This book represents the first complete study of the octagonal churches
of Late Antiquity (ca. 300-600 C.E.). Starting with the origins of the
type found in small funerary chapels of the fourth century, the book
examines the physical and literary evidence for 35 churches of the type,
which saw its culmination in the construction of the church of San
Vitale in Ravenna, dedicated in 547. Few of these buildings remain
standing; several are known from nineteenth-century reports or more
recent excavations and others are known only from literary sources that
mention or describe them. The study demonstrates the relative rarity of
the type in this period and notes that most of these churches served a
funerary or martyrium function, marking the sites of the death or
burials of certain Christian martyrs. A few were erected as memorial
structures, marking important Christian sites such as the birthplace of
Jesus Christ at Bethlehem and the House of Peter in Capernaum. The
exception is the octagon at Antioch known as the Great Church appears to
have functioned as the cathedral of that city, Numerous architectural
drawings and color photographs illustrate the churches. During the sixth
century, some of these churches were retrofitted to house regular
liturgical services and the new churches of that century were designed
to house both martyr shrines and the standard liturgy. Attention is also
given to the design process of these buildings, noting that their
octagons are usually based on diameters of numbers of feet divisible by
ten and proportional schemes based on simple ratios such as 2:1, 3:2,
and 5:3. The chapter on San Vitale demonstrates how its design was based
on these simple ratios and identifies the unit of measurement used in
its construction as the Byzantine foot. The book is intended for
scholars and students of Byzantine and Late Antique architecture, as
well as for those interested in larger questions of Architectural
History, Byzantine history, material culture, and religion.
