DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42497#0303
The manner of constructing walls at different periods is of the
greatest importance for the elucidation of the history of architecture,
more especially in Rome, where the difference of construction of
each period is so very marked. Even in England and France it is
usual for experienced eyes to read off the date of a building at
sight, within twenty years. In Rome, the distinctions are so much
more broad and marked, that it is far more easy. The great oblong
blocks of tufa mark the time of the Kings, the massive walls of con-
crete or rubble mark that of the Republic, and the concrete with the
surface faced with brick, or reticulated work, or marble, that of the
early Empire, each as a rough general rule. In England, the mould-
ings are considered as the only safe guide to the date of a building,
but the construction should be considered also, no one feature can
be depended on by itself. The same mouldings are often used
again, when the church has had a vault with a clerestory added, as
was frequently the case in the latter part of the twelfth century and
the beginning of the thirteenth. In Rome, we have to do with build-
ings perhaps fifteen hundred years older than any we have in Eng-
land, and although the same habit of careful observation applies
everywhere, in the earlier period we have no mouldings at all, unless
a flat projecting cornice or string-course can be so called. We must
therefore rely on the construction only, and then we must always
bear in mind the quarries from which the stone was taken ; but as in
Rome we know that the early Romans had not access to any quar-
ries but those in Rome itself, or the immediate neighbourhood, for
the first hundred years, we may expect that where we find tufa alone
used, and a rude mode of construction without mortar (for lime-stone
also was very scarce in that district), we have to do with buildings
of the first century of Rome. After the conquest of Alba Longa, at
about the end of that century, peperino was added from the quarries
in the Alban hills. After the lapse of another century, the sperone
came in from the quarries at Gabii, in the time of the Tarquins, and
the early part of the Republic. The excellent lime-stone called
travertine, from the quarries at Tivoli, did not come into general use
in Rome until four centuries later, and was soon followed by marble
greatest importance for the elucidation of the history of architecture,
more especially in Rome, where the difference of construction of
each period is so very marked. Even in England and France it is
usual for experienced eyes to read off the date of a building at
sight, within twenty years. In Rome, the distinctions are so much
more broad and marked, that it is far more easy. The great oblong
blocks of tufa mark the time of the Kings, the massive walls of con-
crete or rubble mark that of the Republic, and the concrete with the
surface faced with brick, or reticulated work, or marble, that of the
early Empire, each as a rough general rule. In England, the mould-
ings are considered as the only safe guide to the date of a building,
but the construction should be considered also, no one feature can
be depended on by itself. The same mouldings are often used
again, when the church has had a vault with a clerestory added, as
was frequently the case in the latter part of the twelfth century and
the beginning of the thirteenth. In Rome, we have to do with build-
ings perhaps fifteen hundred years older than any we have in Eng-
land, and although the same habit of careful observation applies
everywhere, in the earlier period we have no mouldings at all, unless
a flat projecting cornice or string-course can be so called. We must
therefore rely on the construction only, and then we must always
bear in mind the quarries from which the stone was taken ; but as in
Rome we know that the early Romans had not access to any quar-
ries but those in Rome itself, or the immediate neighbourhood, for
the first hundred years, we may expect that where we find tufa alone
used, and a rude mode of construction without mortar (for lime-stone
also was very scarce in that district), we have to do with buildings
of the first century of Rome. After the conquest of Alba Longa, at
about the end of that century, peperino was added from the quarries
in the Alban hills. After the lapse of another century, the sperone
came in from the quarries at Gabii, in the time of the Tarquins, and
the early part of the Republic. The excellent lime-stone called
travertine, from the quarries at Tivoli, did not come into general use
in Rome until four centuries later, and was soon followed by marble