Table Of ContentA STUDY IN THE HISTORY OF IDEAS
BYE. BALDWIN SMITH
DATE DUE
Q726.5 S646d
Smith, E. Baldwin (Earl
Baldwin), 1888-1956.
The dome, a study in the
history of ideas.
19iO
PRINCETON MONOGRAPHS
IN ART AND ARCHAEOLOGY
XXV
BARR FERREE FOUNDATION
PUBLISHED FOR THE
DEPARTMENT OF ART AND ARCHAEOLOGY
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
THE DOME
A STUDY IN THE HISTORY OF IDEAS
BY BALDWIN SMITH
E.
NEW
PRINCETON, JERSEY
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
PUBLISHED BY PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS,
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INTHE UNITED KINGDOM: PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS, GUILDFORD, SURREY
Copyright, 1950by Princeton University Press,
copyright renewed 1978 by Princeton University Press
All rightsreserved
FirstPrinceton Paperback printing, 1971
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ISBN
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ISBN
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PRINTED INTHE UNITEDSTATES OFAMERICA
BYPRINCETON UNIVERSITYPRESS, PRINCETON, NEWJERSEY
TO THE MEMORY OF
BARR FERREE
Merely because this is thefirst monograph to bepublished withfunds
of the Barr Ferree Foundation is not the reason that the author takes
somuchpleasure indedicatingthis book to thememory ofBarrFerree.
Therealincentivecomesfrom havingknown himandhisgreat interest
in the history ofarchitecture.
This cultivated and learned gentleman devoted much of his life to
an appreciation of the artsandasystematicstudy ofthe Gothiccathe-
drals which he particularly admired. Born in 1862, he graduated in
1884 from the University of Pennsylvania where for some years he
served as a special lecturer on architectural subjects in its new School
of Architecture. Before entering business he became known as a
lecturer and, as a result of his addresses delivered at the Brooklyn
Institute of Arts and Sciences} he was made President of its depart-
ment of Architecture and the Fine Arts. In the course of years his
articles and interest in cataloguing "the buildings of architectural
merit everywhere in the world" resulted in his being the first Amer-
ican writer to be elected to honorary membership in the Royal Insti-
tute of British Architects.
All his life, even after he became a successful businessman, he con-
tinued to study the arts and compiled an extensive catalogue of the
French cathedrals. At the same time he gathered a fine and rare col-
lection of books on mediaeval churches and towns in France, which
now forms the nucleus and chief ornament of theBarrFerreeLibrary
at Princeton. During the First World War he gave eloquent expres-
sion to his wrath when his beloved cathedrals were attacked and
seriously injured. In New York he organized thePennsylvaniaSociety,
now the largest of the state societies in the United States, and from
its foundation in 1899 until his death in 1924 hewas itsSecretary and
Director. Because of thepatriotic work of the Society and hispersonal
efforts duringthe war, he was decorated in 1922 with the Grand Cross
of the Legion ofHonor.
His death, a sudden one,'occurred October 14, 1924. In accordance
with his wish, however, hisestate wasconverted intoaFoundationfor
thepublication ofbooks"onarchitectureandrelatedtopicsintheFine
Arts." Thus, thestimulation ofintelligentcultivation oftheFineArts,,
toward which the sustained effort of his life was directed, now lives
on, working through the avenues whereby a University influences its
students and the public. The dedication ofhis booksand property to
the cause of the Fine Arts in America has become what he wanted
a lasting memorial of the ultimate indestructibility of his
intellectual purpose and spiritual conviction.
PREFACE
admission that this book falls short ofwhat itwas intended to be is merely a
THEstatement of fact and not an apology. There was a time when the author opti-
mistically believed that he could present the major aspects ofdomical ideology
and evolution in one study. That, however, was before the rapidly expanding com-
plexities of the subject and the difficulties of organizing the material in a written
form where the ideas would not be reburied under a mass of accumulated evidence
had become inescapable factors. Once it had become evident that the dome was not
just a utilitarian form of vaulting, which had originated for structural and environ-
mental reasons in some one country, but was primarily a house concept, which had
acquired in numerous cultures its shape and imaginative values upon an ancestral
shelter long before it was translated for ideological reasons into more permanent
and monumental form by means of wood carpentry and masonry, the whole problem
of the dome opened up into a comprehensible but infinitely complex chapter In the
history of ideas.
After the broad outlines of this evolution from the primitive house had been
traced in the various ancient and retarded cultures of Europe, Asia, Africa, and the
Americas there arose the disquieting question of to what extent one scholar had the
time and equipment to reconstruct the whole development of domical beliefs. The
matterof time was settledconclusively when Karl Lehmann's "The Dome of Heaven"
showed that no one could expect to enjoy indefinitely a monopoly of domical ideas.
The other question remains to be tested now that the scaffolding has been removed
and The Dome in skeleton form has to stand alone. Since so many of the conclusions
are contrary to prevailing opinions, a partial study of the dome, which at least pre-
cipitates the majorissues, has theadvantage oftestingoutthebasicmethodofapproach
before it is applied to such controversial aspects of domical evolution as the origin
of the Iranian dome and the still more delicate question of whether even ancient
Greece did not have its own tradition of a symbolic, wooden dome.
It is difficult to imagine how certain portions of this study could have been written
ifithad not been for the assistance andcooperation of Glanville Downey, whose wide
knowledge of Byzantine literature and Greek architectural usage has made it possible
to base much of the essential evidence on the texts. Another contributing factor of
great importance, since it necessitated rewriting much of the manuscript, was the
of Andre Grabar's Martynum. Had the author's indebtedness been lim-
publication
ited to the Martyrium the references in the text might have been an adequate ac-
knowledgement. It was when Grabar read his last chapter and encouraged him to
publish it, even though it advanced an explanation for the Syrian bema which was
quite different from the one Grabar had published, that the author became indebted
The
to the man himself and came to appreciate the generosity ofhis fine scholarship.
fact that A. M. Friend has listened patiently to the mutterings of a dome-obsessed
mind, has read the manuscript and endeavoredto protect the author from the dangers
vn
PREFACE
of Byzantine liturgies, does not, of course, make him responsible for the unorthodox
approach to some of the problems. The author is indebted to Mrs. Estelle Brown for
her help in preparing the manuscript and to Miss Rosalie Green for her scholarly
care in checking the references.
BALDWIN SMITH
E.
Princeton University
April 1949
