Jonathan Rainey
In the latter half of the fourth century, a Roman Christian by the name of Pontius Meropius Paulinus established a monastic center at the community of Nola in southern Italy. When Paulinus arrived at Nola in the autumn of 395 AD, the sanctuary consisted of a single basilica that housed the tomb of St. Felix, a local martyr, in addition to a number of Christian and pagan tombs. By the time of Paulinus’ death in 431, not only had the original basilica undergone a complete renovation, but a completely new basilica as well as an elaborate system of courtyards, fountains, and hospices adorned the complex.
While the writings of Paulinus himself have provided us with enough descriptive details of his building projects at Nola to begin a reconstruction of the basilica complex, such a reconstruction is only complete if combined with an on-site visit and study of the archaeological remains. The literary description provided by Paulinus is often vague and incomplete, and it is virtually impossible to attempt an honest and professional reconstruction based on the literary sources alone. Though the secondary literature is helpful, there are too few schematics and virtually no photographs available. The intent of my project was to serve a specific research need that would help others to better understand 4th century Christian art and architecture, in addition to furthering my own research of this particular monastery.
Since I had already researched and analyzed the literary sources of Paulinus, what remained was to visit the site and compare that data with the archaeological remains themselves. I traveled to the basilica site at Nola in southern Italy to investigate the structural remnants and correlate them with the information that Paulinus provides. The literary sources make reference to many courtyards, inscriptions, mosaics, and frescoes with too little detail to make a confident statement of their location and spatial orientation. In particular, I searched for extant art and interior decoration, since Paulinus’ description in these areas are particularly scant. Further, there are certain structures known to have been a part of the basilica complex, such as the baptistery, which are equally impossible to locate from the literature and which required on-site investigation.
I visited the site on several occasions while in Italy, and thoroughly photographed the site over the course of those visits. There was a significant amount of art, both mosaics and frescoes, that remained. However, all of the art was from subsequent centuries, the mosaics originating in the tenth and eleventh centuries and the frescoes in the thirteenth through fifteenth centuries. Unfortunately, none of the art described by Paulinus has survived, and thus much of the artistic reconstructions of the complex will have to remain conjectural.
Much of the architecture, however, has survived, and it is in this area that the on-site investigation proved most useful. For example, from the literary descriptions of Paulinus alone, it is very hard to determine whether the Basilica Nova at Nola was a single aisle or double aisle basilica. Modern scholarship on the issue cannot agree, and one of the most referenced works on the subject conjectures a two aisle structure. However, the on-site visit verified that the structure was in fact a single aisle basilica, which was made clear by the single line of column bases that visibly remain. Other aspects of the architecture were similarly verified, although several centuries of subsequent architectural alterations and additions made the task somewhat difficult.
I had already written a preliminary paper on the basilica complex, providing a description of the complex as far as the literary sources allow. The on-site visit allowed me to correct and refine parts of the study, particularly those portions which provided a detailed reconstruction of the basilica complex and its architectural details. Research at the university libraries in Naples also aided me in this process, providing additional scholarly resources that were not available in the United States. The completed paper, titled “Paulinus of Nola and the Cult of St. Felix,” will be published in Apolline: Interdisciplinary Studies on Vesuvius’ North Slope, a joint publication between Brigham Young University and the Istitutio Universitario Suor Orsula Benincasa in Naples, Italy.
My next project will be to create a web page on which I can post the many photographs of the complex that I took. Every significant feature of the art and architecture of the complex will be visually documented. This will provide a much needed tool for scholars in particular, but also for all those interested in the art, architecture, and history of that period.