The Brochure Series of Architectural Illustration, Vol. 01, No. 03, March 1895: The Cloister at Monreale, Near Palermo, SicilyVarious
History
The Brochure Series of Architectural Illustration, Vol. 01, No. 03, March 1895: The Cloister at Monreale, Near Palermo, Sicily
Various
Architecture -- Periodicals
The personnel of the Cleveland Club is as follows: Benj. S. Hubbell,
president; Harry S. Nelson, vice-president; Herbert B. Briggs,
secretary; Perley H. Griffin, librarian; E. E. Noble, treasurer; W. D.
Benes and Wilbur M. Hall, members of the executive board. The officers
and Robert Allen, Frederick Baird, J. W. Russell, G. B. Bohm, Williard
Hirsh, Ray Rice, Albert E. Skeel, and C. S. Schneider constitute the
charter membership.
Books.
_Church of Sancta Sophia, Constantinople_: A Study of Byzantine
Building. By W. R. Lethaby and Harold Swainson. Macmillan & Co. 1894.
307 pages with illustrations. $6.50.
It seems especially fitting that a notice of Mr. Lethaby's work on the
church of Sta. Sophia, or as he calls it Sancta Sophia, should appear in
the same issue with the beautiful Byzantine capitals from Ravenna, which
we publish this month. In the description of this work from Ravenna, on
another page, the connection is pointed out between Constantinople, the
capital of the Roman Empire in the East, and Ravenna, then the Western
capital.
The work before us is an important and exhaustive study, both
architecturally and historically, of this beautiful building, which Mr.
Van Brunt has called "the central building of the world." Nothing has
ever been done in enriching interiors which approaches in splendor the
best work of the Byzantine builders, and Sta. Sophia, by general
consent, is the most beautiful of the Byzantine churches; but its
exterior is by no means without faults, and its claim for distinction
would fall if supported only by this.
The book takes up in order the history of Sta. Sophia, with citations of
various authorities for statements concerning its early history;
accounts of the various vicissitudes through which it has passed; its
construction, lighting, details, mosaics, etc., all carefully and
conscientiously described, the descriptive portion based on a
painstaking study of the building itself. The illustrations which
accompany the text are numerous and excellent; there is no attempt to
furnish illustrations at large scale, which are already accessible in
Salzenberg.
The monumental work of Salzenberg, which has been the architect's
reference book for Sta. Sophia, is referred to and largely quoted from.
The two articles by Mr. Henry Van Brunt and Prof. A. D. F. Hamlin,
published in _The Architectural Review_, Vol. II., No. 5, and Vol. III.,
No. 2, will be found of considerable interest in connection with Mr.
Lethaby's book.
Club Notes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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