By Me ficr. J. Baron, D.D., F.S.A. 



113 



over the altar, and called in Greek KiGcoqlov, in Tjatin umbraculum, 

 and in Italian, baldacchino, became the substitute for the Greek 

 Kdr/K€ka, with its doors and curtains. 



This canopy was used before A.D. 500 in Eastern Churches, being- 

 found depicted in the mosaics in the dome of St. George of Thessa- 

 lonica. 1 The primary meaning* of the Greek word JLl£o)qlov is the 

 cup-like seed-vessel of the Egyptian water-lily. 2 The name and 

 thing were, therefore, probably in secular use in Egypt long before 

 the Christian era. It is curious that our word canopy is derived 

 from ^covcoiretov, the canopied bed, with curtains, used in Egypt to 

 keep off Kco^&)7re9, mosquitos. s A common synonym at this day 

 in the East for KiGtaqiov, in the ecclesiastical sense, is Kovftov/cXiov, 

 a canopy, apparently akin to the Latin cubiculum. Dr. Rock sup- 

 poses the Anglosaxon Churches to have followed the type of San 

 Clemente. This, surely, could only be true of some of the largest 

 and grandest Churches. A good example of this type, adapted to 

 the services of the Church of England, is St. Barnabas, at Oxford, 

 built in the middle of the present century, for a dense population, 

 where it is very successful. The baldacchino looks very well, but 

 is destitute of the curtains which gave it its Italian name and were 

 originally its chief raison cV etre as in some measure a substitute 

 for the Greek screen. .But although the San Clemente type, with 

 its baldacchino, chorus cantorum, and other details was unsuitable 

 in any fulness for small villages and missionary stations in England, 

 it may be observed in confirmation of Dr. Rock's view that its in- 

 fluence may be traced in many of our small Churches which have 

 an apse. Such Churches are known to have existed in the West 

 seven hundred years before the Norman Conquest of England. The 

 Church of St. Gervais, at Rouen, where William the Conqueror 

 went to die, is a bright new restoration, in Transition Norman style, 

 but through a trap-door in the floor is reached a crypt, where there 



1 Cf . Texier, Byzantine Architecture, plate 33 ; London, Day & Son, 1864. 



2 Cf. Student's Ecclesiastical History, by Philip Smith, p. 426, note 4, and 

 engraving, p. 427. 



3 Cf. Herodotus, ii., 95. Trommius, Concord, iu Sept., art. Koavoairiiov et 

 Kcovanrtov. Also Liddell and Scott, Lex. Ki^ooptov ; Kcovconhov, 



