Books.

Church of Sancta Sophia, Constantinople: A Study of Byzantine Building. By W. R. Lethaby and Harold Swainson. Macmillan & Co. 1894. 307 pages with illustrations. $6.50.

It seems especially fitting that a notice of Mr. Lethaby's work on the church of Sta. Sophia, or as he calls it Sancta Sophia, should appear in the same issue with the beautiful Byzantine capitals from Ravenna, which we publish this month. In the description of this work from Ravenna, on another page, the connection is pointed out between Constantinople, the capital of the Roman Empire in the East, and Ravenna, then the Western capital.

The work before us is an important and exhaustive study, both architecturally and historically, of this beautiful building, which Mr. Van Brunt has called "the central building of the world." Nothing has ever been done in enriching interiors which approaches in splendor the best work of the Byzantine builders, and Sta. Sophia, by general consent, is the most beautiful of the Byzantine churches; but its exterior is by no means without faults, and its claim for distinction would fall if supported only by this.

The book takes up in order the history of Sta. Sophia, with citations of various authorities for statements concerning its early history; accounts of the various vicissitudes through which it has passed; its construction, lighting, details, mosaics, etc., all carefully and conscientiously described, the descriptive portion based on a painstaking study of the building itself. The illustrations which accompany the text are numerous and excellent; there is no attempt to furnish illustrations at large scale, which are already accessible in Salzenberg.

The monumental work of Salzenberg, which has been the architect's reference book for Sta. Sophia, is referred to and largely quoted from.

The two articles by Mr. Henry Van Brunt and Prof. A. D. F. Hamlin, published in The Architectural Review, Vol. II., No. 5, and Vol. III., No. 2, will be found of considerable interest in connection with Mr. Lethaby's book.