DOI issue:
Rozprawy
DOI article:Żuchowski, Tadeusz J.: Ceremonial and architecture: the origin of papal ceremonial and its influence upon architecture
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.29070#0117
CEREMONIAŁ AND ARCHITECTURE
115
A major change introduced into Byzantine ceremoniał was the ex-
tension of the area designed for performing ceremoniał acts. The interior
of the pałace, conceived of as an integrated system, was included into
ceremoniał structure. The distinctive feature of the imperial residence
was the transitionary character of rooms.ss In emperor Constantine VII
Porphyrogenite's „Book of Ceremoniał" there are numerous instructions,
injunctions, and specifications concerning the movement of the imperial
suitę inside the residential complex. According to the need, the vast
spaces of the pałace were divided by curtains. „The curtain was no
longer a makeshift... It was very effective as a key element of the care-
fully prepared protocol. The curtain was not drawn aside as it is nowa-
days. It barred the way to a greater extent than the door and directed
movement, sińce it was an object which completely concealed what was
the most powerful, that is the emperor."59 It was important to mark,
within the pałace, ceremoniał paths formed by lanes of guard and the
passive part of the ceremoniał society.co Along these routes moved the
„active" suitę, formed according to a meticulously specified order. The
imperial suitę moving along such a path was a closed ceremoniał struc-
ture.
The number of celebrations held outside the imperial pałace was
smali as compared with the acts taking place inside the pałace. The lat-
ter included festive, usually triumphal entries into the city and public
presentations of the emperor together with the suitę in the imperial cir-
cus loggia.
The communication system inside the pałace had to fulfil compli-
cated and increasing ceremoniał reąuirements, which led to successive
extensions of the residence and the introduction of new communication
paths. As a result, a complicated system of ceremoniał and private paths
established on different heights emerged in the Great Pałace.
The fact that some ceremoniał acts were based on grand processions
hełd inside the pałace resulted in the growing importance of stairs in the
residential complex. The Book of Ceremonials makes it evident that
there was a hierarchy of stairs, from official stairs, which had long
straight fłights, sca/ne, and were designed for grand processions, to great
dog-leg stair with landing or with winders, called cocA/en, to private
stairs of the lumaca type (cocA/cu secrehn). The łatter enabled ofhcials
such as the ceremoniarius to take short-cuts at the right moment in
58 The term transitionary space (Transitorik) is taken from H. Rosę, Spćdbaroc^.
<S7ndien znr GescAicMe des Pro/cm&aMes in den JctAren 7660-7760, Miinchen 1922, p. 6-7.
59 HVP (cf. the notę 9), 1, p. 377; see also ibidem, p. 356.
8° Hunger, op. cit., (cf. the notę 51), p. 5 calls it „Domestizierung der Beamtenschaft".
115
A major change introduced into Byzantine ceremoniał was the ex-
tension of the area designed for performing ceremoniał acts. The interior
of the pałace, conceived of as an integrated system, was included into
ceremoniał structure. The distinctive feature of the imperial residence
was the transitionary character of rooms.ss In emperor Constantine VII
Porphyrogenite's „Book of Ceremoniał" there are numerous instructions,
injunctions, and specifications concerning the movement of the imperial
suitę inside the residential complex. According to the need, the vast
spaces of the pałace were divided by curtains. „The curtain was no
longer a makeshift... It was very effective as a key element of the care-
fully prepared protocol. The curtain was not drawn aside as it is nowa-
days. It barred the way to a greater extent than the door and directed
movement, sińce it was an object which completely concealed what was
the most powerful, that is the emperor."59 It was important to mark,
within the pałace, ceremoniał paths formed by lanes of guard and the
passive part of the ceremoniał society.co Along these routes moved the
„active" suitę, formed according to a meticulously specified order. The
imperial suitę moving along such a path was a closed ceremoniał struc-
ture.
The number of celebrations held outside the imperial pałace was
smali as compared with the acts taking place inside the pałace. The lat-
ter included festive, usually triumphal entries into the city and public
presentations of the emperor together with the suitę in the imperial cir-
cus loggia.
The communication system inside the pałace had to fulfil compli-
cated and increasing ceremoniał reąuirements, which led to successive
extensions of the residence and the introduction of new communication
paths. As a result, a complicated system of ceremoniał and private paths
established on different heights emerged in the Great Pałace.
The fact that some ceremoniał acts were based on grand processions
hełd inside the pałace resulted in the growing importance of stairs in the
residential complex. The Book of Ceremonials makes it evident that
there was a hierarchy of stairs, from official stairs, which had long
straight fłights, sca/ne, and were designed for grand processions, to great
dog-leg stair with landing or with winders, called cocA/en, to private
stairs of the lumaca type (cocA/cu secrehn). The łatter enabled ofhcials
such as the ceremoniarius to take short-cuts at the right moment in
58 The term transitionary space (Transitorik) is taken from H. Rosę, Spćdbaroc^.
<S7ndien znr GescAicMe des Pro/cm&aMes in den JctAren 7660-7760, Miinchen 1922, p. 6-7.
59 HVP (cf. the notę 9), 1, p. 377; see also ibidem, p. 356.
8° Hunger, op. cit., (cf. the notę 51), p. 5 calls it „Domestizierung der Beamtenschaft".