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Some Cave Chapels of Southern Italy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Gertrude Robinson
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Extract

There are few things in history more illusive and at the same time more persistent than the tradition that the Hellenistic language and culture did not cease to be part of the life of Southern Italy when Magna Graecia ceased to be anything but the shadow of a great name. It is a fact that the Hellenism of South Italy has a habit of being lost sight of. It hides itself, as it were, from the end of the Punic wars till the time of Justinian. After the end of the Byzantine domination it again burrows into the earth, and it is only now when it is indeed disappearing that we begin to realise that it has been there all the time. There have always been signs of its presence for those who will look for them.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 50 , Issue 2 , November 1930 , pp. 186 - 209
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1930

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References

1 There is a small society (Società Magna Grecia) working under the direction of Professor Orsi which has for some time been carrying out excavations and work on a modest scale. With more money at their disposal their efforts, which have produced exceedingly good results, might be redoubled.

2 Strabo may mean this when he speaks of the barbarisation of the cities of Magna Graecia (Teubner ed., Vol. I. p. 348).

3 Using Calabria in its present significance.

4 See Syntaxarium Ecclesiae Constantino-politanae, edited by Père Delehaye, A. SS. November, Propylaeum; and Pio Franchi di Cavilieri, Testi e Studi, XIX and XX.

5 See E. G. Butler, Lausiac History of Palladius, Texts and Studies, ed. Armitage Robinson, Vol. VI.

6 Ep. LII.

7 Hexaemeron, III. 5.

8 Ep. LXXIII.

9 I. 440.

10 See also Cooper Marsden, History of the Island of Lerins.

11 Capasso, Monumenta ad Neopolitani ducatus historiam pertinentia.

12 See A. SS., May III, 33 seq.

13 Martyred at Bisceglia under Diocletian. No early acts are extant—said to bave been a Bishop in Apulia., See A. SS., July VI, 359Google Scholarseq.

14 See A. SS., Jun. II, 1021, and Bibliotheca Hagiographica Latina, ed. Socii Bollandiani.

15 The φελὁνιον or chasuble was worn by priests and bishops alike. The dress especially worn by bishops and patriarchs was called πολυσταὑριον from its decoration. It was completely covered with a pattern of crosses. This garment is found also on Russian ikons worn by bishops and patriarchs. See Prof. Minns' note in his translation of Kondakov, , The Russian Ikon, p. 47Google Scholar.

16 There is much material relating to the history of the monasteries of the Greek Bite in the archives of Lecce and in various episcopal archives. Tanzi, the late archivist of the Provincial Archives of Lecce, has published some valuable extracts from those archives, but there is a mass of matter still untouched at which I was able to work.

17 Grottaglie, Paggianello, Sta. Lucia of Brindisi, S. Biagio, S. Giovanni Battista, the Santi Stephani of Vasti are mentioned by Diehl in his Manuel d' Art Byzantin.

18 The ‘Sanna,’ probably for ‘Hosanna,’ is now an underground round grotto chapel outside Brindisi—to which the Archbishop and Canons of Brindisi Cathedral walk in procession every Palm Sunday singing in Greek the Gospel of the Passion.

19 One of these monasteries may have been the same as the San Salvatore which Pope Honorius took under his protection in 1216. The present church of St. Benedict stands on its site. A portion of its cloister remains, and some of the capitals of its pillars can be seen in the Museum.

20 Cf. Diehl, Manuel d'Art Byzantin.

21 This date can no longer be seen.

22 These Magi are dressed as warriors.

23 See Millet, Recherches sur l'iconographie. See also the photos by de Jerphanion, Père in the Revue Archéologique, 1908 (IV, 12, p. 1)Google Scholar, of the Chapel of Sta. Barbara.

24 B.M., Harley, 1810Google Scholar, etc.

25 See Diehl; and Westlake, Mural Painting. The latter gives good reproductions.

26 See Trinchera, Syllabus Graecorum Membranorum, Introduction, p. x.

27 See Trinchera, , Syllabus Graecorum Membranorum, pp. 514–31Google Scholar.

28 A signatory to this document is called ἀναγνώστης τῆς ἁγίας.

29 There was a monastery of St. Stephen in Gallipoli called St. Stephen by the Fountain; perhaps the present town fountain marks the site.

30 The symbolic representation of our Lord with the Madonna on His right hand and St. John the Baptist on His left, the one as the intercessor of the New Testament, the other of the Old. This representation is purely Byzantine. It has also the place of honour on the iconostases of Russian churches. See the publications of the Kondakov Academy at Prague. The iconostasis naturally means the place of the ikons and is properly covered with frescoes. The various iconostases mentioned here as having been seen in these chapels have no frescoes on them. Generally only fragments of them are left, and whether any of them ever were adorned with frescoes it is impossible to say. At Guadignano, where the iconostasis is not destroyed, there are no traces of frescoes. It is lower than the iconostasis generally is.

The Deësis usually occupies the place of honour in the iconostasis and there are figures on each side. In this case the Deësis is painted on the wall above the altar.

31 There is a copy of the Typikon of St. Nicolas in the MSS. Barberini in the Vatican. The most perfect was burnt at Turin.

32 (See Labbé, , Concilia, ed. Par., 1644, vol. 27, pp. 469Google Scholarseq.) Nectarios is called “Graecorum schismaticorum legatus.”

33 The inscription has almost disappeared from the walls. Professor Dawkins kindly read this from my photograph. The years of the world and of the era have now disappeared.

34 The inscription is no longer legible.

35 It is known as the Chapel of Sta. Elena.

36 See Nilles, Kalendarium utriusque ecclesiae. According to the Menaia, St. Parasceve was born in South Italy, was venerated in South Italy and Sicily as well as in the Balkans and among the Slavs. She was born, as her name indicates, on Friday—which day among the Eastern churches was especially the day of women.

There seem to have been two SS. Parasceve, one who was martyred under Antoninus Pius and the other under Diocletian in Iconium. The Russian ikons of St. Parasceve preserve the early Christian type of a Deaconess. See Prof. Minns' Note, pp. 99–100 of his translation of Kondakov: The Russian Ikon.

37 The photographs of Matera reproduced for the first time on Plate IX are by Prof. Gatti, Superintendent of Scavi for the Basilicata, by whose kind permission they are here shown.

38 See, besides the above, Brehier, L., ‘Art Byzantin,’ Journal des Savans, 1914Google Scholar; and Schmidt, T., ‘Renaissance de la Peinture Byzantine,’ in Revue Archéologique, 1912 (IV. 20), p. 129.Google Scholar

39 There is at S. Biagio an Entry into Jerusalem.