Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Art And The Builders Of Monte Cassino, Ceremonious Dedications, Master Workmen, Etc., In The Middle Ages.
efforts of the Venerable Abbot at Rome , whither he went , and by the enormous expenditures of private and conventual resources ; and importunate solicitations among affluent and powerful friends secured vast quantities of marble columns , pedestals , chapters , and other
remnants of partially ruined and perhaps ancient temples . Great skill was required and furnished to ship these architectural relicts upon floats down the Tiber to Garilano , and thence to a convenient port along the adjacent sea coast , from which they wei'e transported by vehicles , with enormous labour , to Cassino . Along this ,
valuable aid was rendered bj enthusiastic civilians , who , with willingarms and shoulders , propelled the sluggish wheels of the Plaustrorum over a road up the preciptitious mountain slojoes so rough as to demand most careful management .
When the area planed from the solid bed of stone Avas sufficientl y advanced , together with the presence of abundant materials , Desiderius summoned the most skilled craftsmen from Amalphi and the province , of Lombardy to conduct the labours on an edifice which , when finished , should excel the finest specimens of European architecture . It
therefore appears that the Lombard constructors had maintained an uninterrupted supremacy in Masonic Art through a great stretch of time , inasmuch as historical proofs incontrovertibly attest the existence of their organization , with gildic government , under the sanction of royal rescripts in the year 643 .
The record of the era before us does not state the details of dedicating the foundation stones of this building , although the minute chronicle of so interesting an event in the inauguration of the Abbey of Saint Denys , in the following century , fully satisfies curiosity , and to a degree is confirmatory of Masonic traditions .
In the ceremony of consecrating St . Denys , the King of Prance himself actually descended into the excavation for the foundation , and with his own hands laid the first stone on which this elegant superstructure subsequently arose . Following him , each of the hierarchial magnates seriatim likewise dedicated his , and during these solemn
services were attended by the most illustrious of the craft in the Gallic realm . One rite here has its significance in its relation to the formularies of Freemasons observed in modern dedicatory exercises , and that is the preparation and use of cement or mortar b y these consecrating prelates when they formerly solemnized the stones thus laid .
Western Europe at this epoch was possessed of inadequate resources from which to furnish the higher styles of musive or inlaid work , and finer statuary for decorating and embellishing the rising pile at Monte Cassino . Musivists , therefore , from Constantinople , and Saracen Artificers from Alexandria , were procured by legates specially des-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Art And The Builders Of Monte Cassino, Ceremonious Dedications, Master Workmen, Etc., In The Middle Ages.
efforts of the Venerable Abbot at Rome , whither he went , and by the enormous expenditures of private and conventual resources ; and importunate solicitations among affluent and powerful friends secured vast quantities of marble columns , pedestals , chapters , and other
remnants of partially ruined and perhaps ancient temples . Great skill was required and furnished to ship these architectural relicts upon floats down the Tiber to Garilano , and thence to a convenient port along the adjacent sea coast , from which they wei'e transported by vehicles , with enormous labour , to Cassino . Along this ,
valuable aid was rendered bj enthusiastic civilians , who , with willingarms and shoulders , propelled the sluggish wheels of the Plaustrorum over a road up the preciptitious mountain slojoes so rough as to demand most careful management .
When the area planed from the solid bed of stone Avas sufficientl y advanced , together with the presence of abundant materials , Desiderius summoned the most skilled craftsmen from Amalphi and the province , of Lombardy to conduct the labours on an edifice which , when finished , should excel the finest specimens of European architecture . It
therefore appears that the Lombard constructors had maintained an uninterrupted supremacy in Masonic Art through a great stretch of time , inasmuch as historical proofs incontrovertibly attest the existence of their organization , with gildic government , under the sanction of royal rescripts in the year 643 .
The record of the era before us does not state the details of dedicating the foundation stones of this building , although the minute chronicle of so interesting an event in the inauguration of the Abbey of Saint Denys , in the following century , fully satisfies curiosity , and to a degree is confirmatory of Masonic traditions .
In the ceremony of consecrating St . Denys , the King of Prance himself actually descended into the excavation for the foundation , and with his own hands laid the first stone on which this elegant superstructure subsequently arose . Following him , each of the hierarchial magnates seriatim likewise dedicated his , and during these solemn
services were attended by the most illustrious of the craft in the Gallic realm . One rite here has its significance in its relation to the formularies of Freemasons observed in modern dedicatory exercises , and that is the preparation and use of cement or mortar b y these consecrating prelates when they formerly solemnized the stones thus laid .
Western Europe at this epoch was possessed of inadequate resources from which to furnish the higher styles of musive or inlaid work , and finer statuary for decorating and embellishing the rising pile at Monte Cassino . Musivists , therefore , from Constantinople , and Saracen Artificers from Alexandria , were procured by legates specially des-