him any artists in mosaic; and the Emperor is said to have availed himself freely of this permission. It is certain that his cathedral of Aix-la-Chapelle was richly decorated with antique marbles and with mosaics, the principal one of which, on the vault of the tribune of the choir behind the altar, is engraved by Ciampini. It represents Christ on His throne in glory, on a gold ground with red stars, and at His feet the Elders and their thrones, according to the fourth chapter of the Book of Revelation.

A.D. 815. The church of St. Maria in Navicella (or in Dominica) at Rome was rebuilt by Pope Paschal I., 815-824, and retains the mosaic on the tribune, representing the Blessed Virgin on a throne, with the infant Christ represented as a little man, surrounded by a group of angels worshipping, and with a small figure of Pope Paschal at her feet, the monogram of his name over his head, and an inscription under the picture recording also that he erected it. Over the arch is a figure of Christ seated, with an oval nimbus to the whole figure, an angel on either side, and beyond these the twelve apostles. The figures are all in white, standing out against a blue sky, and with green earth under their feet, covered with plants and red flowers of a conventional foliage. In the spandrels of the arch are two larger figures of prophets, each with the right arm extended pointing to Christ.

A.D. 818. The church of St. Praxedes at Rome was rebuilt from the foundations by Pope Paschal I. Over the triumphal arch is a group of small figures representing the scene described in the seventh chapter of the Apocalypse. In the centre is the holy city, with Christ and the apostles within the walls, and angels at the gates, towards which a crowd of martyrs carrying their crowns, and saints with palm-branches are approaching; these are represented in the costume of monks.

In the church of SS. Cosmas and Damianus is another tribune, with a fine mosaic bearing the monogram of Pope Paschal, representing in the centre a tall figure of Christ, with SS. Peter and Paul, St. Praxedes, Pope Paschal with a model of the church, St. Pudentiana, and St. Zeno. Under the feet of these figures is the river Jordan, and beneath this the thirteen sheep, the central one with a nimbus and standing on a mound, with the holy city at the two extremities of the picture, and under the whole an inscription :

"EMICAT AULA PIA E VARIIS DECORATA METALLIS
PONTIFICIS SUMMI STUDIO PASCHALIS ALUMNI

PLURIMA SANCTORUM SUBTER HAEC MAENIA PONIT
PRAXEDIS DOMINO SUPER AETHRA PLACENTIS HONORE
SEDIS APOSTOLICAE PASSIM QUI CORPORA CANDENS

FRETUS UT HIS LIMEN MEREATUR ADIRE PILARUM.”

Translation.-"This holy fabric, which shines with varied metals, was decorated by the care of the sovereign Pontiff Paschal: he places under these walls the bodies of several saints, in honour of Praxedes, pleasing to the Lord above the heavens; he who occupies the apostolical seat buries their bodies in the certain hope of being raised to heaven by their merits."

348

Mosaics,

A.D. 810. The chapel of St. Zeno, in the church of St. Praxedes, was built

Chapel of St Zeno, A.D. 810.

The picture over the arch repre

sents a series of heads and busts, each in a circular nimbus: in the outer

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circle Christ and the apostles, in the inner one the Blessed Virgin, with the brothers SS. Novatus and Timotheus, and the virgins SS. Praxedes and Pudentiana, and other female saints of that illustrious family. The interior of this chapel is also ornamented with a series of mosaics, which are engraved by Ciampini,

A.D. 820. The church of St. Cecilia in Rome, beyond the Tiber, was built from the foundation by Paschal I., and restored by Clement VIII. The mosaic of the tribune bears the monogram of Paschal; it represents figures of Christ, blessing in the Oriental manner, with three fingers erect ;-from this and from the vestments, and the style of drawing, it appears to have been the work of Byzantine artists;-to the right of Christ are St. Paul, St. Agatha, and Pope Paschal with the model; to the left St. Peter, St. Cecilia, and a symbolical figure of the Church.

A.D. 828. The church of St. Mark, at Rome, was founded in 337, by Pope Mark I., rebuilt by Hadrian I., and adorned with mosaics in 774; but entirely rebuilt and again ornamented with mosaics in 828, by Pope. Gregory IV. Nothing can be more decided upon this point than the words of Anastasius:-" A fundamentis prius ejecit et postmodum novis fabricis totam ad meliorem cultum, atque decorum perduxit, absidamque ipsius prænominatæ Basilicæ musivo aureis superinducto coloribus cum summa gratulatione depinxit." The name of Gregory is also introduced, in the form of a monogram, in the border over the principal figure, and the inscription at the foot is still more decisive:-" Vasta tholi firmo sistunt fundamine fulchra, Gregorius Marce eximio cui nomine quartus." The drawing and colouring of the figures is also of the ninth century, yet this mosaic is commonly attributed to the eighth, and by some to the fourth. The subjects are, on the vault of the tribune seven figures, with the Jordan and sheep under their feet, and the inscription; the central figure is Christ in the act of benediction after the Greek form, on his right hand St. Felicissimus, St. Mark the Evangelist, and St. Gregory carrying the model of the church; on His left St. Mark the Pope, St. Agapetus, and St. Agnes, each with the name inscribed under the feet; the sheep are, as usual, twelve, with a central one raised on a rock, and with a nimbus on which are the Greek letters A. P. T., arranged in the form of a cross, the P over the head; at the two extremities are Jerusalem and Bethlehem, with their names inscribed. Over the arch of triumph is a bust of Christ, with a cruciform nimbus, and the four evangelistic symbols; and in the spandrels on the sides of the arch figures of St. Peter and St. Paul, the right hand of each extended, the left clasping a scroll or book. The whole has the character of Byzantine art.

A.D. 858. The church of the Blessed Virgin Mother (St. Maria novæ urbis) was entirely rebuilt by Pope Leo IV., and adorned with mosaics, as is distinctly stated by Anastasius:-" Ecclesiam autem Dei Genitricis, semperque Virginis Mariæ, quæ primitus antiqua, nunc autem nova vocabatur,

quam Dominus Leo IV. Papa a fundamentis construxerat, sed et picturis eam decoratam iste Beatissimus Præsul pulchris, et variis dipingi coloribus, augens decorem, et pulchritudinem, corde puro ornavit speciebus." The principal figures on the vault of the apse are,—the Blessed Virgin seated on a throne and richly attired, in her left arm the Christ, as a little man, not as an infant, on her head a crown of Byzantine form; on her right St. James and St. John, on her left St. Peter and St. Andrew, each with his name under his feet: and all the figures under the arches of a small wall arcade; the central arch, over the head of the Virgin, is ornamented with jewels, the next on either side with the billet, (the earliest example of this ornament we remember to have met with,) the two outer arches with a scroll ornament; the pillars or shafts have a twisted ornament on them, the capitals are a rude and barbarous attempt at Ionic, and the bases are ornamented with foliage and panels. The character of the work is altogether Byzantine. The passage quoted above is from the Life of Pope Nicholas I., A.D. 858-868, and demonstrates that the church, which had been rebuilt by Pope Leo IV. ten years before, was decorated with mosaics by Pope Nicholas I., and the work shews that Greek artists were then employed at Rome. It is believed to be the earliest example in Italy of the practice, afterwards so common, of placing each of the figures under a separate ornamented arch, serving as a canopy, and the origin of the ornamental niche.

After the close of the ninth century we have an entire blank for two centuries, during which not a single mosaic picture remains at Rome, or at least has been noticed; the art appears to have taken refuge entirely at Byzantium. At Rome the tenth and eleventh centuries were a period of perpetual civil war and destruction, and we have no buildings remaining of that period, and scarcely any notices that any were erected. In other parts of Italy, and indeed of Europe, things were not much better; the whole of Europe was overrun by hordes of uncivilized barbarians, and there seems to have been everywhere an interval of at least a century between the utter ruin of Roman art and the beginning of the revival, which was grounded on the imitation of Roman remains; during the tenth century there seems to have been everywhere almost an entire cessation of building in stone. The revival began earlier in some places than in others: it may be dated generally from the beginning of the eleventh century, and Rome appears at that time to have been rather behind than in advance of the rest of Europe.

(To be continued.)

MATERIALS FOR THE BOOK OF MARTYRS a.

UNTIL the arranging and calendaring of the public records has been accomplished, our best materials for a history of the Reformation must unquestionably be the laborious collections of Foxe, Burnet, and Strype, which have the great advantage over their future rivals of being in print, and therefore more readily consultable. This advantage, however, is by no means as great as it would be, had these writers been men of accurate and enlightened views, or had their works ever been fortunate enough to meet with editors possessing a tithe of the research and diligence which Mr. Nichols has exhibited in his lately issued Camden volume. The shortcomings of Burnet are well known, but we are not concerned with them here; it is of Foxe and Strype that we would speak, upon whose execution of an important task a strong light is thrown by the work before us. This is an exact reprint of a number of papers formerly belonging to John Foxe, and now (with one exception) in the British Museum, after having been long in the hands of Strype. Mr. Nichols' introductions to each shew how carelessly they were employed, or altogether neglected, first by the one and then by the other; how Foxe has sometimes misread his papers, and how Strype has modernized them; and how recent writers have been misled into according a degree of deference to Strype, as an original authority, which he by no means deserved. The result is, the expression of a wish, rather than a hope, that Strype should be not merely revised, but remoulded and rewritten. His documents are shewn to need careful collation, being both imperfect and incorrect, and his narrative requires an entire re-arrangement, not because it is often prejudiced or intentionally unfair, but because it is frequently confused in arrangement, imperfect in information, and obsolete in style :

"By printing "The Diary of Henry Machyn' in its integrity the Camden Society has already made public one of the most curious sources of Strype's information, and the present volume may be regarded as a further instalment towards a critical edition of the documents employed by Strype. There are few historical students who will not prefer to read the ipsissima verba of the actors and sufferers in the perilous days of the Reformation rather than any modern version of their histories; and, though most of the writers in the present volume are shockingly astray from any recognised standard of orthography, yet it is well that at least one edition of their narratives should be printed as they themselves penned them."-(p. xix.)

The volume is made up of—

I. The Reminiscences of John Louth, Archdeacon of Nottingham.

"Narratives of the Days of the Reformation, chiefly from the Manuscripts of John Foxe the Martyrologist; with two Contemporary Biographies of Archbishop Cranmer. Edited by John Gough Nichols, F.S.A." (Small 4to., xxviii. and 366 pp. Printed for the Camden Society. 1859.)