Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 17.djvu/503

* SAINT-MALO. 459 SAINT MARK'S CHURCH. turcsque appoarance. A rolling bridge (Pont Roulant) connects Saint-Malo with the suburl) of Saint-Servan across the harbor. The tif- teenthcentury parish ehurcli. a former cathedral, the fourteenth-century castle, the casino, mu- seum, and lilirarv are noteworthy features. The town carries ou a considcralile trade in agricul- tural produce, coal, and lumber, has large cod- tishing interests in connection with Xewfound- land, and regular steamship communication with the Channel Islands and Southampton. Ship- building and iron-working are also important industries. Population, in 1901, ll,48fi. Saint- Malo received its name from Saint Malo. a Welsh monk, who came here in the sixth cen- tury. It was at the zenith of its prosperity in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when its traders amassed vast wealth as the result of their commercial and privateering ventures. The English attempted at various times to capture the town, but were unsuccessful. The tomb of Chateaubriand is on the island of Grand-Bey, a sliort distance from the town. SAINT MARC, sax miirk. The capital town of the Department of Artibonite, Haiti, forty- five miles northwest of Port-au-Prince, on Saint Marc Bay { Map : Antilles, L 5 ) . Its chief ex- port is coffee. Its municipal population is re- ported tn be 20.000. SAINT -MARC GIRARDIN,. saN'mJirk' zhe'- riir'daN', Francois Auguste (known as ]Iarc GiR.iRMx) (1801-73). A French author and journalist, born in Paris. He obtained a professor- ship in the CoU&ge Louis-le-Grand in 1827 and in the same year began his long political and literary connection with the JoiirnaJ des Dcbats. He was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1834, and took a prominent part in framing and securing the passage of the bill for secondary education in 1837, and upon his reelection to the Chamber in the same year was made a mem- ber of the Royal Council of Public Instruction. He retired from political life after the Revolu- tion of 1848. and until 1871 gave himself up almost entirely to literary work. In the latter year lie was returned to the National Assembly, elected vice-president, and became an active sup- porter of the policy of Thiers. Saint-Marc Girar- din lectured on literature at the Sorbonne for more than thirty years. He published numerous works on history and literature, among which are. Tableau de In nuirchr et des prDf/refi de In littera- tiire franrainc an XVIieme siecle (1828) ; Coins de la litternture draniatique ou de Viisage des passions dans le dranie (1843) ; Essais de littera- fiire et de morale (184.5): La Fontaine et les fahiilistes (1807): La chute du Second Empire (1874): and ./. J. Rousseau, sa vie et ses ourrafjes n87.5). Consult Tamisier, Saint-ilarc Girardin. etude liUrraire (1870). SAINT MARK'S CHURCH (S.o- M.^rco) in Venice. Originally tlie chapel attached to the palace of the Doge and the national sanctuary of the Venetians., but since 1807 the Cathedral of Venice. It derives its name from the patron saint of Venice, the .postle Mark, whose reputed relics were transported from Alexandria to Venice in 828. The church was Iniill in the ninth century, and rebuilt after a conllagration in the tenth. It was a simple Romanesque structure of brick, nearly of its mo<lern plan. Vol. XVII.— 30. though without so extensive a narthex, but adorned with lines of colored brick and brick set in patterns, here and there; a very simple church in the form of a Greek cross with five low cu- polas. In the eleventh century there began a series of alterations tending to make the church still more Oriental than it was originally. The low brick cupolas were covered and roofed by lofty domes of wood covered with metal ; the mosaic decoration of the interior was carried much further: parts of the walls within were sheathed with slabs of alabaster; the decoration by incrusted marbles and mosaics was carried into the exterior; and finally in the Gothic period (fifteenth century! the pinnacles, the crockets, and other llorid adoriuucnt of the exterior were added. The result is the church as we have it to-day, the most splendid piece of ])olychromatic architecture in Europe, and more splendid even than Saint Sophia at Constantinople- in its ])res- ent condition. The church is about two hundred and fifty feet long, east and west, including the great narthex, and one hundred and seventy feet from north to south over the transepts, and the small porches which, whether open or not, complete the arms of the cross. The west front has five great porches opening upon the Piazza di San JIarco, and each porch so deep that the con- tinuous flat roof above them aflords a very ample balcony. The famous Ijronze horses which are supposed to have been brought from Con- stantinople and to be of antique make are set above the central porch. Of these five porches three are open, and on entering one of those door- ways the visitor finds himself in the great nar- thex. This, in its complete extent, surrounds the western arm of the cross, that which would be the nave in an onlinary Western Romanesque church; but of the tliree vestibules or arms so made, one is occupied in part by the Baptistery and in part by the chapel called the Cappella Zen. The narthex is vaulted low, underneath a gallery which opens into the church : and these vaults so near the eye are covered with mosaics with many parts of the Bible history. Most of these are of early time, twelfth and thirteenth centuries, but inunediately over the main door- way leading into the church is a magnificent Saint Mark from drawings by Titian. On entering the church the impression is again that of a low and not impressive interior. Everything is near to the eye: the mosaics of the high vaults can be easily made out, al- though the church is not brightly lighted by day and is still more dim by night. It is, however, full of beautiful details, and these are com- bined with singular skill and singular good for- tune to produce one of the most beautiful in- teriors in the world. Even when the styles dif- fer widely, and disagreement or even discordant efi'ects might be expected, the result is harmoni- ous and pleasant to the eye. The high screen of the choir with a tlight of steps leading to it: the row of statues which crowns this screen; the ciborium behind it. under which is the high altar, and behind which is to be seen at certain times the famous pnia d'oro. an altar-screen of Byzantine work in silver, silver-gilt, enamel, and precious stones; the alabaster columns and sheathings of the walls, the shrines and side altars in other parts of the church; the deli-