Encyclopædia americana. A popular dictionary of arts, sciences, literature, history, politics and biography, a new ed.; including a copious collection of original articles in American biography; on the basis of the 7th ed. of the German Conversations-lexicon. Ed. by Francis Lieber, assisted by E. Wigglesworth ...

364 BYZANTINE HYZANZTIE HISTORANS-BYZANTlTNE SCHOOL OF ART.
dinus, intendapt of the palace in Constan- Memoirs of the American Academy, vol.
tinople. We have from him several works 4, p. 413. It is on parchment, and is supon the antiquities of Constantinople. The posed to have been written as early as the
most important of them is On the Offices 13th century. A collation of it is now
and Services appertaining to the Court begun, as we are informed, for the purand the Church of Constantinople (Paris, pose of being transmitted to the learned
1648, folio). —11. Constantinus Porphyro- editor in Germany.
gennetus, or Porphyrogenneta, emperor, BYZANTINE SCHOOL OF ART. After
wrote the life of his grandfather Basilius Constantine the Great had Inade the
Macedo, edited by John Meursius. We ancient Byzantium the capital of the Rohave also a work of his on government, man empire, and ornamented that city,
written for his son, and on the provinces of which was called after him, with all the
the Eastern and Western Empire, besides treasures of Grecian art, a new periother writings and collections. The most od commenced in the history of art.
important treats of the ceremonies of the From this time it became subservient to
Byzantine court. It was edited by Leich Christianity, as the religion of the state.
and Reiske (Leipsic, 1751-54, 2 vols.).- All the productions of heathen artists,
12. After the capture of Constantinople, which formed suitable ornaments for
Ducas wrote a Byzantine history, from Christian cities and temples, were now
1341 to the capture of Lesbos, 1462. —13. employed in the service of the invisible
Anselm Banduri, a Benedictine inonk, God, and art began, by slow degrees, to
left an extensive work on the antiquities rise from its degeneracy, under the influof Constantinople, in which several works ences of Christianity. At the time when
of' more ancient writers are contained.- Constantine converted Byzantium into an
14. Peter Gilles. From him we have imperial residence, splendor and ornament
three books on the Thracian Bosphorus, had already supplanted the simplicity of
and four books on the topography and ancient taste. Asiaticluxury had become
antiquities of Constantinople. —15. Zosi- predominant, and this laid more stress on
mus wrote a Roman history, in six books, richness of material and decoration thanl
from Augustus to Honorius. This work on purity of conception. Architecture,
is of particular importance for the later which adorned the-forltm Jugusteum, in
epochs; published by Reitmeyer(Leipsic, Byzantium, with a fourfold colonnade,
1784).-16. George Phranza died, after and created splendid curice, imperial palthe capture of Constantinople, in a mon- aces, baths, theatres and porticoes, preastery of Corfu. We have firom him served, for a long time, the grand forms
a chronicle of the Byzantine history, in of classic times, and deviated from them
four books, from 1401-77, published by slowly and gradually, at first in the ChrisAlter (Vienna, 1796). tian churches, as a model for which JusA new and highly-improved edition of tinian built the church of St. Sophia, and
this important collection was commenced, decorated it with Oriental magnificence,
in 1828, by that distinguished scholar, in 537. But, even in architecture, the
fMr. Niebuhr, to be published by Weber, costliness and color of the marble was
the well-known bookseller at Bonn in soon considered as of more importance
Gelrmany. Three volumes of this edition, than the proportion of the parts and the
in octavo, have been received in the U. distribution of the columns. There are,
States, and will fully justify the high ex- however, as late as the ninth century, adpectations entertained by the learned of mirable works of Greek architecture, parthis Herculean undertaking. By a sin- ticularly those of Theodosius the Great
gular concurrence of circumstances, the and Justinian. This period was still less
college at Cambridge, Massachusetts, hap- favorable to the simplicity of sculpture.
pens to he possessed of a valuable manu- The mythology of ancient Greece affordscript of one of the Byzantine historians, ed sacred subjects to the statuary. Gods
Michael Glycas, which, as we are inform- appeared in the human form, and the
ed by- a gentleman who has cursorily human figure, in the Grecian model, was
examined it, appears never to have been raised'to the classical ideal. On the
collated, and will furnish several various introduction of the Christian religion,
readings of importance in the emendation sculpture was confined to the imitation
of the text. This MS. is one of a number of nature; afterwards to portraits, and
purchased in Constantinople, and brought to mere purposes of ornament; for Christo the U. States by the Hion. Edward Ev- tianity is averse to sensible representations
erett, in the year 1819, and a particular of the Divinity. Statues of emperors, of
account of which is given by him in the great statesmen and generals, became the