Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/460

438 p A U P A V looking at," Otas but criticism, in the true sense of the word, is hardly ever attempted. In ii. 27, 5 he speaks highly of Polyclitus as an architect, and says that none can rival him for beauty or proportion. In vii. 5, 2 he says the temples of Hera in Samos and of Athena at Phoca>a "were objects of admiration," though they had been burned and greatly injured by the Persians. Occasionally (as viL 5, 4 ; 26, 6) he guesses the name of an un known artist from the style of a sculpture ; in vii. 25, 4 he describes some marble statues of women as showing a good style of art, fx l ffa >- T^X>"?* ( t - His descriptions of a series of designs, like those painted by Polygnotus in the Lesche at Delphi, 1 arc dry and without a glimpse of discrimination, mere lists of names and sub jects, like modern "guides " to a gallery or museum of art. At the same time the minuteness of observation and the careful record of all the inscribed names are most commendable, and the value of the account to us from a literary point of view, as showing what subjects were regarded as " Homeric " in the time of Polygnotus, a contemporary of Pericles, cannot be overrated. The same re marks apply to the account of the famous "chest of Cypselus," preserved at Olympia, and claiming a great antiquity from the inscriptions being written povaTpo^Sbv, alternately from left to right and right to left. 2 He ends his description of scenes chiefly taken from the Troica with these words : 3 " Who the maker of this chest was we had no means of forming any conjecture. The inscriptions upon it may perhaps be by another hand ; but our general impression was that the designer was Eumelus of Corinth, mainly on account of the processional hymn which he composed for Delos." This Eumelus is believed to have flourished about 750 B.C. The suspicion of Pausanias that the inscriptions were later make it probable that the whole design and workmanship were imitative on an archaic model. Recent explorations, especially those at Olympia, are largely indebted to the careful and detailed accounts of Pausanias. 4 The temples at Ephesus, Branchidai, Claros, Samos, and Phocsea he merely mentions, his researches being limited to the cities of western Greece. 5 His notes on the topography of Athens, though he passes over several of the more important buildings, as the great theatre and the Odeum, with little more than a mere reference, are still the principal authority confirming the allusions in early writers. He seems, indeed, to have admired objects more for their antiquity than for their beauty. He often diverges into long details of his tory, largely mixed with legend, as in his long account of the Mes- scnian wars in book iv. ; indeed, mythology and history proper stand with Pausanias in precisely the same category. He does not show any great advance in this respect from the times of Hecatreus or Pherecydes of Syros. The style of Pausanias is simple and easy, but it is wanting in the quaintness and vivacity of Herodotus, and it has not the florid eloquence of Plato or Lucian. The simple and genuine credulity of Herodotus seems foolish or affected in a writer who lived in a much more advanced period of human knowledge. Thus he gravely tells us 6 that the water of the Styx will break crystal and precious stones and vessels of clay, and cause metals, even gold, to decay, and can only be kept in a horse s hoof. The titles of the several books are taken from the divisions of the Peloponnesus, together with the three lying immediately north of the isthmus ; the first book being devoted to Attica, the ninth to Bceotia, and the tenth to Phocis. The remainder are (ii.) Cor- inthiaca, (iii.) Laconica, (iv. ) Messeniaca, (v. and vi. ) Eliaca, (vii.) Achaica, (viii. ) Arcadica. In adopting this nomenclature he prob ably followed the Troica, Pcrsica, &c. , of Hellanicus. A vast mass of information is contained in these several books, which may be closely compared in their treatment and in the great variety of subjects with English "county histories." Without the sustained interest and the genial humour which characterize the work of Herodotus, composed as it evidently was for recital and not for private reading, Pausanias is an accurate and diligent recorder of what he saw and knew. He copied inscrip tions, and, like Herodotus, he often quotes oracles ; in ascertaining the names of artists he is particularly careful. That he had made great research into the history and topography of Greece is abun dantly shown ; but he is rather chary in his reference to previous authors. Of Herodotus he makes mention in eight or nine places, of Plutarch in one (i. 36, 4), of Plato in four. Thucydides is referred to once (vi. 19, 5), Acusilaus once (ii. 16, 4), Hellanicus 1 x. (Phocica), 25-31. 2 v. (Eliaca), 17-19. 3 19, 2, p. 427. 4 Eliaca (II.), book vi., the later chapters of which give a very full description of Olyrnpia and its buildings and statues. 5 vii. 5, 4. Here occurs one of the few faint expressions of pleasure or praise that the writer indulges in. "You would be pleased," he says, " also with the temple of Hercules at Erythra, and that of Athena at Priene, the latter on account of the statue, the Heracleum for its antiquity." These remarks show that he had visited and knew something of the temples in Ionia. The tomb of Mausolus at Hali- carnassus he mentions in terms approaching to praise, viii. 16, 4. 6 viii. (Arcadica), 18, 5. twice, Hecateus four times, Strabo nowhere. Of the poets, epic, lyric, and dramatic, he displays a good knowledge, as well as of Pindar, whom he frequently quotes. It is clear, therefore, that Pausanias was a literary man, and perhaps it is more an idiosyn crasy than a fault that he is cold and prosaic in his descriptions. Of the author s birth, family, or country there are no indications. The name is Doric, but the style is the Attic of Plutarch, Strabo, and Lucian. The best editions of Pausanias are those of Sicbelis (5 vols. Svo, Loipsic, 1822-28), and of Schubart and Wsdz (3 vols. Svo, Leipsic, 18:i8-40). Schubart s text was reprinted in the Triibner series (2 vols. 12ino, Leipsic. 1S02), with brief introductory critical notes and a very careful and complete index. This is an excellent and accurate edition, and one which leaves nothing to be de sired. (P. A. P.) PAUSILIPO, or POSILLIPO. See NAPLES, vol. xvii. p. 187. PAVIA, a city of Italy, the chief town of a province, and a bishop s see, is situated at a height of 270 feet above the sea -level, 22^ miles by rail south of Milan, on the left bank of the Ticino, about 2 miles above its junction with the Po. The railway from Milan to Genoa, which is there joined by lines from Cremona, Arc., crosses the river on a fine bridge constructed in 1865; and, farther down, the city is connected with the suburban village of Ticino by a remarkable brick -built covered bridge dating from the 14th century. Though it has lost its importance as a fortified town, and no longer deserves the designation of " City of the Hundred Towers," Pavia is still for the most part surrounded by its ramparts, which in a circuit of about 3| miles enclose an area of 400 acres. Several of its buildings are of great architectural interest. The basilica of San Michele is one of the finest specimens ex tant of the Lombard style (cf. ARCHITECTURE, vol. ii. p. 435), and as it was within its walls that the crown was placed on the head of the "kings of Italy," from whom the house of Savoy claims to be descended, it has received the legal title of Basilica Reale (royal decree of 18G3). A careful restoration has since been effected. The cathedral of San Stefano, of which the first stone was laid by Bishop Ascanio Sforza in 1488, is still unfinished, the original design by Cristoforo Rocchi, a pupil of Bramante, consist ing of a central octagon from which four arms projected so as to form a cross. In the interior is the tomb of St Augustine, a remarkable specimen of 14th-century sculp ture, which presents the saint life-size in pontifical robes, and is surrounded by a profusion of bas-reliefs and minor figures representing saints of his order, liberal arts, and cardinal virtues in all, 420 heads. The relics which it enshrines are said to have been brought from Hippo to Sar dinia by African refugees, purchased in 724 by Liutprand, and deposited in the now ruined church of San Pietro in Ciel d Oro, and thence transferred to the cathedral subse quent to their rediscovery in 1695. Beneath the high altar is the tomb of Boetius, whose remains were also brought from San Pietro ; and from the roof of the build ing is suspended the lance of Roland (Orlando). 7 Of 7 The famous Certosa of Pavia, one of the most magnificent monas teries in the world, is not situated within the city, but at a distance of about 5 miles towards the north. Its founder, Gian Galeazzo Visconti (to whom we also owe the Milan cathedral), laid the first stone on 27th August 1396, and the building was nominally finished in 1542. A parallelogram, about 140 yards long by 110 broad, is surrounded on .all sides by a lofty cloister formed of 123 arches. The church, whose marble fi^ade is more richly decorated than any other in north Italy, is in the form of a Latin cross, 253 feet long by 177 feet wide, with three naves and a vast octagonal dome. In the south transept stands the mausoleum, in Carrara marble, of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, designed by Galeazzo Pellegrini in 1490 ; and in the north transept are the marble statues of Lodovico Sforza il Moro and his consort Beatrice by Cristoforo Solari. The Carthusian monks, to whom the monastery was entrusted from the first by its founder, were bound to employ a certain proportion of their annual revenue in prosecuting the work till its completion ; and even after 1542 they voluntarily continued to expend large sums on further decoration. The Certosa of Pavia is thus a practical text-book of Italian art for well-nigh three centuries (see Durelli, La Certosa di Facia, Milan, 1823 ; and Gainer s Fresco De corations, 1854, and Terra Cotta Architecture in North Italy, 1867).