The Ravenna Baptistery.

pictures . The worst they have suffered has been the destruction—whether wilful , or in part , at least , through the lapse of time , I am not prepared to say—of in some cases external features , such as the Atrium of St . Appolinare in Classis , and the original

front , with its two circular towers , of the Basilica of St . Vitale ; and of internal details in others ; such as , alas ! the loss of some of the inestimable mosaics , and , in the Baptistery , the wilful substitution of dwarf colonettes for the original columns

more than double their heig ht , With the exception of this , the restoration of two of the niches , and some other very trifling matters of detail , the orthodox Baptistery of Ravenna , the earliest , and in many respects the most interesting among her

ecclesiastical edifices , erected , it is said , by Bishop St . Ursus about the year A . D . 380 , and ornamented with mosaics by Bishop Neon , A . D . 430 , has , both in outward appearance and internal decoration , been left untouched since the day it was

completed . Time , however , has wrought one great alteration in it , an alteration the Italian government have undertaken to remove . Partly owing to that geological

phenomenon which causes a continual lowering of the ground between Venice and Ancona , and partly to the accumulation gathered above , the Baptistery has sunk three metres in what below is marsh y ground . To remedy this and save the

building and its mosaics from the dangers that menace it , Signor Lanciani has prepared plans for raising it bodily to the present level of the city . As this will , I believe , be the first ancient edifice any attempt has yet been made to lift , some

description of it may be interesting , both on this account aud the very high importance it possesses in itself . To give as clear an idea as is possible of the form of the building , which externally is of simple brickworkI must ask you to

, imagine a p lain square , with corners rounded off , rising 7 | metres from the ground , and at that hei ght converted into a perfect octagon , terminating in a low eight-sided pyramidal roof of tiles , and having at the spring of four alternate sides

little half domes also tiled , covering the summits of the angles of the square , where they are cut off to form the upper octagon . These half domes are the roots of four

internal niches . The interior line of the ground plan is , in fact , a perfect octagon with large semicircular niches projecting outwards from four alternate sides , but by the concealment on the outside of the set-in , caused by the diameter of the niches

being necessarily so much less than the width of the sides of the octagon from which they spring , as was requisite to bring them within the original square , the outer line of the ground plan and the lower 7 f metres of the building externall

y preserve that form , with , as I have said , rounded angles . Some authors describe this Baptistery as an octagon with five continuous plain sides , and two niches within the other three . So it appeared when they wrote . Two of the niches

have been destroyed , but as distinct traces upon the walls show where they originally stood , they have been carefully restored in exact accordance with the others . The

outside of the building is entirely unornamented with the exception of very simple brick cornices below the lines of the side and central roofs , and on the uj > per part of each wall of the octagon , a blind window —like a sunk panel—having a double

arched top , without any central mullion . On the lower part of one of these panels a small antique marble bas-relief of a warrior on horseback , with the rig ht hand extended , has been let in , but why or when there is nothing to show .

More than half the building which originally stood alone , and will again before long—is hidden by some mean houses , built up against it , and through the first of these , inhabited by the Parroco , one is admittedas if surreptitiouslyalong a

, , passage so narrow that it is almost necessary to walk sideways , into full view of the glorious beauty of the interior '—one mass of mosaics almost from floor to ceiling- and to the squalor in which it is kept . It is like a brilliant jewel thrown on a

dustheap , and soiled by the filth around it-Constantine V . received the opprobrious surname of Copronymus for having by a baby indiscretion sinned against the pun' )' of the font , but here it is in a perennial state of dirt aud defilement . An unsi htly ')

g bestained octagon of marble , a modern addition standing in the centre , encloses » still more modern imitation porp hy ^ sarcophagus , with its lid cut across in tno