Constantine's Churches: Symbol and Structure

... It is ever my first, and indeed my only object, that ... our souls may all become more zealous, with all sobriety and earnest unanimity,for the honor of the Divine law. I desire, therefore, especially, that you should be persuaded . .. that I have no greater care than how I may best adorn with a splendid structure that sacred spot, which, under Divine direction, I have disencumbered as it were of the heavy weight offoul idol worship; a spot which has been accounted holy from the beginning in God's judgment, but which now appears holier still, since it has brought to light a clear assurance of our Saviour's passion. It will be well, therefore, for your sagacity to make such arrangements and provision of all things needful for the work, that not only the church itself as a whole may surpass all others whatsoever in beauty, but that the details of the building may be of such a kind that the fairest structures in any city of the empire may be excelled by this... . For it is fitting that the most marvelous place in the world should be worthily decorated.'

[1]  T. Mathews.  The early churches of Constantinople: architecture and liturgy , 1971 .

[2]  th cent.,et al.  Egeria's Travels , 1971 .

[3]  J. Evans,et al.  Constantine the Great , 1971 .

[4]  B. Bachrach,et al.  Roman Trier and the Treveri , 1970 .

[5]  D. O’Connor.  Peter in Rome : the literary, liturgical, and archeological evidence , 1969 .

[6]  R. Krautheimer,et al.  Early Christian and Byzantine Architecture , 1969 .

[7]  G. T. Armstrong.  Imperial Church Building in the Holy Land in the Fourth Century , 1967, The Biblical Archaeologist.

[8]  Massey H. Shepherd join.  Liturgical Expressions of the Constantinian Triumph , 1967 .

[9]  R. Krautheimer.  The Constantinian Basilica , 1967 .

[10]  R. Krautheimer.  Corpus basilicarum Christianarum Romae = The early Christian basilicas of Rome (IV-IX Cent.) , 1965 .

[11]  Heinz Kahler.  The Art of Rome and Her Empire , 1965 .

[12]  F. V. D. Meer,et al.  Augustine the bishop : religion and society at the dawn of the middle ages , 1965 .

[13]  W. Volbach,et al.  Early Christian art , 1964 .

[14]  G. T. Armstrong.  Church and State Relations: The Changes Wrought by Constantine , 1964 .

[15]  G. Downey.  A History Of Antioch In Syria: From Seleucus To The Arab Conquest , 1961 .

[16]  Ernestvs Diehl,et al.  Inscriptiones latinae christianae veteres , 1961 .

[17]  Pierre Courcelle.  Voelkl (Ludwig). Der Kaiser Konstantin. Annalen einer Zeitenwende (306-337). , 1958 .

[18]  L. Voelkl.  Der Kaiser Konstantin : Annalen einer Zeitenwende : 306-337 , 1957 .

[19]  J. Perkins,et al.  The shrine of St. Peter and the Vatican excavations , 1958 .

[20]  K. Conant.  The Original Buildings at the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem , 1956, Speculum.

[21]  G. Downey.  The Builder of the Original Church of the Apostles at Constantinople: A Contribution to the Criticism of the "Vita Constantini" Attributed to Eusebius , 1951 .

[22]  G. Dix.  The shape of the liturgy , 1945 .

[23]  E. B. Smith,et al.  Early Churches in Palestine , 1942 .

[24]  R. Krautheimer.  The Carolingian Revival of Early Christian Architecture , 1942 .

[25]  Charles H. Beeson,et al.  Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum , 1934 .

[26]  W. Dinsmoor,et al.  A Handbook of Greek and Roman Architecture , 1932 .

[27]  Stéphane Gsell.  Les monuments antiques de l'Algérie , 1901 .