"On both the northern and southern sides of the square, in the interior of the church, is a grand vestibule forming a square on the plan ; the roof of each consists of three hemicylindrical vaults extending from north to and of another vault of the same kind crossing the former at right angles through the middle, and forming, by their inter sections, three groined arches ; these vaults are supported by massive pillars, which have bases, but no plinths ; the upper part of their capitals resemble the volutes of the Ionic order, but the lower part seems to be a barbarous of the Corinthian base. Above these vestibules are galleries exactly similar to them, and, probably, appropriated to women during the performance of divine service. The whole church is surrounded by cloisters, and enclosed by four walls, forming one great rectangle on the plan. The exterior does not correspond with the internal grandeur of the edifice, being surrounded by clumsy buttresses. The entrance is by a portico as long as the church, and about 36 feet wide ; this is ornamented with pilasters, and com municates with the interior by five doorways of marble, sculptured with figures in bas-relief. Contiguous to this vestibule, and parallel to it, is another, which has nine doorways of bronze.
• After twenty years, the Eastern dome was thrown down by an earthquake, but it was immediately restored by the persevering industry of Justinian ; and it now remains, after a lapse of thirteen centuries, a stately monu ment to his fame." The next description, that of S. Vitale, Ravenna, is given by Gwilt, in his Encyclopaedia of Architecture.
The exterior walls are forme(' in a regular octagon, whose diameter is 1',2S feet. Within this octagon is another concentric one, 54 feet in diameter, from the eight piers ' whereof-55 feet in height—a hemispherical vault is gathered over. and over this is a timber conical roof. The peculiarity exhibited in the construction of the cupola is, that the spa ndrils are filled in with earthen vases, and that round the exterior of its base, semicircular-headed windows are introduced, each of which is subdivided into two aper tures of similar forms. Between every two piers 'lend cu lindrical recesses are formed, each covered by a semi dome, whose vertex is 4S feet from the pavement, and each of them contains two windows, subdivided into three spaces by two columns of the Corinthian order, supporting semi circular-headed arches Between the piers and the external walls are two corridors, which surround the whole building, in two stories, one above the other, each covered by hemi . cy lindt kid vaulting. The upper corridor, above the vault, is with a sloping or lean-to roof."
• Mr. Hope adds the following particulars :—" S. Vitale," say s he, " built under Justinian in 534, announces itself at first sight as a work of Greek architects, and a kindred pro duction with S. Sophia, and the others of Constantinople. Its form, round without, though octagonal within ; its two tiers of arcades supported on pillars ; its larger arcades or apsides, containing lesser arches or pillars; its square capi tals, pal thy of basket-work, and its coating of :Mosaic, at once complete the resemblance and establish the relationship." The next descriptions, of S. Ciriaco, at Ancona, and S. Nark's, Venice, are taken from Nr. Gally Knight's beau . tiful work on the Ecclesiastical Architecture of Italy.
" Ancona was one of the towns of Italy which remained longest in the hands of the emperors of the East. infidrins us, that in the year 1174 Ancona was governed by au officer appointed by the Emperor Comnenus, and he adds, that the Emperor Frederick saw with impatience that rem nant of Oriental power in the heart of the 'Western Empire. These circumstances will sufficiently account for the plan and style of S. Ciriaco, which, constructed under the domi nation of the Greeks, is Greek in all its parts.
"No certain record of the date of this building has been preserved, hut from an inscription still extant, it appears that the bodies of SS. Ciriaco, Marcellino, and Liberio, were deposited in the crypt of this church in the year 1097. Almost invariably, when the bodies of saints were trans lated, a new church was prepared for their reception, and the translation usually took place when the building was suffi ciently advanced for the performance of divine service, but before the work was entirely completed. further find, that Bernard. Bishop of Ancona, consecrated a high-altar in I 1.2S, and that in 1189, Bishop Beraldus added a chapel, and encrusted the walls of the interior of the church with 3 marl de. From all these circumstances, it may be inferred, that this cathedral was begun about the middle of the eleventh century, and completed in the course of the twelfth. It is highly probable that the Saraecns, who landed at Anemia in 9S3, and extensive devas. tations, maltreated the cathedral, which was then in exist ence, and mule it necessary to provide another in peaceable times.
"The cathedral was originally dedicated to S. Lawrence, and retained that name till so late as the fourteenth century, but finally the local filvourite obtained the ascendant. The body of S. Ciriaco was originally imported from the East by the empress Galla Placidia in the fifth century, and by her deposited in the cathedral which then existed it Ancona.