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By now a classic, it presents in a single volume a coherent overall view of the history and the changing character of Early Christian and Byzantine architecture, from Rome and Milan to North Africa, from Constantinople to Greece and the Balkans, and from Egypt and Jerusalem to the villages and monasteries of Syria, Asia Minor, Armenia, and Mesopotamia.
The early Christian period, especially the time between the third and sixth centuries, is one of the most fascinating in church history. The Christianity which developed into a state church in the Roman empire during the fourth century gave new content to traditional Graeco-Roman art and adapted it to changed needs. Different forms of churches, monasteries and baptisms came into being, as did Christian art in paintings, mosaics and sculptures; biblical manuscripts were illustrated and liturgical furnishings and vessels were given new form. Here for the first time in a single volume is an account of architecture sacred and profane, funerary art in catacombs and tombs and especially sarcophagi...
This book explores the way in which church architecture from the earliest centuries of Christianity has been shaped by holy bones - the physical remains or 'relics' of those whom the Church venerated as saints. The Church's holy dead continued to exercise an influence on the living from beyond the grave, and their earthly remains provided a focus for prayer. The memoriae, house-churches and crypts of early Christian Rome; the elaborately decorated monuments containing the bodies of the bishops of Merovingian Gaul; the revival of ring crypts in the Carshingian empire; the crypts, 'tomb-shrines', and later high shrines of medieval England, all demonstrate how the presence of a holy body within a church influenced its very architecture. This is the first complete modern study of this hitherto somewhat neglected aspect of medieval church architecture in western Europe.
Excerpt from From Schola to Cathedral: A Study of Early Christian Architecture, and Its Relation to the Life of the Church The history of Christian architecture can be traced in existing monuments as far back as the fourth century. We find it then already represented by imposing buildings, with a distinct plan and an elaborate system of decoration, presupposing a period of tentative efforts. The record of these efforts lies however beneath the surface. The monumental evidence of them is but slight, and it is only by a search into literary records that we can discern their form and character. It is the object of the present study to bring together this literary material into a shape convenien...
With its official recognition by the Roman state, the Christian community suddenly enjoyed the sympathy of the highest authorities, wide public attention and a great afflux, and with imperial support architectural masterpieces were erected, the Lateran Basilica, St. Peter's and San Paolo fuori le mura, whose dimensions and magnificence bore every comparison with pagan sanctuaries. The great rise in martyr worship furthermore prompted the construction of numerous memorial churches outside the city gates, which at the same time served as burial grounds for believers. Rome was transformed from capital of the Empire to capital of Christianity boasting the tombs of the two prime apostles Peter an...