Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1881 edition. Excerpt: ...Basilica had its upper corridors and rooms. The frieze and walls above the pillars of the nave and below its windows were often clad with mosaics. III. The cancellum, chorus, or choir, for singers and inferior clergy, slightly raised and railed off. Sometimes called the ambon,1 from avafiaivetv, to ascend; or the suggestum, a raised space; our own word, chancel, is derived from the cancelli, or railings. IV. The hierateium or hieron bema, or sanctuarium, answering to the tribune within the apse of the original Basilica. In its centre stood the altar under a canopy, afterwards called a baldacchino.1 The arch between this and the choir was called the Arch of Triumph. It typified the passage from earth to heaven in death, and was generally adorned with mosaics of apocalyptic subject, as in S. Prassede at Rome, where the twenty-four elders are represented in white raiment against a golden ground of light, casting their crowns before the Lord in glory. Round the altar were seats for the clergy and a throne for the bishop: at Torcello it is placed at the centre behind the altar, and the bishop sits as pilot of the nave, navis, or temple-ship. Lord Lindsay calls this sanctuary the transept, but the use of the word is rather confusing to those who are accustomed to markedly cruciform churches. The Chalcidice or transept proper is the horizontal end of the Basilica, between the body and the apse. 'The pulpits or desks are generally understood by the term "ambon "; they w ould be placed here, as the best place for hearing. V. Then the crypt beneath the sanctuary, with the confessio, the tomb or shrine containing relics of the patron saint and others. This was beneath the altar, as in the Apocalypse. In many instances, where a large...
