medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Dear All,
Theresa had asked for parallels to the use of paired columns ("colonne
binate") as rib supports in the nave of Trani cathedral. Similar
structures (not, however, supporting tribunes as at Trani) were cited
from late antique Christian buildings of cylindrical plan: the
fourth-century Mausoleum of Constantina ("Santa Costanza") at Rome and
the sixth-century baptistery (a.k.a. "La Rotonda") adjacent to the
church of Santa Maria Maggiore at Nocera Superiore (SA).
According to the Campania Felix page on the latter monument
http://www.campaniafelix.it/cf_viaggi/i%20luoghi%20dell'arte/battistero_di_s__maria_maggiore.htm
TinyURL for this: http://tinyurl.com/d8h8a
, this use of paired columns is typical of fifth and sixth-century
Christian basilicas from Africa. An example would be the Christian
church in the Forum Vetus at Leptis Magna, described here in English
translation:
http://mediatel.it/liberliber/biblioteca/testiinhtml/riviste/spolia/spoliainglese/archeo1i/02i/lepcis.htm
TinyURL for this: http://tinyurl.com/782u9
esp. this:
"The nave is divided into five spans. The central one is larger than the
others and may have been covered with barrel vaults, supported by
transversal ribs, which rested on colomns arranged in pairs."
But for Trani we need not venture so far afield. Excavations under the
floor of the Mary crypt have revealed that the predecessor church of the
BVM was indeed a late antique, three-nave basilica as shown in the plan
superimposing its outline over an unshaded one of the two crypts:
http://www.mondimedievali.net/Edifici/Puglia/tran10.jpg
This plan, reproduced on p. 34 of Ronchi's _La cattedrale di Trani_,
where it is illustration 13, identified as "Icnografia della chiesa di
Santa Maria" ["Groundplan of the church of Saint Mary"], is apparently
that of the original excavator, Riccardo Mola, whose discoveries Ronchi
summarizes and praises on pp. 19-20. Mola's original report is his
"Scavi e richerche sotto la cattedrale di Trani. Notizie dei
ritrovamenti", _Vetera Christianorum_ 9 (1972), 361-86.
These excavations uncovered plinths showing an identical arrangement of
paired columns right beneath those of the nave of the successor church
dedicated to Nick the Pilgrim. It is these plinths, and not the
twelfth-century reinforcements described by Ronchi (op. cit., pp. 55,
63-64), that are represented by the dark transverse bars of the plan;
presumably, these are shown as single units because each is of a size
and shape suitable for carrying two adjacent columns. Ronchi (p. 61)
agrees that the new church's motif of paired columns was adopted from
its predecessor.
I would have had this sooner were I not misled by Ronchi's account
(pp. 55-56) of the demolition of the church of the BVM (which coin finds
suggest was a late fourth- / early fifth-century structure); this
disagrees with what Ronchi himself has to say on pp. 63-64 about the
form of that early church, is unsupported by argument or external
reference, and was, one hopes, an unintended contradiction.
In any event, the answer to Theresa's question is that double columns
along the nave were a feature of this cathedral's late antique
predecessor and their memory was retained in its construction.
Best again,
John Dillon
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