A dictionary of the architecture and archaeology of the middle ages: including words used by ancient and modern authors in treating of architectural and other antiquities ... also, biographical notices of ancient architects / By John Britton ... Illustrated by numerous engravings by J. Le Keux.

John Britton

Date:: 1838

Credit: A dictionary of the architecture and archaeology of the middle ages: including words used by ancient and modern authors in treating of architectural and other antiquities ... also, biographical notices of ancient architects / By John Britton ... Illustrated by numerous engravings by J. Le Keux. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$church of St. Pancras, at Rome, on which is the date 1249. The churches of St. Clement, and St. Lawrence, without the walls of Rome, still contain amhones \T>u Cange\ and a fine specimen also remains in the cathedral of Salerno, where there are two pulpits of marble before the steps of the chancel. The largest is covered with beautiful mosaic, and supported by twelve Corinthian columns.— \_Eustace^s Classical Tou7^ through Italy, vol. iii. p. 83. ed. 1817.] When the choral service became extended, and a more numerous body of persons was requisite for the celebration of the masses, the confined ambo gave way to the modern choir. The time of its disuse is considered by Ciampini to have been between 1309 and 1377, when the Popes resided at Avignon.—[Vet, Mou. vol. i. p. 24.] In an extended sense, the ambo was synonymous with the chorus canouicorum, which is thus described and explained by Durandus, a.d. 1286: In primitiva ecclesia peribolum, seu parietem qui circuit choru7n, non elevatum fuisse nisi usque ad appodi- tionem, idque sua eetate adhuc in quibusdam ecclesiis observatum, quod ideb fiebat, ut populus videns clerum psallentem inde sumeret bonum exemplum.”—Gurm's In- quiry, p. 141, from Rationale, 1. i. c. 3. num. 35. Ambry. {See Armarium.) Ambulatory. Ambulatio, ambulacrum, Lat.; ambulatorium, low Lat., from ambulo, to walk; ambulatoire, Fr. A clois- ter, gallery, or alley, for walking in. Among the Romans, the ambulatory was uncovered, and bounded by trees, or hedges, which distinguished it from the xystus. — Castells Villas, p. 83, 102. {See Xystus.) AmpHIPROSTYLOS. Amphiprostyle, Fr. ; amphiprostilo. It. ; from Gr. columns on both sides. A build- ing having at each end a portico ; that in front termed the porticus, and that in the rear the posticus. The amphi- prostyle was, according to Vitruvius, the third order of Roman temples.—Gwilfs Vitruv. p. 81, 354. Amphitheatre. AiJ.(pikar^ov, Gr.; amphitheatrum, Lat.; am- phitheatre, Fr. ; anjiteatro. It. and Sp.; amphiteatro. Port.; amphitheater, Ger. A double theatre. Amphitheatres are said to have been invented by, and were peculiar to, the Romans ; they were mostly of an elliptical figure,$