| Abstrakt: |
In 1996 we had requested for the dossier on double churches an up-to-date statement on the cathedral of Naples by J. Desmulliez, who was then preparing a thesis on Christian Campania. She here provides an account of research questions based both on locally published reports, notably those by R. Di Stefano and N. Ciavolino following recent excavations which have modified accepted theories, and on syntheses by R. Farioli andL. Pani Ermini, as presented in her thesis. The episcopal group consists of a Constantinian basilica mentioned in the Roman Liber Pontificalis and in Neopolitan tradition, but the Gesta of the bishops of Naples assigns it to a bishop of the 2nd half of the 4th century. It is the nucleus of the present cathedral at the south-west of the insula, dedicated to Sancta Restituta after the transfer of this saint's relics to Naples via Ischia. The S. Giovanni in Fonte baptistery is also attributed to Constantine in the saint's life but the Gesta notes it as a construction of Bishop Severus at the end of the 4th century or beginning of the 5th, which Soter {attested in 465) modified and restored. It is one of the oldest surviving baptisteries with a vault over a tambour, and it is decorated with famous mosaics, which pose problems of iconography and chronology, for one discerns differences in the decorative plan and in style: was one part by Soter, or did two different teams work at the same time ? A second church is due to Bishop Stephanus {attested between 495 and 502), who gave it his name (Stephania). It was believed to lie perpendicular to the first church, but the excavations have demonstrated that it was para llel. Late sources state that it was dedicated to the Saviour, but there also existed a basilica apostolorum, which some believe to be only a first phase of the future Stephania. It is necessary to add another 'minor' baptistery, as at Milan, which has been located and which was associated with an apsidal room with a synthronos: consignatorium or accubitum attributed to Bishop Vincentius actually mentioned in a votive inscription? The episcopal group thus displays the form of two churches with a baptistery between. Relying upon the traditional schema, the recent authors see in this an illustration of the ideal complex defined by Paulinus of Nola for Sulpicius Severus at Primuliacum, and they distinguish a room for catechumens and a congregational church. In any case, we are not concerned here with a single program from the beginning, and the traditional interpretation has been widely discussed in the section devoted to this theme in AnTard 4. |
