SANCTA SOPHIA
CONSTANTINOPLE
“A work as they report surpassing every edifice in the world.”
_William of Malmesbury._
“The fairest church in all the world.”
_Sir John Mandeville._
“A marvellous and costful temple, clept St. Sophie.”
_Capgrave’s Chronicle._
THE CHURCH OF
SANCTA SOPHIA
CONSTANTINOPLE
A STUDY OF BYZANTINE
BUILDING
BY W. R. LETHABY &
HAROLD SWAINSON
[Illustration]
1894
Macmillan _&_ Co. London _&_ New York
RICHARD CLAY AND SONS, LIMITED,
LONDON AND BUNGAY.
_PREFACE_
_Sancta Sophia is the most interesting building on the world’s surface.
Like Karnak in Egypt, or the Athenian Parthenon, it is one of the four
great pinnacles of architecture, but unlike them this is no ruin,
nor does it belong to a past world of constructive ideas although it
precedes by seven hundred years the fourth culmination of the building
art in Chartres, Amiens, or Bourges, and thus must ever stand as the
supreme monument of the Christian cycle. Far from being a ruin, the
church is one of the best preserved of so ancient monuments, and in
regard to its treatment by the Turks we can only be grateful that S.
Sophia has not been situated in the more learned cities of Europe, such
as Rome, Aachen, or Oxford, during “the period of revived interest in
ecclesiastical antiquities.” Our first object has been to attempt some
disentanglement of the history of the Church and an analysis of its
design and construction; on the one hand, we have been led a step or
two into the labyrinth of Constantinopolitan topography, on the other,
we have thought that the great Church offers the best point of view for
the observation of the Byzantine theory of building._
_It may be well for us to state how, in the main, we have shared
our work. The one of us--by the accident of the alphabet, second
named--has done the larger part of the reading and the whole of the
translation required. The first has undertaken more of the constructive
side of the book and the whole of the illustrations. We both visited
Constantinople, and wish to thank Canon Curtis for help then and since.
Mr. Ambrose Poynter has read the proofs. In our text we have thought it
well to incorporate so far as possible the actual words of the writers
to whom we have referred. The dates when the more ancient authors
wrote are given under their names in the index; so are the years of
the accession of the Emperors mentioned in the text. Although we have
made full use of Salzenberg’s great work in the preparation of some of
our illustrations, none are mere transcripts from his book. In some
instances where scales are given to details, the scales are but rough
approximations._
_Much remains to be observed at S. Sophia; the Baptistery, the
Cisterns beneath the church, and the Circular Building to the east are
practically unknown, and any fact noted in regard to them will almost
certainly be new. But it is still more important that building customs,
recipes, and traditions should be recorded. Byzantine art still exists
not only on Mount Athos but all over the once Christian East--at
Damascus the builders are still Christians, and the Greek masons of
Turkey, M. Choisy says, are still the faithful representatives of the
builders of the Lower Empire, and their present practice is a sure
commentary on the ancient buildings._
_A conviction of the necessity for finding the root of architecture
once again in sound common-sense building and pleasurable craftsmanship
remains as the final result of our study of S. Sophia, that marvellous
work, where, as has so well been said, there is no part where the
principles of rational construction are not applied with “hardiesse”
and “franchise” In estimating so highly the Byzantine method of
building in its greatest example, we see that its forms and results
directly depended on then present circumstances, and then ordinary
materials. It is evident that the style cannot be copied by our
attempting to imitate Byzantine builders; only by being ourselves
and free, can our work be reasonable, and if reasonable, like theirs
universal._
L’ART C’EST D’ÊTRE ABSOLUMENT SOI-MÊME.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I. Byzantium. New Rome, The Acropolis, The Augusteum.
First and Second Churches of S. Sophia. _page_ 1