Lom 
have been derived from the church of St. Sophia at Conftantino- 
ple, which was built in the 20th of Conftantine, that is, in the year 
344, and was the original from which the plan of St. Mark’s, Venice, 
was taken. Although the Gothic archite€ture commenced fo early 
amongft the Goths and Longobards, and that the true tafte began 
to revive about the year 973, yet attachment to inveterate cuftoms 
and the beauty of the ftyle itfelf prevented it from falling into entire 
difufe for fome centuries after ; according to the obfervation of Pira- 
nefi, in his work Della magnificenza d’architettura de’ Romani, “ la 
Greca (architettura) poi non poté effer portata in Egitto, fe 
non fotto il regno de’ Tolommei: quantunque per altro, fic- 
“ come difficilmente ci diftacchiamo dai coftumi inveterati, é 
“‘ cofa piu probabile, che a que’ tempi fi confondeffe luna coll’ 
“ altra, di quel che l’Egizia foffe affatto pofta in difufo. In quella 
guifa appunto che noi vediamo la chiefa di S. Agoftino, tanto 
“ tempo dopo effere ftati fcacciati d'Italia i Goti e i Longobardi, 
cioé anno 1483 di Crifto, effere ftata fatta alla Greca, e in- 
fieme di quell forma ftraniera, la quale era ftata in ufo in Italia 
per tanto tempo.” We are further to obferve, that when it is 
faid, that the deepening of the flutes in the Grecian columns led 
to the Gothic cluftering pillar, it is not neceffary to fuppofe, that 
the Gothic ftyle, in this refpe&, was dire€tly derived from the 
pure Grecian, without paffing through any intermediate grada- 
tions. In England it is more than probable that the fluted co- 
lumn, and its offspring the cluftcring pillar, was of Norman 
defcent, as may be conjectured from the drawings of Dodtor 
Ducarel ; which Norman ftyle, we muft allow, was but a cor- 
ruption of the Grecian, thus at length propagated into England. 
And 
oe 
ee 
