En (1229)

GLOSSARY.
1207
stone, and composed of the richest tabenmcle work, of niches, finiuls, and pcici^tals,
supporting statues of the tutehiry saints. Those to the high altars of Winchester Callie-
drai, of St. Alban's Abbey, and of New College at Oxfnrd, are fine examples. Many were
destroyed at the Reformation, or filled up with plaster and covered with wainscot.
In many altar-screens a door was placed on each side of the altar for the officiating
priests, whose vestments were deposited in an apartment behind the screen.
Ai-TAB Tomb. A tomb of a square box-like form, raised some 3ito 6 feet in height .above
the ground. On it is usually seen a sculptured recumbent representation of the deceased.
These effigies are often placed under an arch, sometimes richly canopied.
Alto Relievo. See Relievo.
Alure. a gutter, passage, or gallery, as on the top of a wall or building, being one in
which a person could walk. Lydgate used the woid for covered walks in the streets.
Ambitits. a space which surrounded a lomb, and was held sacred. In descriptions, of
subterranean tombs, it denoted a small niche made in the wall for the reception of an
urn or body. When the corpse was placed in it, to the mouth of the niche a slab was
fixed, so fitted and cemented as to prevent noisome effluvia. The slabs were sometimes
inscribed with the name and quality of the paity. If they received an urn, either upon
that or over the niche the inscription was placed. Much decoration was occasionally
used in the recesses themselves.
Ajibo. (Gr. A/Xj8coi/.) The elevated place or pulpit in the early Christian churches, which,
according to Ciampini, fell into disuse about the beginning of the fourteenth century.
The last erected ambo in Rome is supposed to have been that of S. Pancrazio, on which
appears the date of 1249. It was an oblong enclosure, with steps usually at the two
ends. Two ambones are described by Eustace in the cathedral at Salerno. They are
placed on each side of the nave before the steps of the chancel, and are both of
marble, the largest being covered with mosaic work and supported by twelve Corinthian
granite columns.
Ambrey. See Aumbeye.
Ambulatio. (Lat.) See Pteroma.
Ambulatory. (Lat.) A sheltered place for exercise in walking : a cloister; a galler}'.
Amfhibrostyle. (Gr. Aix(pt, both or double, irpo, before, crrvKos, a column.) A term ap-
plied to a temple having a portico or porch in the rear as well as in the front, but with-
out columns at the sides. This species of temp'e never exceeded the use of four columns
in the front and four in the rear. It diffijred from the temple in autis, in having
columns instead of antae at the angles of the portico. Such was the temple of Niko
Apteros at Athens. See Temple.
Amphitheatre. (Gr. A_u(fi, about, and dtarpov, a theatre.) An edifice formed by the junc-
tion of two theatres at the proscenium, so as to have seats all round the peripiiery, a
contrivance by which all the spectators being ranged about on seats rising the one above
the other, saw equally well what passed on the arena or space enclosed by the lowest
range of seats, whose wall towards the arena was called the pidkuii. The origin of the
amphitheatre seems to have been among the Etruscans, to whom also are attributed the
first exhibitions of gladiatorial fights. It was from this people that the Romans
acquired a taste for such shows, which they communicated to every nation which became
subject to their dominion. Athenseus says, "Romani ubi prinmm ludos facere ccepe-
runt, huic asciti artifices ab Etruscis civitatibus fuerunt, sero autem ludi omnes qui nunc
a
Romanis celebrari solent sunt inslituti." Lib. iv. c. 17. The most extraordinary
edifice
remaining in Rome, we may indeed say in the world, is the amphitheatre gene-
rally called the Coliseum. It was commenced by Vespasian, and completed by Titus liis
son. Words are inadequate to convey a satisfactory idea of its stupendous and gigantic
dimensions.
Ammianus says that it was painful to the eye to scan its summit; "ad
cujus summitatem segre visio humana conscendit." Martial, in one of his epigrams
says,
"Omnis Cjesareo cedat labor ampliitheatro,
Uuiim pro cunctis fama loquatur opus."
The
greater axis of the ellipsis on which it is planned is about 627 feet, and the lesser
520 feet, the height of the outer wall about 166 feet, such wall being decorated l)y the
Doric, Ionic, and
Corinthian Orders, and pierced with arcades between the column3.
Covering
five
English acres and a quarter, it was capable of containing the vast
number of 87,000
persons. It has suffered much from having been used actually as -d
quarry for many of the modern edifices of the city
;
but in the present day its pre-
servation is strictly
attended to by the papal government. A description of this building
has been
o-iyen in p.
94 ct scg. Besides the Coliseum, there were three other amphi-
theatres in Rome : the Amphitheatrum Castrense, on the Esquiline, built proliably by
Tiberius ; that of
Statilius Taurus, and that built by Trajan in the Campius Martins.
The other
principal
amphitheatres were those of Otricoli; on the Garighano, of brick
j

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GLOSSARY.

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