08

HISTORY OF
ARCIIITECTUIIK.
Book. I
Hiitl tlif lolty centre, where a crescent has snpplant'jd tlie cross, rises to the perpendicular
height of 182 ft. above the pavement. Tiie circle which ellci)nipnssts tlie dome lightly
reposes on four strong arches, and their weight is firmly suppoited hy four massy piicb
"
(piers), "whose strength is assisted on the northern and sonti.ern sides by four columns of
Egyptian granite. A Greek cross inscribed in a quadrangle represents the form of tlie
L-diHce; the exact breadth from h, to b. is 231 ft., and 268 ft. from a. to a., or the extreme
length; the width under the dome froin r. to c. is 109'6 ft. The vestibule opened
into the iiarthex or exterior |)oitici>. That portico was the humble station of the
penitents. The nave or body of the church was Hlled by the congregation of the faithful
;
but the two sexes were priulently distinguislied, and the up])er and lower galleries were
allotted for the more private devotion of the women. Beyond the northern and southern
piles" (piers),
"
a balustrade, terminated on either side by the thrones of the emperor and
the patriarch, divided tlie nave from the choir ; and the space, as far as the steps of the
Rltar, was occupied by the clergy and singers. The altar itself, a name which insensibly
became familiar to Cliristian ears, was placed in the eastern recess, artificially built in the
form of a demi-cylinder, and this sanctuary communicated by several doors with the
sacristy, the vestry, the baptistery, and the contiguous buildings, subservient either to the
pomp of worship or the private use of the ecclesiastical ministers." We should be fearful
of thus continuing the (juotation, but that we prefer the language of Gibbon to our own
;
beyond which, the practical knowledge the rest of the descri])tion discloses is not unworthy
the scientific architect, and the subject is the type of the great modern cathedrals, that of
St. Paul, in I.,ondon, among the rest.
"
The memory," he continues,
"
of past calamities in-
spired Justinian with a wise resolution, that no wood, except for the doors, should be admitted
into the new edifice
;
and the choice of the materials was ajipiied to the strength, the light-
ness, or the splendour of the respective parts. The solid piles" (piers) "which sustained
the cujxila were composed of huge blocks of freestone, hewn into s(piares and triangles,
fortified by circles of iron, and firmly cemented by the infusion of lead and quicklime;
but the weight of the cupola was diminished by the levity of its substance, which consists
either of pumice-stone that floats in the water, or of bricks from the Isle of Uliodes, five
times less ponderous than the ordinary sort. The whole frame of the edifice was con-
structed of brick
;
but those base materials were concealed by a crust of marble
;
and the
inside of St. Sophia, the cupola, the two larger and the six smaller semi-domes,
the walls,
the hundred columns, and the pavement, delight even the eyes of barbarians with a rich
and variegated picture." Various presents of inarbles and mosaics, amongst which latter
were seen re])resentations of Christ, the Virgin, and saints, added to the magnificence of the
edifice, and the precious metals in their purity imparted sjdendour to the scene. Before
the building was four feet out of the ground its cost had amounted
to a sum ecpiivalent to
200,000/. sterling, and the total cost of it when finished may, at the lowest
comjiutation, be
reckoned as exceeding one million. In Constantinople alone, the emueror dedicated twenty-