Kourion Complex Palace (Mosaics) Fales, c. 1955 (1 of 2)De C. Fales (probably)

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In the top of the dome of the baptistery of San Giovanni in Fonte in Naples there is, also, a wreath. It is a Christian symbol, because it is accompanied by a labarum and an alpha and omega, and is probably baptismal, because the surrounding area of the dome is divided into octants. [handwritten: 459]

In and near the middle of the floor (room 19), is a large octagonal and [handwritten: xxx] inside the octagonal, a wreath. The wreath surrounds an inscription [handwritten: xx] of four lines. [handwritten: 449] The wreath, of course, signifies merely an entrance. [handwritten: 450] This interpretation of the wreath applies to the building as a baptistery, it has another signification. The building, as a baptistery, [handwritten: 450] signifies the wreath in the light of the octagonal outside the wreath [handwritten: xxx] from the rest of the building must signify the evidence [handwritten: xx] entrance to the building as a baptistery. Octagons were symbolic of baptism as is shown by many eight-sided baptisteries. [handwritten: 451] In the Coptic, the Syrian, the Armenian, and the [handwritten: 452] Chaldean rites of baptism, the person who immediately after baptism [handwritten: 455] been dressed in a white robe [handwritten: and] was crowned with a wreath.

Although in the Greek rite of baptism there is no direct mention of crowning the person who has just been baptized, [handwritten: 456] there are certain indications of this custom. Now Ephraem, the Syrian, speaks of the church and her sons, that is those who had just been baptized, as both being crowned, and in the Nestorian rite, the church is spoken of as coronata. [handwritten: 457] [handwritten: 458]

Indeed, in a certain sense, the whole building is thought of as a living person. The line of the large inscription in room (4) [handwritten: ἐἰς δόξαν 3 ἵσωσ πολλὰ ἔτη Χριστοῦ] probably refers not only to the building but, also, to those who had just been baptized, for after these had been dressed in a white robe, they girt about themselves a