San Vitale in Ravenna and Octogonal Churches in Late Antiquity

This book examines the octagonal churches of Late Antiquity from the origins of the type in the fourth century to its sixth-century culmination in its most famous example, the church of San Vitale in Ravenna. The buildings, limited in number and many overlooked in modern scholarship, served several functions including funerary oratory, martyrium, and cathedral, though most were martyr or memorial shrines. Beyond addressing questions of function, architectural design, structural solutions, chronology, literary sources, and architectural symbolism are also studied.

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.

Auteur
Born 17 July 1954 in Ogden, Utah, USA
Completed Phd in art history at Princeton University in 1986
Taught in the School of Architecture, University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, 1986-87; since 1987 has been a member of the art history faculty at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, where he is now professor of ancient and medieval art and architecture.

Résumé
Johnson has written a useful and quietly important study. Given the fact that the church has yet to be the subject of a proper architectual survey, his focus on typology has seized upon one of the few entrees into studying the building. In doing so, he offers the first comprehensive study of octagonal churches, thus establishing the lineage of San Vitale within the context of martyr shrines. (...) Although straightforward and, in some respects, obvious, these observations are important, as they bring a steady foundation and with it a much-needed clarity to the study of San Vitale, thus establishing the book as a springbook for future study.

Von: Sarah Bassett
In: Speculum 94/4, Oktober 2019
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Mark Johnson's study of octagonal churches
is an important addition to research on
late antique and early Byzantine Christian architecture.
Apart from tracing the evolution of
the octagonal typology from its use in Roman
funerary architecture to monumental churches
built at the dawn of Byzantine civilisation,
J. identifies a number of design and building
principles that help answer long-standing questions
regarding the dating and form of certain
late antique sanctuaries.
(...)
Although brief, the analysis in the last
chapter is useful. Succinctness, in fact, is a general
characteristic of the book, with J. doing a
great job of providing up-to-date introductions
to thirty-five buildings in a short and highly
readable text. The bibliography is essential
rather than extensive. Nevertheless, the key
studies are mentioned and, thus, the book represents
a useful starting point for further
studies on the specific buildings. J. gives GPS
coordinates for the sites he discusses, a useful
instrument that testifies to his attention to
contemporary research tools. The volume is
lavishly illustrated, containing numerous plans,
drawings, as well as black and white and colour
photographs, placed at the end. The format is
functional, with the publisher using different
kinds of paper for text and images, optimising
the use of both. Indexes are not provided but
the text is short and manageable, being divided
into brief and clear sections. Finally, a number
of typesetting errors are present, indicating
that an additional review of the text would
have been desirable. This, nevertheless, does
not affect the readability or the accuracy of
the text which through both content and
clarity of form is likely to become a landmark
in the study of late antique Christian architecture.

Von: Vladimir Ivanovici
In: Jahrbuch für Antike und Christentum 61, 2018, S. 297f.