Dome
though often used synonymously with cupola, a dome, in the stricter sense, signifies signifies the external part of the spherical or polygonal roof, of which the part. In Italian cupola is the internal part. In Italian usage, however, it has a wider significa tion, being used to denote the cathedral or chief church of a town, the house (domus) par excellence, or house of God.
The cause of the name of the building being thus applied to the form of the roof which covered it arose from the fact that the chief churches of Italy were at one period almost universally so roofed. It DOMENICHINO was at Constantinople and in the Byzantine provinces that the dome was first employed in ecclesiastical structures.
But it was the Romans who, in reality, were the inventors of the dome, as of all the other applications of the semi-circular arch. Of their success in applying it to large buildings we have abundant proof in the ancient domes still to be seen in Rome and its neighborhood. The dome of the Pantheon is still probably the most magnificent dome in existence.
The dome of St. Peter's, Rome; of St.
Paul's, London; of the Capitol, Wash- DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE lem. It stands on Mount Moriah, on the site once occupied by the Temple of Solomon. Immediately under its dome an irregular-shaped rock projects above the pavement. This rock was the scene of many scriptural events, and has been greatly revered for ages.