passed out through it. The name
"Ravenniana" seems to have originated in the barracks of marine
infantry of the fleet of Ravenna, detailed for duty in Rome, or else
from the name "Civitas Ravenniana" given to the Trastevere in the
epoch of the decadence. It was reserved for the use of men, as the
fourth or Romana was for women, and the fifth, Guidonea, for tourists
and pilgrims. The main entrance, called the "Royal," or "Silver Door,"
was opened only on grand occasions. Its name was derived from the
silver ornaments affixed to the bronze by Honorius I. (A. D. 626-636)
in commemoration of the reunion of the church of Histria with the See
of Rome. According to the "Liber Pontificalis" nine hundred and
seventy-five pounds of silver were used in the work. There were the
figures of S. Peter on the left and S. Paul on the right, surrounded
by halos of precious stones. They were the prey of the Saracens in
845. Leo IV. restored them to a certain extent, changing the subject
of the silver _nielli_. In the year 1437, Antonio di Michele da
Viterbo, a Dominican lay brother, was commissioned by Pope Eugenius
IV. to carve new side doors in wood, while Antonio Filarete and Simone
Bardi were asked to model and cast, in bronze, those of the middle
entrance.

On entering the nave the visitor was struck by the simplicity of
Constantine's design, and by the multitude and variety of later
additions, by which the number of altars alone had been increased from
one to sixty-eight. Ninety-two columns supported an open roof, the
trusses of which were of the kingpost pattern. In spite of frequent
repairs, resulting from fires, decay, and age, some of these trusses
still bore the mark of Constantine's name. They were splendid
specimens of timber. Filippo Bonanni, whose description of S. Peter's
deserves more credit than all the rest together, except Grimaldi's
manuscripts,[82] says that on February 21, 1606, he examined and
measured the horizontal beam of the first truss from the facade, which
Carlo Maderno had just lowered to the floor; it was seventy-seven feet
long and three feet thick. The same writer copies from a manuscript
diary of Rutilio Alberini, dated 1339, the following story relating to
the same roof: "Pope Benedict XII. (1334-1342) has spent eighty
thousand gold florins in repairing the roof of S. Peter's, his head
carpenter being maestro Ballo da Colonna. A brave man he was, capable
of lowering and lifting those tremendous beams a