The plan of Santa Sofia: a view into early medieval design

“The Plan of Santa Sofia: A View into Early Medieval Design,” by Rocco Leonardis CL Cen a

GORIAENDTE D’ITALIA INCONTRI in BIBLIOTECA Conversazione dell’ Architetto ROCCO LEONARDIS Adjunct Professor, Fashion Institute of Technology of New York che parlera della sua ricerca: I segreti dell’ Architettura Medievale Venerdì 16 Luglio 2004 ore 18:30 Pianta di Santa Sofia di Benevento Villa “Il Vascello” Sala “Paolo Ungari” Interverranno: Via San Pancrazio 8 ROMA la Prof.ssa STEFANIA TUZI Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” il Dott. PAOLO LUCARELLI INVITO saggista GUSTAVO RAFFI Gran Maestro del Grande Oriente d’Italia. BIBLIOTECA GRANDE ORIENTE D'ITALIA Villa “Il Vascello” Via di San Pancrazio $ 00152 ROMA Tel 06 58 99 344biblioteca goi@libero.it L'Architetto Rocco Leonardis Professore Aggiunto al Fashion Institute of Technology of New York di passaggio a Roma, parlerà della sua ricerca sui segreti dell'architettura medioevale. Tema dell'incontro: la Chiesa di Santa Sofia di Benevento. Si tratta di un edificio, costruito nei 760 A.D., che fornisce una chiave di lettura del modo di procedere medioevale nell'ambito della ‘progettazione e del disegno architettonico. L'eccentricità della pianta della Chiesa infatti può essere spiegata solo sulla base di un approccio geometrico al disegno architettonico che assolve, contemporaneamente, un compito pratico e simbolico. La dimensione simbolica si presta ad una lettura esegetica della forma architettonica, prassi estendibile a tutta la produzione medioevale.

Patrocinio S. Sofia: il mistero della sua costruzione tra geometria e simbolismo Benevento, Sala del Reduce - 6 febbraio 1998 - ore 17,30 relaziona: .: Rocco Leonardis Architetto, American Academy N.Y. Inferverranno: Nazzareno Orlando Assessore alla Cultura Comune di Benevento Pellegrino Soriano Coord, Comm. Cultura Ordine degli Architetti - BN Elio Galasso Direttore del Museo del Sannio Arc! Ordine degli della Provincia di 8: ARREDAMENTI martini, 126 - Tel - Fax 0824/51593

Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Baukunst Journal of the History of Architecture Sonderdruck architectura 2/2002 Deutscher Kunstverlag Miinchen Berlin arme

Rocco Leonardis The Plan of S. Sofia: A View into Early Medieval Design The philosopher Aristippus, a follower of Socrates, was shipwrecked on the coast at Rhodes, and observing geometrical diagrams drawn upon the sand, he is said to have shouted to his companions: + There are good hopes for us; for I see human footstepste Vierwoins, VI. Praef.1 (trans. Frank Granger) that its designer used the same preliminary approach to architectural design that was used widely in the GrecoRoman world, a process of design based on the initial production of a geometric diagram in order to lay out its proportions, its liturgical spaces, and its decoration. ‘The exterior of Santa Sofia was altered over the centuries and is partially obstructed by contiguous buildings, so that it gives little hint of the experience to be found within (fig 2). When standing in the church, one * Lam eternally grateful to my father, Nicola Leonardis, for training me in the process of geometrie design, I am indebted to the American Academy in Rome, its former director Prof. Caroline Bruzelius, present director Prof. Lester K. Little, and the efficient staff, especially Pina Pasquantonio and Ann Coulson, for their kind assistance and support. I am very grateful to the good people of Benevento: the Comune di Benevento Assessorato alla Cultura, the Camera di About 760 AD, a unique church dedicated to Santa Sofia was built in the ancient Italian city of Benevento whose plan provides a key to an understanding of the early Medieval process of design (fig. 1). There is a cer- Commercio Industria Artigianato Agricoltura, and the Ordine degli Architetti della Provincia di Benevento, who sponsored my lecture on this topic to the public in Benevento on February 6,1998 (entitled S. Sofía: il mistero della sua construzione tra geometria e simbolismo). 1 wish to thank Professor Elio Galasso, Director of the Museo del Sannio, for permission to measure the tain eccentricity to its plan, and the explanations and church, and his helpful staff; Don Giovanni Giordano, solutions for it offered here are based on a geometric ‘Monsignor of the-Arcivescovado di Benevento; and Doapproach to architectural design that has a long, wellfamily of Benevento. For their guidance I thank William pato Callisto, Dr. Luigi Callisto, and the entire Callisto established tradition in the Mediterranean world. This Breger, Dorothy Irwin, Angela di Maria, Margaret M. Migeometric process is at once simple and practical, allows Jes, Gernot Windfuhr, and Robert Zoller, All photographs for a direct application on the building site, and yer is susceptible to a symbolic exegesis. That continuity in techniques of design from antiquity to the Middle Ages and drawings are by the author: Charles Oman, Europe 476-918, London 1895, p. 348-349: Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, London 1788, Vol. 53 Paolo Verzone, The Art of Europe: The Dark Age, New York/Toronto/London 1969, existed is widely assumed but not well documented. By p 217-218; Karl Baedeker, Handbook for Travelers, Part the analysis of the church presented here, I shall show 3, Southern Italy and Sicily, Boston 1875.

2. Exterior side view of S. Sofia »prövincial« design is generally marked by second-rate identify the overall geometric form (fig. 3). This is in materials and uneven craftsmanship, and furthermore stark contrast to the sensation offered by numerous in this period no one centers of construction was contemporary, structures, dominant, On the contraty, the building at hand is whose shapes are immediately perceptible? The abmade of the finest materials and was constructed with and near-contemporary sence in S. Sofia of a conspicuous axial bilateral symthe most advanced techniques of its day The building metry, particularly surprising in a church, prompts an is constructed primatily of rufa, coursed with a layers examination of its plan, Here a startling picture begins of re-used red Roman brick (opus mixtwm). There are to unfold. The church has a single axis, along which a number of conspicuous re-carved marble and lime sharply defined angles, corners, and curves have been stone architectural blocks from the Roman period used balanced (fig. 4). These forms are equally apparent in both the interior and the original exterior, suggesting that the forms themselves were for some reason valued above convenience of construction or the conventions of Catholic church design, in which a simple form, such as a rectangle, an octagon, a circle, or a square, is chosen to best enhance the liturgical requirements along an * Walter Lowrie, Monuments of The Early Church, New York 1903, p. 131-152; Vitaliano Brunelli, Storia della Citta di Zara, Venezia 1918, Parte Prima. For earlier examples, see David M. Jacobson, Hadrianic Architecture and Geometry, in: American Journal of Archaeology 90, 1986, p. 69-85, and the larger discussion of geometry in axis, with a focus toward the altar. S. Sofia’s unprece- Roman architectural design in Mark Wilson Jones, Principles of Roman Architecture, New Haven/Londan 2000, dented plan provokes questions about the methods and chapter 5; especially useful: Bratislav Panrelic, Applied intentions fits designer, and the place of the church in geometrical planning and proportions in the church of the history of architectural design. Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, in: Istanbuler Mitteilungen 49, 1999; Pi 493-515. Among architectural historians who have discussed Gustavo Giovannoni, La Technica Della Construzione S. Sofia, most have recognized a geometry in its plan, Oresso I Romani, Roma 1972, rep.of 1925 original ed. Josel Durm, Handbuch der Architektur, Stuttgart 1905; G. but none offers a satisfactory explanation of the incorporation of dissimilar forms. Descriptions of the church tend to be cursory and simplistic. The most frequent assertion, that the seccentric« church is naive, or »provincial,« in design, is not convincing, since C. Mars, Brickwork in Italy, Chicago 1925; James C. Anderson, Roman Architecture and Society, Balúmore/ London 1997, p. 139-151. For a study of techniques and materials used someerhat later in the sphere of Byzantium, see Robert Ousterhout, Master Builders of Byzantium, Princeton 1999, p- 58-85, 128-156.

3. Interior view of S. Sofia at crucial junctures in a supporting position just above ground level, partially framing a rear exterior door, and completely framing the front door. In the interior there are re-used Roman columns, capitals and bases of granite and various marbles. Above them is concrete and brick vaulting used to support the roof and lantern. Originally the interior walls were decorated with frescoes, of which a few fragments remain.+ The use of opus mixtum, the premier coursing technique of its era, may be compared to St. Ilario, a nearby church built about sixty years later, whose design is of a high quality bur whose structure was formed of rubble masonry, requiring a lower degree of craftsmanship and cheaper materials, Furthermore, S. Sofia was probably built as part of the palace-complex presided over by the Duke of Benevento, Arichis II (758-787), who controlled the monastery of Monte Cassino, the intellectual touchstone of the period. In fact, S. Sofia was upon its completion named after Hagia Sophia in Con- + St. Zacharias of Cappadocia is portrayed in one of the fragments, in a style of similar to that of surviving frescoes ina Longobard church in Castelseprio, near Milan. See M. Rotili, L'Eridita dell’antico a Benevento dal VI al VITI Secolo, in: Napoli nobilissima XIV/4 (July-Aug. 1975), p. 121-128, and R. Naldi, Ritorno al chiostro di Santa So: fia a Benevento, in: Bollettino d’Arte 76 [75], 1990, p. 25-66; for Castelseprio, see G. Chierici, L'Architettura di S, Maria di Castelseprio, Milan 1948.

stantinople, as noted by Erchempert of Monte Cassino Benevento, and the Via Traiana, a significant military in his Historia Langobardorum Beneventanorum. road, was constructed to link Benevento with Brindisi Given the sophistication, maturity, and advanced techat the heel of Italy, built to promote success in Trajan’s nique inherent in this context, how could the design of campaigns against the Parthians in Persia. Together S. Sofia be dismissed as simply naive? these roads allowed for the movement of both goods The church was damaged by earthquakes more than and knowledge along the southern half-length of the once, In the 17% century some of the most serious dam- Italian peninsula, and from distant lands such as Palage occurred when the later addition of a tower at the estine, Egypt, and Asia Minor. Traffic both north and entrance crashed down onto the roof of the building south broughra wide range of cultural influences to the during an earthquake (1688). This must have required city. During the imperial Roman period the cult of Isis the sebuilding of some parts of the lantern, and perhaps flourished in Benevento, attested today by the numealso some of the arches supporting it before the church rous Egyptian statues found in the area and exhibited vías reinaugurated in 1697: Collateral damage may have inthe local museums, and an obelisk of red granite, now included two of the internal supports of the structure in the Piazza Papiniano.’° In late antiquity Benevento to the right and left of the entrance. was noted for its valuable location for trade with the When Antonio Rusconi excavated and restored the Near East. The city’s ties with that region, and also with site, from 1950t0 1957, he found that the plan itself was Alexandria in Egypt, were strong. original, and not altered as had been thought pre- At the time S. Sofia was constructed, the Mediter- Yiously. Although he describes the plan, Rusconi does ranean shores were turbulent with the cultural force of not speculate on its geometry or the logic of its design. Islam, which was advancing from Mecca throughout Hans Erich Kubach, in his classic work Architetura Romanica; describes S, Sofia as »polygonal« and »starshaped.«? Paolo Cavuoto proposes that S. Sofia might have been planned with a geometric pattern’ He saw a similarity in architectural form with early Armenian Christian structures such as churches, chapels, and tombs. Indeed some of the geometry found in $. Sofia is identical to that described by the eleventh-century historian 5 Herbert Bloch, Monte Cassino in the Middle Ages, Cambridge/Mass. 1986, vol. I, p. 264-268. Antonio Rusconi, La Chiesa di S. Sofia di Benevento, in: Corsi di cultura sull’ arte ravennate e bizantina, XIV, Ravenna 1967, p. 339-359: Hans Erich Kubach, Romanesque Architecture, Milan 1972, English ed. 1975, p. 29. Paolo Cavouto, »La Chiesa di S. Sofia a Benevento,« from and astronomer Abu Rayhah al-Biruni (973-1050), the Museo del Sannio, Centro Ricerche Bibliografiche. in his Book of Instruction in the Elements of the Art Judson J. Emerick, The Tempietto del Clitunno Near Spoleto, University Park/Penn. 1998; p: 389-390, for a review of Astrology. It is worth noting that besides being a of the relationship between the court of Duke Arichis and native of Armenia, al-Biruni lived in India for almost the court in Constantinople. Emerick recognizes the »forforty years and wrote a book on the country. Because ced axis through the central hexagon of different colored of the volatile expansion of early Islam (which at S. Socolumns (p. 390, 1. 145). Abu Rayhah Muhammad Ibn Abroad al-Biruni, The Book fa completion in the eight century was less than a of Instruction in the Elements of the Art of Astrology, writhundred years old), the potential relevance of this ten in Ghaznah, 1029 C.E. Translated by R. Ramsay Wright, London 1934, p. 89, 107, 129, 225. George Mitmovement to the church plan justifies a brief overview. chell, Architecture of the Islamic World, New York 1978, p. 131, 132. For al-Biruni’s dates, Benjamin Walker, Foun- Benevento: A Cultural Polyglot dations of Islam, The Making ofa World Faith, London/ Chester Springs 1998, p. 297. R. E. Witt, Isis in the Greco-Roman World, Ithaca/New Benevento’s history is one of continuous traffic. From its early Roman days, the city was destined to be a York 1971, p. 86, 87, 234; Witt discusses the complex cross-over relationships between various beliefs during the later imperial period (pp. 235-242). For Isis at Benemeeting-place of people on the move: the Via Appia, vento specifically, see Hans Wolfgang Muller, 11 Culto di the first of all major Roman roads, leads from Rome to Ride nella ‘Antica Benevento; Benevento 1971.

the Eastern Mediterranean, North Africa, and on into a native of Armenia, the designer of S. Sofia might have Burope. Many formerly isolated or semi-isolated relihad cultural attachments to that area and beyond. gious groups, in places such as Armenia, Palestine, Searching further for comparisons, we find that a ro- Syria, and Anatolia, were forced into collision with one tated square was being used in India for the design of another as their people sought refuge, hoping to keep their religious and cultural legacies intact in Italy and a religious structure in plan about the same time as the other parts of the West. As anvexample, the perfectly are two temples dated c. 700 AD thar exemplify this date of construction of $. Sofia: In northern India there proportioned Byzantine church La Cattolica di Stilo, technique." The Siva Temple at Adbhar and the Siva on Monte Stella in Calabria, was built by Armenian ‘Temple at Dhobini are both the result in plan of placmonks somewhat later." Diverse groups found their ing two squares at 45 degrees to each other, just like the way to Benevento. It is not too far-fetched to consider famous doubling of the square to be found in Plato’s the possibility of influences from distant cultures in the Meno and in Vitruvius: What is of further interest here church’s plan. is that while both structures express the relationship berween the two squares externally, the temple at AdPotentially Related Structures bhar (like S. Sofia) does so internally as well. In his discussion of the Shepherd’s Chapel at Ani in Fergusson provides the only widely published illustra- Armenia, A. Khatchatrian demonstrated the possible tion of the plan of a church at Planes in Southern France use of geometric patterns in the building designs of of the 11% century which exhibits intersecting sharp In his History of Architecture in all Countries James early Armenian Christian structures. It was this work geometric forms clearly recognizable (unlike S. Sofia) by Khatchatrian that was used by Cavuoró in his specuas triangles and a circle, apparently expressed internally lations that a similar geometric formulization might and externally (as in S. Sofia even though not immeapply to S. Sofia? The most relevant comparison in diately apparent).4 Armenia, the Shepherd’ Chapel at Ani, has a diameter Inthe Greco-Roman world many types of structures of about five meters, with a folded wall that offers six were centrally planned, including temples, tombs, points of support for a dome, according to a design-diamonuments, nymphaea, parts of residential complexes, gram based on a »Shield of David« (six-pointed star) and even large public spaces such as theaters. In Rome, with a rotated square: it is the Shield of David, however, that defines the architectural form. There are no interior supports (as in S. Sofia), and the interior effect is +1 Krautheimer notes the continuous (even if at times not the baroque, nonlinear experience of S. Sofia, but a remous) ties berween the Italian peninsula and Byzantium more rational and continuous space, resembling the Minerva Medica (the remnant of a circular Roman nym= phacum that has a central dome and an undulating interior wall composed of a series of apses). Although the walls of the Shepherd’s Chapel are relatively thick compared to the diameter of the structure, the folds of the exterior wall are not as visible in the elevation as in the from the late sixth century to the end of the eighth century; the Cattolico, was built in the tenth or eleventh century when the area was controlled by the Byzantine empire (according to R. Krautheimer), Early Christian and Byzantine Architecture, New Haven 41986, p. 401-402. A. Khatchatrian, L'Eglise du Berger à Ani, in: Cahiers Archeologiques, Paris 1952, p.91~t02, especially p.92 and pl. 26; Cavuto (as note 8). For an expression of angles on the exterior of a centrally, planned structure similar to $. Sofia, see Ernst Kuhnel, Islamic Art and Architecture, plan. This is because the angled recesses are roofed, and trans. Katherine Watson, Ithaca/New York 1966, fig. 27a, they read as niches; thus the exterior of the building ap- Funerary Tower in Gutgan, possibly 976-1012 CE. pears round, a configuration further emphasized by the cyelopaedia of Indian Temple Architecture North India, Michael W. Meister, M. A. Dhaky, and Krishna Dena Enplacement of the chapel on a circular platform. Despite Delhi 1988, vol. 2, part 1, p. 246-249. For a discussion of the formal differences between $. Sofia and Armenian a possible indian geometric design procedure, see Sonit work, the significant similarity is that a recognizable Bafna, On the Idea of the Mandala as a Governing Device in Indian Architectural Tradition, in: Journal of the Society abstract symbol is used as a design tool. If nov actually of Architectural Historians 59, 2000, p. 26-49.

tures from the era preceding the construction of S. Sofia are too numerous to list, and are found across a vast area of the Roman Empire, The greatest concentration is'seen in the Eastern Empire; later Islamic structures are the inheritors of this building tradition in the East, ‘and testify to the continuity of the centralized plan and its structural innovations." There are two centrally planned structures in Italy, however, that demonstrate the unusual choice of geometry that literally informs S: Sofia. Both the church of Santa Maria Maggiore at Nocera (once a baptistery) near Benevento, built in the 6" century before S. Sofia, and San Lorenzo in Mantua, built afterwards (possibly 11° century), are round buildings with interior supports arranged to form geometric patterns (fig. 5). Centrally planned buildings readily suggest the use of geometry as a design tool — indeed, historical evidence shows the geometrie applications Romans made in their building design. Yet the geometric underpinnings of the Greco-Roman design process are not commonly acknowledged. This matter warrants a closer look. The apparent peculiarity in S. Sofia’s plan is its irregular combination of the overall curve and the zigzag shape. A designers whimsy, omitting part of one diagram or replacing it with another, could have produced this plan, and the changing dynasties of dukes ruling Benevento during the period of construction might have contributed to a disjointed aspect if patronage was an issue,!$ It seems more likely, however, that the de- ‘signer of $. Sofia proceeded to create his building with a purpose and with a design process inherited from the pre-Vitruvian world. famous centrally planned structures include the Pantheon built by Hadrian, $. Stefano Rotondo of the The Vitruvian Legacy later empire, and the octagonal building on the grounds of the old palace of the Lateran in Rome, said to have In the oldest surviving work written by a practicing arbecome the first designed baptistery possibly as early chitect, Vitruvius refers to illustrations which, regrettas the fourth century CE, certainly by the time of Sixably, have long since disappeared. The earliest drawings tus III (432-40). Another well known centrally: planned structure is the tomb of Constantine’s daughter, Constantina, later used as a church, The plans of these buildings are regular in shape: octagons or circles. Other examples aré San Lorenzo in Milan, San Vitale in Ravenna, and the great Hagia Sophia of Justinian in Constantinople. Simple geomerrically shaped suuc- 14 James Fergusson, History of Architecture in all Countries, London 1893, p. 59. i$ Heinz Gowze, Castel del Monte, Munich 1998. “ Hans Belting, Studien zum beneventanischen Hof im 8. Jahrhundert, in: Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 16, 1962,

we have were not part of his work but were rather dehistorical record of diagrammatic planning resumes in rived from his descriptions. These drawings are in the Codex Selestat, drawn during our period of investigathe later Middle Ages, which left several preserved examples, such as Villard de Honnecourt’s lodge sketchtion, probably im the eight or ninth century, possibly book, Matthaus Roritzer’s 1486 work on pinnacles by Einhard, a biographer of Charlemagne, and a former pupil of Alcuin of York who nicknamed him Einthat he was an artisan. Einhard hard Bezaliel, indicating (Das Buchlein von der Finalen Gerechtigkeit and his Die Geometria Deutsch [1487])" Lorenz Lorschers was personally involved with the use of the antique also demonstrates the need for geometric constructions collection of geometric patterns for stone architecture styles‘of expression both in art and literature in the to solve practical problems and for the process of deimperial school of Aachen. Although based on Vitrusign generally, All these books also illustrate the persistvius's text, Einhard’s drawings are too imprecise and ent use of the doubling of the square and the rotated eclectic to be classical, as Hanno- Walter Kruft remarks, square.# The evidence of continuity provided by the describing them as existing in a cultural »no man’s present analysis of S. Sofia suggests an uninterrupted land? application of geometry to the process of architectural The extent 10 which Vitruvian techniques were used design from at least the Greek period through to the in the early Middle Ages has been debated, Although present day: documentation is scant and some scholars are skeptical, others have found evidence of a tradition continued from antiquiey. Walter Oakeshott, for example, states categorically that »Vitruvius was certainly read by Ca rolingian artists and architects.<"* Supporting this claim is a letter from Einhard to a pupil named Vussin or Vulfin, in which he mentions his struggle to comprehend Vitrivius’s use of the term scaenographia. Einhard also sent to this student an ivory model of a temple pro: = Hanuo-Walter Kruft, A History of Architectural Theory from Vitruvius to the Present, New York 1994, p. 31. * Walter Oakeshott, Classical Inspiration in Medieval Art , Landon 1959, p. 64 134, pl.92. For a useful survey of portioned according to the rules of Vitravius. plans and grids, including discussion of the well-known Plan of Se. Gall, W. Eugene Kleinbaues, Pre-Carolingian There are further implications resulting from the sur- Concepts of Architectural Planning, in: Marilyn J. Chiat vival of the geometrical understanding of construction and K. L. Reyerson, eds., The Medieval Mediterranean: chitect recommends to his peers the use of a pure geo- Cross-Cultural Contacts, St. Cloud/Minn. 1988, p. 67-79. The Altar of Angilbert in Milan, dared to the 9* century, bears visible geomegrie divisions in the design of it side, similar to the doubling of the square diagram described in Plato’s Meno, and in Vitruvius. The altar was made by a certain »Wolvinius« who has been identified rather metric diagram as a means of solving a common buildwishfully with Vulfin, the pupil to whom Einhard wrote" ing problem. Was this, as well as some of the other about Viteuvius. This diagram was the old form used by astrologers for attested by Plato’s doubling of the square. This is one of the illustrations promised by Vitruvius but now lost to us— but we do know from this that an ancient arillustrations, perhaps still in existence in Einhard's day? We of course do not know; yet the method is an easy, practical solution for the problem of calculating areas and building sizes, and that ease and practicality may drawing up horoscopes which in turn represented a map of the heavens at the time of an individuals birth. CE. alBiruni chart on p. 190 (321) in his book relating astrology to geometry: #1 Matthaeus Roritzer, Das Buchlein von der Finalen Gehave encouraged its préservation 2° yechrigkeit, Because of the dearth of documentation, the missing Deutsch, Regensburg 1487. Both have been published in historical link in the use of geometry in architectural planning since the ancient world has been the early Middle Ages. S. Sofia bridges this gap. Its intricate plan Regensburg 1486, and Die Geometria facsimile by Guido Pressler (Wiesbaden 1965). # Lon K. Shelby, Mediaeval Masons’ Templates, in: Jowrnal of the Society of Architectural Historians 30, 1971, p. 140- 154; James 5, Ackerman, Ars Sine Scientia Nihil Est, can be explained only by the use of a geometrie dia- Gothic Theory of Architecture at the Cathedral of Milan, in: Art Bulletin 1949, p. 84-111; F. M. Lund, Ad Quagram as a preliminary step in the design process. The dratura, London 1921:

picted ón a Roman funerary relief now in the Vatican Museums. A suggestion has been made by M. Salmi that, in light of their familiarity with Roman construction methods, the builders of S. Sofia must have been brought south from Rometo work on the church. This theory seems ‘The construction ofa simple Vesica Piscis, producing 90 degree angle. unnecessarily cumbersome. The survival of Roman building techniques in Benevento need not be explained by intervention from another quarter, Distinguished from other cities by its inheritance of Roman traditions, Benevento more than likely had a sizeable ~Roman< population. After the initial invasions by Germanic et a “The demónstration of root rectangles within a construction of the Vesica Picis. peoples, the city soon saw the re-emergence (in somewhat modified form) of Roman law, language, distinct Latin writing scripts, as well as music, the well known Beneventan chants, and other attributes of settled, ordered society - in short, a swift, all-encompassing stabilization that was not experienced equally by other 7 LR DD N parts of Italy or Europe. There is no reason to doubt that building techniques and skills would have been included among these enduring traditions. ‘The geometry found in S. Sofia is both classical and Christian. All of the geometric design elements seen in the church have a pre-Christian origin. To cite but one 1 1/2 x width = height Oecus according 10 Vitruvius (using a Vesica Picis for the construction of the proportions ) 6. Vesica piscis example, Vitruvius describes the proportions of the heights of an oecus as one and a half times the width, and the plan is a square. This translates into a diagram constructed witha vesica piscis (fig. 6), a geometric construction heavily freighted with Christian as well as pre-Christian meanings (it is used by various cultures Influence from the Roman World on S. Sofia In examining S. Sofia, I have found evidence of Roman influence both in the initial planning of the building and inthe construction techniques used to build it. Itis clear that the church was built by masons thoroughly conversant with Roman construction technique. Evidence of this knowledge includes the coursing technique known as opus mixtum; the brick arch; the vault; and the single-shaft granite columns, Regarding the latter; the ability to move and erect single-shaft granite columns ina tight, complex pattern (such as chat seen in 3° À form of the polyspaston clearly survived through the Middle Ages, and may be seen, for example, in a painting by Pieter Bruegel, entitled The Tower of Babel (1563), where it lifts stone for the construction of a then very stylish Gothic tower; see also EM. Barber, The Mechanical Triumphs of the Ancient Egyptians, London 1900, p. 47, fig. 10; L. Sprague de Camp, The Ancient Engineers, Norwalk/Conn. 1966, pl. 11; for the Roman relief (Tomb of the Haterii, dated to the early Trajanic period), see D. È. Kleiner, Roman Sculpture, New Haven 1992, B- 196-199, fig. 166. Mario Salmi, »Maestri Comacini 6 Commacini?« undated photocopy in archives of Museo del Sannio, Centro Ricerche Bibliografiche: 409-424 = E. A, Loew, The Beneventan Script, Oxford, 1914; Robert S. Sofia) required that the builders use a Roman engine, S. Hoyt, ed., Life and Thought in the Early Middle Ages, the polyspaston described by Vitruvius (X.2) and de- Minneapolis 1968, p: 23-29.

and faiths to signify the age of Pisces, a halo or auraMandorla, Isis, the Madonna, Jesus Christ, a general identification of Christianity, and more) Leaving asidg its symbolism, the vesica piscis exemplifies the time-honored way to construct a perpendicular and double-square rectangle (fig. 7). This rectangle of a 1:2 proportion also allows for the construction of root 2, root 3, and root 5 rectangles. Through geometric constructions the root rectangles may in turn be made into examples: of the Golden Section, a special ratio to be found in both Euclid? and in Plato’s Timaeus, an ac 7. Vesica piscis demonstrated by half square diagonals count of a 5" century BCE discussion with a Pythagorean on how the world is geometrically constructed. that the shapes themselves held significance — for the ‘The construction of a vesica piscis can directly develop designer, for the function of the building, or perhaps into the Golden Section and the pentagon-pentagram actual symbols of the Pythagoreans (fig. 8). The for some other, still unknown purpose. double-triangle expression of the vesica Piscis, used in the church’s plan, I propose two solutions for its the geometric planning of 5, Sofia, is to be found scheme of design based on symbolic geometry, which, through out Greco-Roman design. The same form of alone or in combination, may be applied toS. Sofia. The the vesica piscis survives in a wide range of ancient solutions share the following characteristics: Assuming thata geometric diagram was used to create etonuments, such as in the floor pattern in the Roman a) The eccentrie forms in the plan can be explained by paving of the orchestra in the theater of Dionysos in geometric diagrams. Athens, and as the design for the pattern of numerous b) In both cases the diagrams show unconventional Roman stone-coffered ceilings, a fragment from one of approaches to architectural design. which rests within a few fect of S: Sofia (fig. 9). €) The symbolic meaning of these diagrams may have sprung from an astrological or occult source. The Plan of S. Sofia: An Analysis d) Both solutions require the addition of apses. The designer of S. Sofia applied the geometry seen in Below are summaries of the two solutions: the plan to create the three-dimensional form. Yet, since Solution 1: A simple geometric form has been altered nosingle shape is shown in its entirety, the form only in order to accommodate the axial foci, from entrance hints at the quantity of geometry seen in the plan=an (West) to altar (East) required of a Catholic church. effect which renders the true geometry hidden within S. Sofia has an axis SW to NE. the diagram. One cannot help wondering why the designer would mask the geometry intrinsic to its shapes: Of course that which is most valuable is most hidden, #6 Sister M. A. Justina Knapp, O.S.B., Christian Symbols an ancient maxim recognized in Plutarch's essay on and How to Use Them, Milwaukee 1935, p. 43: » What Plato meant by saying that God is always doing gets, The Benedictines in Britain, New York 1980, p. 53, geometry:« he quotes Philolaus of Croton as naming geometry »the source and mother city of the rest.«? ‘The church at Nocera, which the designer must have known, is about the same size as the later S. Sofia, but with a very clear circular plan. The apparently cobbled-together geometry we see in $. Sofia is satisfactorily explained only as the designers intent, and suggests D. H, Turner, Rachel Stockdale, Dom Philip Jebb, and David Roill. 34: » Peter Kidson, A Metrological Investigation, in: Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 53, 1990, p- 71-97; Matila Ghyka, The Geometry of Art and Life, New York 1946; Euclid, Elements IV. 10, and Il.rı. 28 Plato, Timaeus, trans, R..G. Bury, Loeb Classical Library (1952), esp. p. 58-61, 126-137 [32a~c; 530-560]. #9 Plutarch, Moralia, IX, Loeb Classical Library (1961), p. 118-131 [7186-7200].

the Square Golden Section. Vesica Piscis Pentagon Ch (> Golden Section. ta e Golden Section. Pentagram Mee 8. The graphic use of vesica piscis 9. Fragment of Roman architectural ornament next to S. Sofia (with a vesica piscis)

10. The rotated square 11. The rotated square as a design diagram Solution 2: Four geometric symbols are superimto be read as such from both the exterior and the inte~ posed, one over the next, and a design is then deliberarior, Thé rotated square does not account for the pattely traced from fragments of each of the four diagrams. tern of the positions of the interior columns and piers, While the first solution accounts for only some of the for the shape of the entrance (which is always located ambiguities seen in the church plan, the second covers on axis opposite the altar), or the position of the three all of them The motivation behind both solutions is apses. Instead, the convergence of disparate elements mystical, expressed by intrinsically symbolic geometry. must be explained as evidence of unpracticed and un- 5. Sofia appears to representa continuacion of the flexlearned design: for some reason, the designer chose a ible Roman geometric tradition, combined with an inrotated square to create a twelve-sided figure and, more tentional and contemporary interpretation of the meto the point, wanted to incorporate the resulting eletaphysical world. ments in a formal expression. Therefore, in order to maintain the identity of the rotated square, the designer Solution 1 left the angles of four corners visible. To meet the desire for three apses, he reused the dominant curve as a The church plan may be viewed as the result of a transitional form and then added the entry. Two walls struggle to combine two conflicting ideas: a pure geoact asa funnel, leading from the narrow doorway of humetric form (in this case, a twelve-sided form) has been man scale to the wider interior, in order to meet the adapted to accommodate the directional axis generally axial requirements of a church, where one sees the required by Catholic ritual (fig. 10). The use of a roaltar as a goal opposite the entrance. tated square (the doubling of the square) to create a ‘With this explanation, the architectural application of twelve-sided figure would account for the unique tria rotated square to produce this form remains unsatisangular projections that interrupt the circular unity of factory. After all, the designer might simply have folthe overall form (fig, 11). These projections from the lowed the example of the church at Nocera and di circle are distinctive and important, as they show a sinded a circle into the desired number of parts like a pie. gular, deliberate effort of formal expression, intended A difference here is that while most numbers can be re15

M WT (il AI umns to flank the altar and define the axis. But the combination of the axial foci and the geometric shape seen in San Lorenzo results in a regular form (a complete circle) that is distinctly unburdened by the geometric oddities so readily apparent in S. Sofia. With this explanation for its design (a rotated square), the placement of the interior supports in $. Sofia, arranged in two circles, then seemingly has a geometry of its own, with little direct relation to the twelve-sided shape of the exterior wall. Again, we would have to postulate that the columns and piers may have been repositioned within the interior, or that perhaps the 22. The rotated square as a design diagram in the design of Greek theaters discrepancy is just another sign of the limitations of the designer. The possibility remains that the designer copied the rotated square from Vitruvius's description (V.7) that shows how to locate the seating and scene in lated to some religious or mystical principle, and the a Greek theater, for its location only, not to express building at Nocera is divided into fifteen parts, S. Sofia form (fig. 12). In S. Sofia, however, the corners of the is heavy with strong religious and occult associations, rotated square are clearly expressed both internally and with a division of twelve. This seems especially signifiexternally.3? cant since the patron Duke Arichis II buried twelve saints inside S. Sofia, and there are many obvious correspondences with the number twelve.3° 1° Rusconi (as note 6). Of the ten supports that form the outer ring eight are 3 W. Wynn Westcott, Numbers, New York 1911, 66. Furrectilinear piers of stone and brick; the ring is comther numerological exegesis may be found in Heinz Meyer, Die Zablenallegorese im Mittelalter, [Munich, pleted by two antique marble columns that flank the entrance axis, thus reinforcing the axis. The six central columns form a hexagon, with two dark columns, made of black marble, further flanking the axis of the church. Like all the groupings incorporated in the church, the hexad has many cultic associations.3* No matter how seemingly unskilled he may have been, the designer of S. Sofia was surely aware of the prevailing dictates of liturgical design for churches. The Catholic convention, intended to enhance Christian liturgy, was (and still is) a deliberately directional structure, with given foci, leading from the entrance to the altar. The design in S. Sofia with a definition of the 1975), p. 74ff,, and Franz Dornseift, Das Alphabet in Mystik und Magie, Leipzig 1922, p. 84, 85. Vitruvius himself undertakes numerological and cosmological exegesis on the moon in IX.1, thus indicating that architects in antiquity were aware of such symbolism. In this context, irshould be noted that two geometric elements were used in the process of design of ancient Greek theaters, for the location of the orchestra: The first is the previously mentioned rotated square, described by Vitruvius, which when placed over the orchestra plan is used to: locate the aisles through the seating and up to the scaena. The second is interlocking two circles, one used to locate the front edge of the scaena and the curve of the seating, and the other to locate the performance area within the orchestra as defined by the first circle (cf. al Biruni [as note 9},p. 89, 97, 107). The circles are not concentric; instead, the centers of both are aligned on a common axis. For renecessary axis with flanking columns of different macent discussion of the planning of Greek theaters with terial and color would not be unique. The Longobard geometry, Lutz Kappel, Das Theater von Epidauros; die church of San Lorenzo, in Mantua, possibly built as mathematische Grundidee des Gesamtentwurfs und ihr möglicher Sinn, in: Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologiearly as 1078, in the form of a complete circle (followschen Instituts 104, 1989, p. 83-106. The space formed ing the precedent set by Nocera), also usés column between the furthest edges of the two circles takes the materials to establish an axis. Here two white marble shape of a crescent moon, «symbol tied to Islam and the cult of Isis, which also figures prominently in the second columnsare placed in a ring of similar shaped brick coldesign scheme proposed below for $. Sofia (Hans Wolf-

St chie Y \ % À Y \ = 13. Controlling design diagram for the chair \ = 14. Elevations of the back and sides of the chair superimposed on diagram 15 Solution 2 the history of carpet-weaving exhibit distinctive styles, most share the design device of combining overlaid The geometric layout drawn by the designer and used geometrie symbols to produce stylized patterns.* Alas a guide by the builders may be worked out from the though the sequence of the layering may in fact be plan of the building. The vesica piscis, the Golden Secirrelevant 10 che plan, the choice of symbols seems tion, the rotation of the square, the crescent moon, and laden with meaning, suggesting that the plan may have the Shield of David are all readily identifiable when performed a special function, perhaps as an astrological diagrams of the church are studied (see figs, 15-22). This combination of several forms is highly unusual. The traditional practice of using diagrams for the construction of buildings, furniture, etc., has not changed much throughout history, and typically a single diagram (fig. 13) is drawn to demonstrate the proportions and locations of the various parts of the subject gang Muller, IT culto di Iside nell'antica Benevento, [Benevento 1971], p. 98, 99, and pl. 32.2). ‘An example of this sort of orderly diagram is the drawing Thave extrapolated from a seventh century chair stored in the crypt of the Cathedral of Benevento, near 5. Sofia (fig. 14). The chair is bronze randomly studded with sil- In contrast, the unconventional design of S. Sofia re~ ver, featuring Saracenic technique but with strong Longobardic symbolism. The damascene decoration on the rails with the illustrations-of two birds drinking from a bowl veals the use of multiple diagrams of geometric sym= cantepleve, or drinking bird mechanism, from the Middle bols which have been superimposed on top of one an- Ages. The chair has elongated human feet. This curious other (fig, 21), The plan has then been picked out from mixture of classicism and naturalism is in keeping with the (fig. 14) fragments of each of the geometric symbols without using any in its entirety (fig, 22). The geometry of the plan is nearly hidden, or disguised. This procedure has is a familiar Longobard motif which seems related to the individualistic design we have seen in S. Sofía. Schuyler Cammann, Symbolic Meanings in Oriental Rug Patterns, in: The Textile Museum Journal 3, 1972 (1973), p-24~29, 44-49; Nader Ardalan and Laleh Bakhtiar, The a design analogy or parallel in the production of Per- Sense of Unity. The Sufi Tradition in Persian Architecture, Chicago 1973, esp. p. 27-31, 33-45: Eva Baer, Islamic Orsian and Caucasian carpets. While different periods in nament, New York 1998, p. 73-84.

15. Partial diagram for the plan of S. Sofia. Diagonals, balf-squares, and vesica piscis 16. Partial diagram for the plan of S. Sofia, using the Golden Section in the plan. Rather, it is the plan itself that requires explanation as an intriguing form of practical design. In my opinion, the most plausible explanation for the peculiarities of the plan of S. Sofia is that it contains a layering of familiar symbols connoting divine and cosmic protection, from which a single form has been extracted, and then manifested as a three-dimensional structure. In architecture, this particular design process has no known parallels. 1f we apply the controlling diagram to a section of the existing building, we see immediately that the heights of the vaults and of the tower (as it appears today) are delineated by the diagram (fig. 23). This must have been one of the practical advantages of the design. Itshould be remembered, however, chat the roof of S. Sofia has been re-built and the existing lantern over the central hexagon may not have been there in the original design. 17. Three centers A, B and C, anda vertical vesica piscis Asan alternative, possibly the original form might have been similar to that of the church at Nocera, with the central area to be covered witha dome, but there are potential problems with using a hexagon as a base for diagram. The intended meaning of the combination of a dome, and S. Sofia has not followed the church at symbols remains ambiguous, and it is not my intent Nocéra in any other design principles. This suggests here to speculate on all the possible hidden meanings that the current form of the building is likely to have

18, The centers in a circle 19. The rotated square within a circle within a crescent been closely similar to the original elevation, derived with the baroque style. A classical interior, aswell as an from the unusual plan, early Renaissance interior, may be experienced from a The resulting spatial experience of the interior of single vantage point itis the result of perspective draw- S. Sofia is remarkable because it actually shares features ing, and exemplifies the clear, controlled concept of

20. Shield of David within a crescent space. A truly baroque space cannot be comprehended to each figure, Here I offer the symbols in the geomefrom a single point of view: Rather, the baroque intetric sequence that seems likely to me. As shown on Figrior must be experienced kinesthetically, requiring the ures 15 10 22, the process is as follows: individual to move through the space. This is the case with S. Sofia, But unlike the regular plans of structures 1: Fig. 15 ~ The first of four symbols is illustrated, a square. built during the Baroque period, the Sth-centurÿ 2: Fig, 16- church is irregular the half-squares, we produce three centers on the cen- Then, using the Golden Section on each of In contrast to the churches at Nocera, San Lorenzo, tral vertical axis of the original square. Here we are reand others based on complete, regular forms, S. Sofia minded of the construction of the plan of a Greek theaoffers a comprehensible idea (protection) in an incomter and the possible use of threé centers. prehensible space. The puzzling interior may have y: Fig. 17 heightened the protection offered by each individual sica with three centers. This designates the axis of the The focus of this diagram is a vertical wesymbol. The occult aspects of the combination of sym: church. The vesica may symbolize the entry along this bols must have seemed freighted with meaning to those axis into the mystical world, as the>spine‘of the church. who perceived them, To safeguard their magic, the 4: Fig. 18 ~ The second of four symbols, a cirele consymbols have been unified ina design that acts asa protains three parallel, horizontal lines. This diagram is to tective disguise. S. Sofia can now be seen as a church be found in al-Biruni’s handbook on the art of astrodesigned 10 be a place of initiation: sew beginnings, logy. marriages, baptisms, funerals, or more. Thoroughly 5: Fig. 19 - The third of four symbols, the rotated convinced of the geometry that underlies this church square is inscribed within a circle within a crescent. À plan, I have analyzed the plan and recognized the foldiagram in al-Biruni (fas note 9], p. 107(201]) shows lowing symbols in its configuration. "The actual sequence of figures used by the designer is unknown, as is ché specific special significance attached 35 al-Biruni (as note 9), pi 129 (220).

21. Complete diagram for the plan of S. Sofia 22. The complete design diagram superimposed on the plan of S. Sofia two circles in the same relationship to each other. (This diagram is the same as that discussed previously, used 77 I 10 design the orchestra in a Greek theater.) 6: Fig. 20- The fourth of four symbols, the six-point ed star or Shield of David is inscribed within a crescent moon. D 7: Fig, ry — The complete diagram for S. Sofia is illus- 40 7 TT) trated. As with the designs of oriental carpets, the interwoven symbols have become apparently incomprehensible. 8: Fig. 22 — The layered diagram is illustrated super- = I imposed on the existing plan of S. Sofia. This may be a NI compared with diagram 12 with al-Biruni’s diagram mn aNOTme (las note 9), p. 225[3731).6 As a group, these geometrical diagrams correspond remarkably well to the actual plan of the church, including the position of the interior supports and the walls, given the known flexibility in design of the pe- 23, Section and partial plan applied to the controlling diagram 36 There is a striking similarity between fig. 25 anda diagram in Franz Dornseiffs Das Alphabet in Mystik und Magie, Leipzig 1922, p. 85.

riod, and the scope allowed individual masons for per- Abstract sonal esthetic expression.» The plan of S, Sofia expresses a language of subtlety and: sophistication, and its This paper examines the church of S. Sofia in Beneuniqueness invites speculation about its designer, Was vento (built ca. 760) and its unusual twelve-pointed the designer a maverick? The method used by his conplan as an exemplar of a geometric process of design temporaries and Roman predecessors was not one of used by architects in the early Medieval period. This layering geometric symbols one over another and then simple and practical geometric process was inherited picking out a form. Rather, the typical designer used from antiquity and until recently was still used in Italy, clear geometric constructions to form the plan, and ala continuity assumed but not well documented. Al- “Hugh there were at times combinations of symbols though the upper parts of the church have been altered incorporated into a single plan, the identity of the inand repaired, the lower walls and most of the interior dividual symbols is not obscure and can still be read supports are original, as excavations of the 19505 have clearly in the architectural plan. In contrast, the geoshown. For this study, a fresh examination of the metric structure on which S. Sofia’s plan was based is church was made, including new measurements. An not immediately apparent, but almost disguised. S. Soanalysis based on traditional geometric design (in fia may have been a singular effort on the part of the which the author was trained by an earlier generation designer: this one building, none before, none after. of architects in Italy) shows that the unusual plan of the Perhaps he wanted to show all he knew in one building, church is apparently deliberate and not the result of haor perhaps what we see is the hand of a master geomephazard or provincial building, as previous commenter rather than a mainstream architect, even though the tators have suggested. The historical context of the techniques of construction are highly skilled for the pechurch, which was part of the palace-complex built by riod. In either case, the designers considerable familthe Duke of Benevento Arichis II, included internatioiarity with geometry was applied to building design in nal contact with the Islamic world which influenced the avery unconventional way. complicated design, together with a continuation of the Designed by geometry, and replete with symbolism, local Vitruvian legacy. Although distant parallels in Euthe church of S. Sofia provides us with a window into rope and elsewhere may be cited, the plan of S, Sofia along-forgotten and hidden process of design. The two provides a unique and complex example of a centrallyindisputable building blocks ofthe ancient world, geoplanned building replete with geometric oddities that metry and its symbolic content, are continued here in probably had symbolic significance for the builders, at the seventh century. But we are not simply examining a time when such symbolism was felt to be a crucial a church; rather, there is a system of construction impart of design. This paper investigates the physical deplied by the use of these tools. Classical features of artails of the design, the historical context of the church, chitectural design, including the ubiquitous orders of the history of the process of design, and presents an architecture, are derived from a fundamental, geomeanalysis and solutions for its unique plan. tricand symbolic system of commensurate parts. Puzzling and still potent, the church of S. Sofia provides a unique glimpse into this hidden world of ancient design and illustrates its enduring continuity. 37 William H. Goodyear, Perspective Illusions in Medieval Italian Churches, in: Architectural Record VI, 1896, >. 163-183. Photo credit: vos and Drawings by Rocco Leonardis,r.. ">t, Riba.