DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.55582#0161
FnwRome to Naples. 133
of the Arch makes it rise in Height, or
run out in Length $ the Lowness often
opens it in Breadth, or the Defedtiveness
of some other Particular makes any Angle
Part appear in greater Perfeftion. Tho’
every thing in this Church is admirable,
the most astonishing Part of it is the
Cupola. Upon my going to the Top
of it, I was surpriz’d to find that the
Dome, which we see in the Church, is
not the same that one looks upon with-
out Doors, the last of’em being a kind
of Case to the other, and the Stairs lying
betwixt ’em both, by which one as-
cends into the Ball. Had there been
only the outward Dome, it would not
have ihewn it self to an Advantage to
those that are in the Church j or had
there only been the inward one, it would
scarce have been seen by those that are
without; had they both been one solid
Dome of so great a Thickness, the Pil-
lars would have been too weak to have
supported it. After having survey’d this
Dome, I went to see the Rotunda^ which
is generally said to have been the Mo-
del of it. This Church is at present so
much chang’d from the ancient Panthe-
ens as Pliny has describ’d it, that some
have been inclin’d to think it is not the
same Temple» but the Cavalier Ponta-
not
of the Arch makes it rise in Height, or
run out in Length $ the Lowness often
opens it in Breadth, or the Defedtiveness
of some other Particular makes any Angle
Part appear in greater Perfeftion. Tho’
every thing in this Church is admirable,
the most astonishing Part of it is the
Cupola. Upon my going to the Top
of it, I was surpriz’d to find that the
Dome, which we see in the Church, is
not the same that one looks upon with-
out Doors, the last of’em being a kind
of Case to the other, and the Stairs lying
betwixt ’em both, by which one as-
cends into the Ball. Had there been
only the outward Dome, it would not
have ihewn it self to an Advantage to
those that are in the Church j or had
there only been the inward one, it would
scarce have been seen by those that are
without; had they both been one solid
Dome of so great a Thickness, the Pil-
lars would have been too weak to have
supported it. After having survey’d this
Dome, I went to see the Rotunda^ which
is generally said to have been the Mo-
del of it. This Church is at present so
much chang’d from the ancient Panthe-
ens as Pliny has describ’d it, that some
have been inclin’d to think it is not the
same Temple» but the Cavalier Ponta-
not