basilica

basilica

1. a Roman building, used for public administration, having a large rectangular central nave with an aisle on each side and an apse at the end

2. a rectangular early Christian or medieval church, usually having a nave with clerestories, two or four aisles, one or more vaulted apses, and a timber roof

3. a Roman Catholic church having special ceremonial rights

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

Basilica

A Roman hall of justice with a high central space lit by a clerestory with a timbered gable roof. It became the form of the early Christian church, with a semicircular apse at the end preceded by a vestibule and atrium.

Illustrated Dictionary of Architecture Copyright © 2012, 2002, 1998 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

basilica

basilica: Typical plan. A, D, apse; B, B’, secondary apse; C, high altar; D, bishop’s throne; G, transept; H, nave; J, J’, aisles

1. A Roman hall of justice, typically with a high central space lit by a clerestory and lower aisles all around it, and with apses or exedrae for the seats of the judges.

2. The form of the early Christian church, a central high nave with clerestory, lower aisles along the sides only,

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. Copyright © 2003 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Basilica

 

(Greek: Basiliká), last codification of Byzantine law, completed in A.D. 890 during the reign of Emperor Leo VI (the Wise), and consisting of 60 books.

The Basilica is based on Justinian’s code of laws. Nevertheless, certain of the code’s regulations that were outmoded or abolished were not included in the Basilica. Moreover, in the Basilica each legal institution is examined in only one place and not in various books, as was the case with Justinian’s code of laws. In drawing up the Basilica, the Procheiron was also utilized, and in the latest copies of the Basilica excerpts are cited from the works of Byzantine jurists of the 11th and 12th centuries. In its class orientation the Basilica reflected the process of peasant oppression. Serfdom was again legalized, and restrictions were removed on the enlargement of private landholdings.

REFERENCE

Basilicorum libri LX, vols. 1-6, edited by C. G. E. Heimbach; vol. 7, edited by E. G. Terrini and J. Mercati. Leipzig, 1833-97.

Z. M. CHERNILOVSKII

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.