DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4324#0010
vi INTRODUCTION.
public the remains of ancient architecture which still exist to attest the former
splendour of the Ionian colonies of Greece.
At the period when the first work of the Society appeared, Grecian architec-
ture was very little understood ; for, although the first volume of the Antiquities
of Athens had been seven years before the public, yet this portion of this justly
celebrated work referred only to buildings of little note, compared with the nobler
productions of the Athenians, and those of very simple construction.
Many of the architectural details of the buildings selected for publication in
the first volume of Ionian Antiquities, where they differed from the better known
specimens of Roman art, were disregarded by the artists attached to the first
mission; and several omissions, the consequence of their more limited means of
excavation and inspection, necessarily occurred.
The attention of the later mission was, in the first instance, directed to the
correction of the errors which had arisen from the imperfect knowledge of
Grecian architecture; and to examine with greater minuteness, by means of
excavations made within and around the buildings, the plans and mode of con-
struction observed in the edifices which formed the subject of the first volume of
Ionian Antiquities.
The researches for this purpose, which were conducted with great science
and ability, have put the Society in possession of more ample documents, both
in general and in detail, relating to the buildings in question ; and have enabled
them to re-publish the first volume of the Antiquities of Ionia, which has been
long out of print, corrected and considerably augmented.
Amongst the additions to our architectural knowledge which the recent pub-
lication on Attica has been instrumental in disseminating, one of the most inter-
esting is the mode, by means of which the Greek architects were enabled to
cover their temples in such a manner as to exclude the wet, without departing
from that depression of the roof, which is one amongst many of the charac-
teristics of Grecian architecture. This has been so fully illustrated, as to leave
nothing further to be desired on the subject
public the remains of ancient architecture which still exist to attest the former
splendour of the Ionian colonies of Greece.
At the period when the first work of the Society appeared, Grecian architec-
ture was very little understood ; for, although the first volume of the Antiquities
of Athens had been seven years before the public, yet this portion of this justly
celebrated work referred only to buildings of little note, compared with the nobler
productions of the Athenians, and those of very simple construction.
Many of the architectural details of the buildings selected for publication in
the first volume of Ionian Antiquities, where they differed from the better known
specimens of Roman art, were disregarded by the artists attached to the first
mission; and several omissions, the consequence of their more limited means of
excavation and inspection, necessarily occurred.
The attention of the later mission was, in the first instance, directed to the
correction of the errors which had arisen from the imperfect knowledge of
Grecian architecture; and to examine with greater minuteness, by means of
excavations made within and around the buildings, the plans and mode of con-
struction observed in the edifices which formed the subject of the first volume of
Ionian Antiquities.
The researches for this purpose, which were conducted with great science
and ability, have put the Society in possession of more ample documents, both
in general and in detail, relating to the buildings in question ; and have enabled
them to re-publish the first volume of the Antiquities of Ionia, which has been
long out of print, corrected and considerably augmented.
Amongst the additions to our architectural knowledge which the recent pub-
lication on Attica has been instrumental in disseminating, one of the most inter-
esting is the mode, by means of which the Greek architects were enabled to
cover their temples in such a manner as to exclude the wet, without departing
from that depression of the roof, which is one amongst many of the charac-
teristics of Grecian architecture. This has been so fully illustrated, as to leave
nothing further to be desired on the subject