. A history of architecture in Italy from the time of Constantine to the dawn of the renaissance. ef char-acteristics, are nearly all in or near the capi-tal city of Palermo. They group themselvesin two distinct divisions according as theirfounders followed the traditions of the conti-nental architecture to which they had become accustomed or were governed by those of the native races whichformed the greater part of their population. Several of the earlierchurches of this period were-transcripts, more or less modified, of thesmaller monuments of the Eastern towns, — a Greek cross inscribedin a
. A history of architecture in Italy from the time of Constantine to the dawn of the renaissance. ef char-acteristics, are nearly all in or near the capi-tal city of Palermo. They group themselvesin two distinct divisions according as theirfounders followed the traditions of the conti-nental architecture to which they had become accustomed or were governed by those of the native races whichformed the greater part of their population. Several of the earlierchurches of this period were-transcripts, more or less modified, of thesmaller monuments of the Eastern towns, — a Greek cross inscribedin a square, divided into square bays, with a central dome, sometimesrepeated in the bays adjacent to the centre, and with three apses onthe eastern side. Such was the interesting church erected about1129 by George of Antioch, the High Admiral of King Roger, whoenjoyed the title of First Noble of Sicily.^ The church was called 1 In the archives of the church the act of endowment, written partly in Greek andpartly in Arabic, is still preserved, by which the admiral endows the church with certain. ^U Fig. 293. Palermo. S. Lebbrosi. 86 ARCHITECTURE IN ITALY Santa Maria del Ammiraglio, but is more commonly known as LaMartorana, from a family of later benefactors. It has been enlargedboth on the east and on the west, but the original construction isstill easily distinguishable. Its plan, like that of the Easternchurches with which its founder was familiar, is a square of aboutthirty-six feet, with four columns forming an inner square of somefifteen feet, from which pointed arches spring across the four sidesof the square, and also to the exterior walls. The interior is thusdivided into nine bays, of which that in the centre is covered by ahigh dome raised on an octagonal drum with pointed windows, thetransition from the square to the octagon being made by roundarched squinches. The four oblong bays, adjacent to the centralbay, are covered by pointed barrel vaults, and form th
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectarchite, bookyear1901
