We do not associate bricks with the Greeks, yet it is certain that among them crude bricks were in general use, especially in the earliest times. At Troy, Tiryns, and other cities of the 'Alyce mean Age, such bricks formed the constructive iron, containing a knife-bearing, revolving cen tral shaft, with curved arms at the bottom to force the clay into the press-box. The molds are sanded, then fed in automatically beneath the press-box. After the molds are filled under pres sure they are moved forward to a delivery table. Stiff-mud machines, as the name implies. treat stiffly tempered clay, which is forced through a die by either a plunger or an auger. The plunger gives bars of clay, of fixed lengths, and the auger a continuous bar or stream, hut in either ease the bars may be cut into brick by means of parallel wires; or in the ease of the anger machines automatic• cutters may be used. and the process made continuous, thus increasing the capacity, and also requiring less power. The auger machines may cut the brick either end material of houses and palaces, together with wood. in fact. this seems to have been the case with the Hittites and other early Mediterranean peoples. For this reason only the stone founda• tions remain of most structures, as crude bricks, when used for thin walls, cannot last. When in historic times the Greeks had in general substi tuted stone for wood, crude brick, and terra cotta in their public buildings, they still often used crude brick for city walls, because, as Pau sanias says, it is "safer against the shock of mili tary engines than either burnt brick or stone." Against such brick ramparts streams of water were used, as in the siege of Mantinea by the Spartans, when a river was turned into the trenches. There were two sizes: inches square for public buildings: inches square for private buildings; and half bricks, to be used in alternate courses. Burned bricksappearhardly to have been used at all by the Greeks until after the Roman conquest. The Greeks called crude bricks plinthoi cnal., and fired bricks plinthoi optai; the Roman names were latcres crudi and coca or cocti/es.
The Romans began by using crude bricks al most exclusively. Vitruvius, Pliny, Columella, Varro, and other Latin authors give interesting details as to their manufacture. An especially choice kind was made in parts of Spain and Asia Minor, so light that they would float in water. They also resisted dampness. It was considered advisable to let bricks dry for two years before use; but the laws of Utica required five years. The best period for manufacture was said to be May, because summer bricks dry so quickly on the surface that they retain an internal damp ness Wilk!11 causes cracks. The Roman brick was smaller than any hitherto made, and the square form was for the first time abandoned. The norm was 12 X 6 inches. NVhcn the Empire began, under Augustus, the Romans had largely substi tuted tired for crude brick in both private and public buildings; and the adoption of concrete for heavy walls, faced with fired bricks, in place of the earlier stone walls, gave permanent promi nence to this kind of brick in construction throughout the civilized world. The modern Ital ian bricks have preserved many qualities of the old Roman ones, which were substantially tiles, beaten flat and dried on the ground, then stacked edgewise in the furnaces on cross-pieces or on the floor itself. Roman brick-furnaces have been found on sites in Italy, Gaul, Germany, England, etc. in laying them, the mortar bed was pre pared first, and the brick laid with both hands. The Romans not only brought back the Babylo nian popularity of brick, hut also revived Baby lonian methods. They added an inscription to their molds, bearing the name of the reigning Emperor, magistrate. contractor, or manufac turer, of great in identifying and dating buildings. They also used a variety of shapes to suit all purposes and constructive forms. Such bricks verge on terra-cotta (q.v.). under which head the combination of plastic earthenware with brickwork will be described. A geographical survey will show that brick did not become equal ly popular in all parts of the Roman Empire. For instance, in Syria, in North Africa. in the
south of France, and in Asia Minor. the Greek tradition of stone construction was maintained nearly intact. When Christian architecture arose, the solid _Roman concrete construction was abandoned, and brickwork became even more prevalent; though stone was still used in the regions just named, except that brick, being adopted at once by Byzantine architecture, drove stone out of most Hellenic lands by the Seventh Century. But the universal decadence affected even brickmaking. All the basilica-1 churches being of brick (except in Syria, etc.), it is easy to compare their quality in different centuries. Often the bricks were drowned in mortar, espe cially in Gaul. Really good brickwork does not return until the Twelfth Century in the West. But meanwhile the good traditions had been maintained in the East, not only by the Bvzan tines, but by the Mohammedans of Persia, Syria, Egypt, etc. The Byzantines soon sought to vary the plain brick exteriors by making a facing of alternate courses of stone or mai•de and bricks, and by laying the bricks so as to form panels and patterns. Churches thus constructed begin to be numerous in the Ninth and Tenth centuries (e.g. Ch. Theotocos, Constantinople; Ch. Apos tles, Saints Bardias and Elias, Saloniea; Mistra churches). It was Byzantine art which invented decorative brickwork, for that of the Romans was always perfectly plain. hence it passed into the Romanesque art of Italy in the Eleventh Cen fair•, through such monuments as Santa Fosca, at Torcello, and San Donato, at :Murano. Then arose the one really decorative school of brick architecture in two main branches, the earlier and finer in northern Italy, the second in north ern Germany. It is true that there is consider able good brickwork in the south of France. Its largest monument, Saint Ternin, at Toulouse, is partly of brick, and the convent of the Jacobins, at Toulouse, is a most artistic brick structure; and wall patterns were sometimes obtained here by bricks of different colors, or a mixture of stone and brick, especially during the Renais sance. But Italy remained preeminently the home of brick construction, and the Lombard school solved the problem of combining it with details in marble and terra-cotta, as well as by inventing a wonderful variety of molded bricks. Its results still serve as models. Mr. Street's book, Brick and Marble Architecture of the Mid dle Ages in Northern Italy (London, 1855), came as a revelation of possibilities. Pavia, Bologna, Cremona, Milan, Bergamo, Brescia, Verona, Vi cenza, and many more cities are full of churches and town halls built entirely in this style, be tween the Eleventh and the Sixteenth centuries. The style reached its culmination in the Gothic period of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth cen turies. The different materials were variously combined. In the Merchants' Exchange at Bo logna. the shafts, tracery, and balcony are of marble, the capitals and archivolts of terra cotta, and the rest of brick; but in many cases most of the detail is obtained purely by pressed bricks. One of the charms in Many eases lies in the uneven sizes and shapes of the bricks made by hand. Of course. brickwork was used also in Tuscany, Umbria, the Roman States, and in other regions, but not as generally or etTectively. Spain also used it largely in the region between Saragossa and Toledo, and so did Flanders. But it was in northern Germany, especially in Bran denburg and Pomerania, that a second original note was struck, throughout the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, in such cities as Ebbed:, Ham burg. Brandenburg. Stralsund, Jeri•how, Bros lau, etc. The great gate-towers are imposing; the churches and houses are characterized by gables—often stepped—of enormous size and a single pitch. There is less variety and richness of detail than in Italy, less combination with marble and terra-cotta. For mention of individ ual buildings, see the historical article on Attent IECTURE.
We have so inherited from the Middle Ages the use of stone for architecture with any pretension to style, that it is only recently that our archi tects have begun to realize the possibilities of brickwork and to study the great works in north ern Italy.