S. Lorenzo
| Department | Archive |
|---|---|
| Collection | Byzantine Research Fund |
| Reference No. | BRF/01/05/06/002 |
| Level | Item |
| Place |
Rome |
| Dates | November 1888 |
| Donor/Creator |
Weir Schultz, Mr Robert Barnsley, Mr Sidney Howard |
| Scope and Content | Plan and elevations of the ambo and the pulpit. This is a preliminary drawing. It is labelled, initialed (RWS) and dated in pencil at the bottom. Further annotation in pencil survives. Unfinished sketches of the pulpit of the church survive on the reverse. |
| Further information | The first church of S. Lorenzo was built by Constantine the Great outside the walls of Rome. It was a three-aisled wooden-roofed basilica with narthex at the east and an apse on the west side. In the 5th c., Pope Sextus III enlarged the original building by attaching a larger church to the west end of the existing monument. The two remained separated until the 13th c. when Pope Honorius III linked the two separate apses thus creating a unified space. In the new building the later church served as the nave and the earlier as the chancel. A new floor was inserted for the raised chancel and the space underneath was converted into a crypt. S. Lorenzo is one of the earlier surviving churches in Rome to have a gallery above the aisles. |