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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 June 2012
I beg to be permitted to address a few observations to you on the subject of the Origin of the Pointed Arch in Architecture.
It may perhaps appear presumptuous in me to mingle in a controversy which has already attracted the enquiries and exercised the acuteness of many, whose information and ability have better qualified them for pursuing their researches with success: but as it seems to be thought by many that the question has not yet received a satisfactory solution, I trust I shall not be deemed an inexcusable trespasser upon your indulgence, if, in the hope of throwing some additional light upon that difficult subject, I solicit your attention to a quarter to which no one, I believe, has hitherto resorted for information; I allude, Sir to the interesting remains of Saracen Architecture, which are to be found at this day in Sicily.
page 521 note a I was not aware, till after the above was written, that Mr. Swinburne, whilst discussing this question, in the account of his travels in Spain, has very slightly alluded to these remains: it is remarkable, however, that so acute and observing a traveller should have so far erred as to profess his belief that no pointed arch occurs in them.
page 522 note b History of Persia, vol. i. p. 260.
page 523 note c Viaggio di Sicilia, p. 222.
page 523 note d Historia di Sicilia, Dec. i: lib. 8. p. 154.
page 523 note e “Rerum Arabicarum, &c. ampla colleetio,” fol. Panorra. 1790.
page 524 note f A Frieze of this kind serving the double purpose of an inscription and an ornament, has recently been brought from the interior of India, and deposited in the British Museum.
page 524 note g In a treatise “De viris litteratis,” &c. connected with his work above cited.
page 524 note h Classical Tour, p. 547.
page 525 note i “Ars admirabilis floruit Panormi, dominantibus Agarenis; testantur palatia Cubæ, Zizse.” cap. 9. fol. 56.
page 525 note j This author, after declaring the site of Palermo to be a Paradise without one forbidden tree, says that the Saracens delighted in that capital; improved the roads; built beautiful palaces within and without the city, particularly Alcassar, Cooba and Ziza, which prove to this day that the Saracens long made it their royal residence. See p. 88.
page 525 note k Fazello, Hist, di Sicilia.
page 525 note l The nave of this church presents, probably, one of the earliest examples of the Pointed Arch occurring in any Norman work.
page 526 note m Analytical Enquiry, &c.
page 526 note n State of Europe, &c. vol. iii. p. 432.
page 526 note o “Descrizione del Real Tempio,” &c. by D.Michele Giudice.
page 527 note p Fleury, Eccl. Hist. c. 13. p. 207.
page 527 note q “Descrizione del Reale Tempio,” &c.
page 527 note r I beg to refer you to the work of M. Giudice above cited, who gives, in a series of plates, all these Mosaics. The work is in the Library of the British Museum.
page 527 note s Swinburne, Count Forbin, Biscari, Smyth, Sir R. C. Hoare, &c.
page 527 note t A most minute account of this building, its gardens, &c. as they existed at the latter end of the sixteenth century, is given by Alberti, “Descrittione di tutta Italia,” Venegia, 1588.
page 528 note v Hist, de Sicilia, Dec. i. lib. 8. p. 154.
page 528 note u Rev. George Skinner, Jesus College, Cambridge.
page 529 note w Vol. ii. page 341, London 1802.
page 530 note x Trefoil heads, canopies, pinnacles, and an ornament nearly resembling the crocketed ornament, appear in the cathedral of St. Mark, Venice, built between 976 and 1071. This building is known to have been executed by artists from Constantinople. The style of its architecture clearly illustrates the difference between the Byzantine and Lombardic corruptions of the Classic Style. The progress of the latter produced the Norman Style; the former, tinctured by the novelties of an exotic style, became such as we see it at Venice.
page 530 note y Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History, vol. ii. part 2, pp. 398, 461.
page 531 note z See Pirro, “Sicilia sacra,” &c. vol. i. p. 695.
page 531 note a See Encycl. Brit, article Masonry, vol. xii. p. 657, fourth edition. See also the passage which has so often been cited from M. Paris, sub. an. 1184, relating to the employment of Moorish prisoners “in Ecclesiis reparandis.”
page 532 note b H. Swinburne's Travels in Sicily.
page 532 note c Gov. Pownal, Archseologia, vol.ix. p. 120.
page 533 note d Dr. Milner, the most determined opposer of the Oriental origin of the Style in question, seems to have engaged his feelings too deeply in the establishment of his own hypothesis to give to the observations of others a proper attention. He imputes to my brother an intent to set up a theory, deriving this architecture originally from Italy; an inference not fairly to be drawn from his “Observations” (Archæologia, vol. xv.), of which the sole and evident object was to undeceive those who have erroneously assigned to it an English origin: a claim, which, however flattering to our national feelings, few, I apprehend, at the present day will venture to assert.