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Review

Author(s): Linda Safran


Review by: Linda Safran
Source: The Catholic Historical Review, Vol. 83, No. 4 (Oct., 1997), pp. 756-757
Published by: Catholic University of America Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25025090
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756 BOOK REVIEWS

Roman law, "(so called in contrast to customary law and municipal statutory
law, which were not typically subjects of formal study in university law facul
ties)" and the meaning of the ius commune are particularly well analyzed.

The next chapter demonstrates the extent to which canon law affected the
private life of individuals. "Church courts exercised jurisdiction, for example,
over marriage and the termination of marriage, the legitimacy of children, all
types of sexual conduct, commercial and financial behaviour, the legitimate
times and conditions of labour, poor relief, wills and testaments and burial of
the dead" (p. 71).The chapter on public life explains how"out of the elaboration
of canonical corporation theory, emerged some novel political ideas that have
subsequently become basic to modern Western notions about constitutional
government" (p. 104).Two chapters deal with church courts and procedure and
with canonical jurisprudence. A final chapter explores the widespread ramifi
cations of canon law in Western societies.

In conclusion, "the speculations and insights of medieval canonists remain


enshrined both within the common law tradition of the English-speaking world
and within the civil law heritage of Continental Europeans. This is most obvi
ously true in family law and testamentary law, but canonical tradition is also ev
ident in many other branches of the law?contracts, torts, property law, and
corporation law among them. . . . Medieval canon law, in short, constituted a
fundamental formative force in the creation of some of the elemental ideas and
institutions that continue to this day to characterize Western societies" (p. 189).
Brundage, a past president of the American Catholic Historical Association and
the author of numerous books and articles, offers here a brilliant appreciation
of medieval canon law.

John E. Lynch
The Catholic University of America

Art and Architecture in Byzantium and Armenia: Liturgical and Exegetical


Approaches. By Thomas F. Mathews. [Variorum Collected Studies Series
CS510.] (Brookfield, Vermont: Variorum, Ashgate Publishing Company.
1995. Pp. xii, 295. $124.95.)

This is another in the Variorum series of collected studies containing, like the
others, reprints of the author's articles culled from disparate and often hard-to
find sources.These span the period from 1962 to 1994 and demonstrate Math
ews' continued interest in the interrelated areas of liturgy, architecture, and
church decoration. The author's brief introduction acknowledges that addi
tional debate on some of these topics has taken place in print, and that at least
one of his studies "requires modification" in the light of later archaeological
work. Unfortunately, even though only three of the included studies postdate
1986, the introduction refers to fewer than a dozen additional titles (two by
Mathews himself) that update the research here. The book is extensively illus

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BOOK REVIEWS 757

trated with black-and-white prints of varying quality, and there is a brief index.
Numerous typographical errors in the original articles have not been corrected.

Studies I-III deal with architecture and liturgy: "An early Roman chancel
arrangement and its liturgical uses," "Architecture and liturgy in the earliest
palace churches of Constantinople" (translated from its original publication in
French), and "'Private' liturgy in Byzantine architecture: toward a re-appraisal."
The latter study in particular remains fundamental, but all of them demonstrate
the author's familiarity with Greek and Latin texts as well as with archaeologi
cal material.

Studies IV-VI are largely descriptive reports on Armenian and Byzantine


churches, from the very brief "Observations on St Hripsim?" to the longer
"Notes on the Atik Mustafa Pa?a Camii in Istanbul and its frescoes" and "Obser
vations on the church of Panagia Kamariotissa on Heybeliada (Chalke), Istan
bul." More recent research on the Atik has confirmed Mathews' observations
about a porch, or flanking chapels, surrounding this Middle Byzantine church
(and all the others in Constantinople), and uncovered traces of Byzantine deco
ration unknown to him.

The iconography of Armenian and Byzantine manuscripts and frescoes is the


focus of Studies VII-X: "The early Armenian iconographie program of the
?Jmiacin Gospel (Erevan, Matenadaran Ms 2374, olim 229)," "The epigrams of
Leo Sacellarios and an exegetical approach to the miniatures of Vat. Reg. Gr. 1,"
"The annunciation at the well: a metaphor of Armenian monophysitism," and
"The Genesis frescoes of Alt'amar." These are wide-ranging inquiries, and the
close text-and-image exegesis of the Leo Bible offers a model for such studies.

Finally, Studies XI-XIV represent the author's analysis of how Byzantine


domed churches and their decoration operated for Orthodox viewers, and how
particular images functioned in their specific architectural contexts: "Cracks in
Lehmann 's 'Dome of Heaven',""The sequel to Nicaea II in Byzantine church dec
oration," "The transformation symbolism in Byzantine architecture and the
meaning of the Pantokrator in the dome," and "Psychological dimensions in the
art of Eastern Christendom "There is some repetition in the last two, which deal
extensively with the image of the Pantokrator and suggest parallels with Hindu
and Buddhist spirituality and artistic symbolism.Three of these last four studies
date to 1986 or later and thus are representative of the author's more recent re
search. An abiding interest in the interdependence of art, architecture, and reli
gious praxis unifies Mathews' scholarship and unites the articles in this handy
compilation.
Linda Safran
The Catholic University of America

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