The Church of Sancta Sophia, Constantinople: A Study of Byzantine BuildingLethaby, W. R. (William Richard)
Religion
The Church of Sancta Sophia, Constantinople: A Study of Byzantine Building
Lethaby, W. R. (William Richard)
Ayasofya Müzesi
The second crown of lights, which hung within the great circle of discs
at S. Sophia, would also have had a circular rim supported by chains
with lamps suspended beneath, or attached to arms projecting from the
rim. S. Bernard speaks of a church where were placed “not crowns but
wheels with precious stones and lights around them.” To these circular
candelabra ecclesiastical writers usually give the title of coronae.
Leo III. gave to the basilica of S. Andrew at Rome a “gold corona of
lamps set with gems.” Other authors call crowns with lamps of this kind
_phara_; we read in Leo Ostiensis of a “pharum or large crown of silver
with six and thirty lamps hanging from it.”[196] They are also spoken
of as _cycli_, but more generally as _polycandela_. The _Chronicon
Cassinense_ mentions “a pharos or crown of silver, weighing a hundred
librae, twenty cubits round about, with twelve towers projecting from
it, and thirty-six lamps hanging from it. This was fixed outside the
choir, before the great cross, by an iron chain adorned with seven gold
apples.”[197] The same chronicle also speaks of a “silver-gilt corona,
coloured with precious stones, with six crosses hanging from it.” The
great circles of Aix and Hildesheim are the best-known examples of the
ancient coronae. These have twelve towers like that just mentioned, and
they symbolised the New Jerusalem. R. de Fleury suggests that relics
were contained in such turrets. An extremely beautiful pharos in the
Hermitage Museum represents a basilica.
[Illustration: FIG. 19.--Corona with Lamp Discs, Mount Athos.]
The light crosses were very generally known throughout Christendom,
and the historian Socrates mentions that crosses of silver with
burning candles upon them were carried in processions in the time of
Chrysostom. According to Anastasius, at S. Peter’s there was a large
pharos “in the form of a cross which hung before the presbyterium
having 1,370 candles;” this was lighted four times a year; also “a
gold carved cross hanging before the altar with twelve candles,”
and “a cross lamp with two little ships and three fishes.” The lamp
cross hanging in S. Mark’s is the best-known example remaining. It
is possible that those at S. Sophia mentioned with the discs hung
horizontally to four chains.
[Illustration: FIG. 20.--Single Lamp with Votive Inscription.]
At S. Sophia, in addition to the discs, crosses, and circles, there
were, according to Du Cange, lamps hung from nets. The word which he
interprets in this way is that translated “skiff” (line 480), as it
means a small row-boat. How he gets his interpretation of nets it is
difficult to see. We mention it here for its intrinsic beauty only: it
was a familiar arrangement for lamps. Anastasius in his Lives of the
Popes speaks of one of the churches at Rome having “a pharos in the
form of a net,” and again of a large pharos “like a net with twenty
baskets,” and also “a bronze net with silver baskets.”
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