_It may be well for us to state how, in the main, we have shared our work. The one of us--by the accident of the alphabet, second named--has done the larger part of the reading and the whole of the translation required. The first has undertaken more of the constructive side of the book and the whole of the illustrations. We both visited Constantinople, and wish to thank Canon Curtis for help then and since. Mr. Ambrose Poynter has read the proofs. In our text we have thought it well to incorporate so far as possible the actual words of the writers to whom we have referred. The dates when the more ancient authors wrote are given under their names in the index; so are the years of the accession of the Emperors mentioned in the text. Although we have made full use of Salzenberg’s great work in the preparation of some of our illustrations, none are mere transcripts from his book. In some instances where scales are given to details, the scales are but rough approximations._ _Much remains to be observed at S. Sophia; the Baptistery, the Cisterns beneath the church, and the Circular Building to the east are practically unknown, and any fact noted in regard to them will almost certainly be new. But it is still more important that building customs, recipes, and traditions should be recorded. Byzantine art still exists not only on Mount Athos but all over the once Christian East--at Damascus the builders are still Christians, and the Greek masons of Turkey, M. Choisy says, are still the faithful representatives of the builders of the Lower Empire, and their present practice is a sure commentary on the ancient buildings._ _A conviction of the necessity for finding the root of architecture once again in sound common-sense building and pleasurable craftsmanship remains as the final result of our study of S. Sophia, that marvellous work, where, as has so well been said, there is no part where the principles of rational construction are not applied with “hardiesse” and “franchise” In estimating so highly the Byzantine method of building in its greatest example, we see that its forms and results directly depended on then present circumstances, and then ordinary materials. It is evident that the style cannot be copied by our attempting to imitate Byzantine builders; only by being ourselves and free, can our work be reasonable, and if reasonable, like theirs universal._ L’ART C’EST D’ÊTRE ABSOLUMENT SOI-MÊME. CONTENTS CHAPTER I. Byzantium. New Rome, The Acropolis, The Augusteum. First and Second Churches of S. Sophia. _page_ 1 CHAPTER II. Justinian’s Church. Account of Procopius. Fall of Dome and Restoration. Accounts of Agathias and Evagrius. _page_ 21 CHAPTER III. The Descriptive Poem of Paul the Silentiary, Parts 1 and 2. _page_ 35