex or portico at the entrance, and at the opposite end. in the largest basilicas, a cross- nave intervened in front of the apse, in the centre of which stood the altar. The e.arly basilicas had but a single apse, but by the Sixth Century a smaller apsa was often added on either side, developed from the two side-chambers of the ancient basilica, which had become sacristy and treasury in the earliest churches. In the East, the gallery over the aisles was preserved and used for the women, according to the Eastern custom, which required the most rigid separation of the se.xes. In Italy, it was thought sufficient to put them in different aisles, so galleries went out of use as unnecessary. Until the Sixth Century the basilical form ruled everywhere; then the Orient adopted Byzantine models. The best examples of this early period are: Santa Maria Maggiore, Santa Sabina, Santa Agnese, all at Rome; Church of the Nativity at Beth- lehem; Sant' Apollinare Nuovo, Sant' Apolli- uare in Classe, San Francesco, and San Vittore at Ravenna; Saint John at Constantinople; Saint Demetrius at Saloniea, the Croeifisso at Spoleto; the cathedrals at Parenzo, Triest, and Grado. In Central Syria, where there are re- markable ruined Christian towns, deserted ever since the Mohammedan invasion in the Seventh Century, there are imjiortant basilicas at Shakka, Tafka, Kennawat, Sueideh, Kerbet-Hass, El- Barah, Babuda, Rueiha, Der-Seta, Bakuza, Kalb- I.uzeh, Turmanin, Behioh, Kalat-Seman, etc. With a very limited territory, restricted to south- era Europe, the second period of basilical archi- tecture opened in the Seventh Century, with its centre more than ever in Rome, and" depending for its spread upon monasticism and missionary work. In Gaul, Germany, England, and Scandi- navia, the form of the basilical church was spread or introduced; but the decadence of archi- tectural form made the churches erected up to the Eleventh Century of little moment, except in eept good Roman examples, such as Santa Prassede. Then, when the revival came, the old basilical plan, so perfectly and artistically represented by Santa Maria in Trastevere and San Lorenzo iii Rome. San Miniato in Florence, and many others in Central and Southern Italy, was modified so decidedly in most schools as to" take the structure out of the class of basilical churches.


BASILICA (Gk. neut. plur. of /SacriXocis, hasilikos, royal). A legal code publislied by Leo VI. of the Bjzantine Empire at the close of the Ninth or the beginning of the Tenth Cen- tury. Its name is equivalent, in the opinion of some, to Imperial law; but others think it .was given in honor of Basil, the father of Leo. who began the work. It was composed of 60 books. The materials used were Greek translations of the Corpus Juris Civilis of Justinian, commen- taries on the Corpus, and some later laws. In it the influenee of Christianity is very marked, especially with regard to family relations. The best eilition is Hcimbach: Busilicorum Lihri LX. Or. ct Lat., 5 vols. (Leipzig, 1833-50), completed by Zacharia> von Lingenthal, who puljIisheU the Proleiiomena in 1846, and a supplement in 1870. But only about two-thirds of the whole work are extant. Consult: Heimbaeh, "Griechisch-riim- isehes Rccht," in Ersch und Gruber, Encyldop'd- die. Part LXXXVL (Leipzig, 1818-80)"; H.au- bold, Manualc Basilicorum (Leipzig. 1819), a collation of /ustinian with the later law; and Montreuil, Bistoire du droit hyzantin, 3 vols. (Paris, 1843-47).


BASILICA ÆMIL'IA. The finest basilica of Rome, built by L. Æmilius Paulus in B.C. 54 at a cost of $2,400,000 for the purpose of enlarg-