DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61894#0081
Ch. HI.
THROUGH ITALY.
71
churches in the early ages, the position of the
altar, of the episcopal chair, and of the seats of
the clergy, together with the arrangement and
furniture of the chancel and the choir. More-
over some of these churches had been temples,
and many were basilicee or courts destined to
public meetings, and may therefore contribute
not a little to give us clearer ideas of the size and
proportions of such buildings, particularly of
the latter, and of the order observed in the
assemblies held in them. We may perhaps
from them be able to make some conjectures re-
lative to the forms early established in Christian
churches, and to judge how far the ancients
may have thought proper to transfer the rules
observed in civil assemblies to religious congre-
gations.
In the next place, in the churches principally
we may trace the decline and restoration of
architecture, and discover thence which branches
of that art were neglected, and which cultivated
during the barbarous ages. These edifices were
almost the only objects attended to and respected
during that long period, and as most of the
new were erected on the plans of the old, they
became the vehicles, if I may be allowed the
expression, by which some of the best prin-
ciples of Roman architecture were transmitted
THROUGH ITALY.
71
churches in the early ages, the position of the
altar, of the episcopal chair, and of the seats of
the clergy, together with the arrangement and
furniture of the chancel and the choir. More-
over some of these churches had been temples,
and many were basilicee or courts destined to
public meetings, and may therefore contribute
not a little to give us clearer ideas of the size and
proportions of such buildings, particularly of
the latter, and of the order observed in the
assemblies held in them. We may perhaps
from them be able to make some conjectures re-
lative to the forms early established in Christian
churches, and to judge how far the ancients
may have thought proper to transfer the rules
observed in civil assemblies to religious congre-
gations.
In the next place, in the churches principally
we may trace the decline and restoration of
architecture, and discover thence which branches
of that art were neglected, and which cultivated
during the barbarous ages. These edifices were
almost the only objects attended to and respected
during that long period, and as most of the
new were erected on the plans of the old, they
became the vehicles, if I may be allowed the
expression, by which some of the best prin-
ciples of Roman architecture were transmitted