File:Curious questions in history, literature, art, and social life. Designed as a manual of general information (1890) (14578433337).jpg

Identifier: curiousquestions00kill (find matches)
Title: Curious questions in history, literature, art, and social life. Designed as a manual of general information
Year: 1890 (1890s)
Authors: Killikelly, Sarah H. (Sarah Hutchins), 1840-1912
Subjects: Questions and answers
Publisher: Philadelphia, Keystone
Contributing Library: Getty Research Institute
Digitizing Sponsor: Getty Research Institute

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he time being the early part of the fifteenthcentury. The author of this grand opera is Guiseppe Verdi.He was born in the Duchy of Parma, Italy, Oct. 9, 1814.His first opera was a failure; but in 1842 he broughtout Nabuco, which at once made him famous. Hehas since written many beautiful operas, — Ernani, Rigoletto, II Trovatore, La Traviata, andAida. At one time, when one of his operas was to be per-formed in Venice, he was escorted to and from thetheatre by a triumphal procession, and offered a goldencrown. At present he is a senator of the kingdom of Italy. 188. ANCIENT BASILICAS. Courts of justice in Rome were held in basilicas, andthe edifices thus named were subsequently used asChristian churches. The plan on which they were all constructed, no mat-ter how great their size, was nearly uniform; and theywere often characterized by great splendor. They had a central nave much longer than wide : oneach side of this nave was a row of columns, whichseparated it from the side-aisles.
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CURIOUS QUESTIONS. 225 At the end of the edifice farthest from the entrancewas a circular arch, and behind it a semicircular spacewhich was used as a court of law and justice ; the cen-tral portion of the building being devoted to business,and often used as an exchange. When Christianity supplanted heathenism in Rome,these basilicas were used as places of worship. The heathen temples had not been built for the ad-mission of large bodies of people, and had been pol-luted by sacrifices to heathen gods. The basilicas werefree from this reproach : hence, from the beginning ofthe fourth to the eighth century, they were appropriatedto the uses of divine worship. The oldest basilica is St. John Lateran in Rome,built 289 B.C., which became the first Christian churchin that city. In front of this church stands the obe-lisk of the Lateran, one hundred and fifty feet high,the oldest object in Rome, being referred by transla-tions of hieroglyphics to the year 1740 B.C. It wasbrought from the Temp

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