he shell of the first church,
erected in the course of the latter half of the tenth century. We shall
perhaps obtain some further reason for this belief as we examine these
remains themselves.

Sec. XIII. Of the body of the church, unhappily, they are few and obscure;
but the general form and extent of the building, as shown in the plan,
Plate I. fig. 2, are determined, first, by the breadth of the uninjured
east end D E; secondly, by some remains of the original brickwork of the
clerestory, and in all probability of the side walls also, though these
have been refaced; and finally by the series of nave shafts, which are
still perfect. The doors A and B may or may not be in their original
positions; there must of course have been always, as now, a principal
entrance at the west end. The ground plan is composed, like that of
Torcello, of nave and aisles only, but the clerestory has transepts
extending as far as the outer wall of the aisles. The semicircular apse,
thrown out in the centre of the east end, is now the chief feature of
interest in the church, though the nave shafts and the eastern
extremities of the aisles, outside, are also portions of the original
building; the latter having been modernized in the interior, it cannot
now be ascertained whether, as is probable, the aisles had once round
ends as well as the choir. The spaces F G form small chapels, of which G
has a straight terminal wall behind its altar, and F a curved one,
marked by the dotted line; the partitions which divide these chapels
from the presbytery are also indicated by dotted lines, being modern
work.

Sec. XIV. The plan is drawn carefully to scale, but the relation in which
its proportions are disposed can hardly be appreciated by the eye. The
width of the nave from shaft to opposite shaft is 32 feet 8 inches: of
the aisles, from the shaft to the wall, 16 feet 2 inches, or allowing 2
inches for the thickness of the modern wainscot, 16 feet 4 inches, half
the breadth of the nave exactly. The intervals between the shafts are
exactly one fourth of the width of the nave, or 8 feet 2 inches, and the
distance between the great piers which form the pseudo-transept is 24
feet 6 inches, exactly three times the interval of the shafts. So the
four distances are accurately in arithmetical proportion; i.e.

Ft. In.
Interval of shafts 8 2
Width of aisle 16 4
Width of transept