The first Christian church at Winchester is said to have been destroyed during the persecution of Aurelian, and rebuilt in 293. It was again burned by the Saxons in 495. St Swithun held the episcopate from 852 to 862, and enlarged the cathedral. The foundations of the adjacent abbey church of Hyde, in which some of the Saxon kings were buried, were discovered in 1886 close to the north side of the cathedral nave. The cathedral church was at one time associated with a priory of secular canons, but St Ethelwold, bishop from 963 to 984, suppressed the secular foundation and built a Benedictine abbey in its place. A wholly new cathedral was begun by Bishop Walkelin (1070-98), and in 1093 the eastern portion was consecrated jointly to St Peter, St Paul, and St Swithun. The two Norman transepts and the low central tower still exist, as does also the very curious early crypt, east of the crossing. This is a low vaulted structure partly supported by a central row of columns; it has an apsidal termination, and is surrounded by an ambulatory, out of which a second smaller apse extends eastwards,—apparently a survival of the “confessio” of the earlier cathedral. The whole of the Norman nave was pulled down and rebuilt on a more magnificent scale by William of Wykeham at the end of the 14th century; the work was completed after his death by means of a large bequest. The choir was also remodelled in the 14th century and again much altered by Bishop Fox (1501-28).

In plan Winchester cathedral consists of a nave, two transepts, choir, and retro-choir, all with aisles. A large lady chapel extends still further eastwards. The length of the whole building is no less than 546 feet, thus being greater than that of any other church in England, with the exception of St Albans, which measures about the same length. One of its chief beauties is the magnificent teredos behind the high altar; this consists of a lofty wall, the full width of the choir, pierced by two processional doors, and covered with tiers of rich canopied niches, which once contained colossal statues. A cross of plain ashlar stone in the centre shows where an immense silver crucifix was once attached; and a plain rectangular recess above the altar once contained a massive silver-gilt retable, covered with cast and repoussé statuettes and reliefs, an elaborate work of the most costly magnificence. A second stone screen, placed at the interval of one bay behind the great reredos, served to enclose the small chapel in which stood the magnificent gold shrine, studded with jewels, the gift of King Edgar, which contained the body of St Swithun. In the choir is the plain tomb of William II., and under many of the arches of the nave and choir are a number of very elaborate chantry chapels, each containing the tomb of its founder. Some of these have fine recumbent effigies, noble examples of English mediaeval sculpture; the most notable are the monuments of Bishops Edingdon, Wykeham, Waynflete, Cardinal Beaufort, Langton, and Fox. The font of black marble is an interesting example of 11th-century art; its sides are covered with curious reliefs representing scenes from the life of St Nicholas. A good deal of very magnificent 14th-century stained glass still exists at Winchester.

Winchester College was built from 1387 to 1393 by William of Wykeham (q.v.). The foundation of the school consisted of a warden, ten fellows, three chaplains, seventy scholars, and sixteen choristers. Its fine chapel, hall, cloister, and other buildings still exist in good preservation. About a mile distant from the town stands the hospital of St Cross, founded in 1136 by Henry de Blois, bishop of Winchester, to provide board and lodging for 13 poor men and a daily dinner for 100 others. It was enlarged and mostly rebuilt by Cardinal Beaufort, 1405-47. The buildings are still in a good state of preservation, including the simple but very stately cruciform chapel, built about the year 1180, which in plan resembles a fine parochial church. The whole place has been much injured by so-called “restoration.”

Winchester suffered greatly in the plague of 1666, and its population was much reduced. At present its prosperity chiefly depends on the presence of the cathedral, the college, and its barracks, which accommodate about 2000 men. The city has several good schools and the usual public and charitable institutions. From the 23d year of Edward I. it returned two members to parliament until 1885, when it lost one member. The population of the municipal and parliamentary borough (area 1032 acres) was 16,366 in 1871 and 17,780 in 1881. (j. h. μ.)

WINCHESTER, a city and the county seat of Frederick county, Virginia, United States, is situated in the Shenandoah valley, about 700 feet above sea-level, and on a branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. It lies about 67 miles west-north-west of Washington. The surrounding country is rich and fertile, devoted to agriculture and cattle-raising, for which Winchester serves as a centre of supply and distribution. The city has manufactories of shoes, furniture, gloves, &c., and some iron foundries and tanneries. The population in 1880 was 4958 (1517 coloured). In 1888 it was estimated at over 5000.

Winchester was laid out as a town in 1752 and incorporated in 1779. It has had a very slow growth, and during the Civil War it suffered severely from the armies of both combatants.

In 1755 Winckelmann gave the first indication of his genius by the publication of his Gedanken über die Nachahmung der griechischen Werke in Malerei und Bildhauerkunst. This was followed by a pretended attack on the work, and a defence of its principles, nominally by an impartial critic. In the Gedanken Winckelmann suggested most of the doctrines he afterwards developed; and the book was warmly admired not only for the new ideas it contained but for the power and charm of its style. One good result of the impression it produced was that Augustus III., elector óf Saxony and king of Poland, was induced to grant him a pension of 200 thalers, that he might have an opportunity of prosecuting his studies in Rome. He arrived in Rome in November 1755, and, with the exception of some brief intervals, remained there during the rest of his life. He became librarian to Cardinal Archinto, and also received much kindness from Cardinal Passionei; and after their death he was received as librarian and as a friend into the house of Cardinal Albani, who was forming his magnificent collection in his villa at Porta Salara. In 1763, while retaining this position, Winckelmann was made prefect of antiquities.

From the time of his arrival in Rome he devoted himself earnestly, at first with the aid of his friend Raphael Mengs, to the study of Roman antiquities, and he gradually acquired what was then an unrivalled knowledge of ancient art. In 1760 appeared his Description des Pierres Gravées du Feu Baron de Stosch, embodying the results of much work at Florence, where he had spent nine months in cataloguing the engraved gems collected by his friend Baron von Stosch. He published in 1762 Anmerkungen über die Baukunst der Alten, including an account of the temples at Paestum. In 1758 and 1762 Winckelmann visited Naples for the purpose of studying the treasures excavated at Pompeii and Herculaneum; and from his Sendschreiben von den herculanischen Entdeckungen (1762) and his Nachricht von den neuesten herculanischen Entdeckungen (1764) scholars obtained their first authentic information about those groups of antiquities. Winckelmann again visited Naples in 1765 and 1767, and wrote for the use of the electoral prince and princess of Saxony his Briefe an Biaηconi, which were published, eleven years after his death, in the Aηtologia Romana. For several years his energies were devoted chiefly to the preparation of his masterpiece, the Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums, which was issued in 1764. It at once commanded attention and was soon recognized as a book that would take a permanent place in the literature not only of Germany but of Europe. In this great work Winckelmann sets forth both the history of Greek art and the principles on which it seemed to him to be based. He also presents a glowing picture of the conditions, political, social, and intellectual, which tended to foster creative activity in ancient Greece. The fundamental idea of his theory is that the end of art is beauty, and that this end can be attained only when individual and characteristic features are strictly subordinated to the artist’s general scheme. According to Winckelmann, the true artist, selecting from nature the phenomena fitted for his purpose, and combining them through the imagination, creates an ideal type marked in action by “noble simplicity and calm greatness,”—an ideal type in which normal proportions are maintained, particular parts, such as muscles and veins, not being permitted to break the harmony of the general outlines. In the historical part he used not only the works of art he himself had studied but the scattered notices on the subject to be found in ancient writers; and his wide knowledge and active imagination enabled him to offer many fruitful suggestions as to periods about which he had little direct information. The materials for the study of Greek art which have been recovered since Winckelmann’s time have compelled archaeologjsts to reject some of his conclusions, to modify others, and to present the subject as a whole in a somewhat different light; but the writer was penetrated by so fine an enthusiasm, his style is at once so strong, so graceful, and so animated, and his descriptions of particular works of art are so vivid and true, that his book can never wholly lose its freshness. It marked an epoch by indicating the spirit in which the study of Greek art should be approached, and the methods by which investigators might hope to attain to solid results. To Winckelmann’s contemporaries the work came as a revelation, and it exercised a profound influence on the best minds of the age. Goethe studied it eagerly, and it was read with intense interest by Lessing, who had found in a statement in the ear!iest of Winckelmann’s works the starting-point for his Laocoon.

Winckelmann contributed various admirable essays to the Bibliothek der Schonen Wissenschaften ; and in 1766 he published his Versuch einer Allegorie, which, although containing the results of much thought and reading, is not conceived in a thoroughly critical spirit. Of far greater importance was the splendid work entited Monumenti Antichi Inediti (1767-68), prefaced by a Trattato Prelimi-ηare, presenting a general sketch of the history of art. The plates in this work are representations of objects which had either been falsely explained or not explained at all. Winckelmann’s explanations were of the highest service to archaeology, by showing that in the case of many works of art which had been supposed to be connected with Roman history the ultimate sources of inspiration were to be found in Homer.

In 1768 Winckelmann left Rome with the Italian sculptor Cavaceppi, intending to visit Germany. But he went no farther than to Vienna, where he was received with honour by Maria Theresa. At Trieste on his way back to Italy he made the acquaintance of a man called Arcangeli, to whom he showed some gold coins that had been given to him by the empress; Arcangeli’s cupidity was excited, and during the night he entered Winckelmann’s room, and, after having tried to throttle him, stabbed him five times. Winckelmann died of his wounds on 8th June 1768. His murderer was caught and executed.

Winckelmann ranks among the foremost writers of the 18th century, and it is hardly possible to overrate the services rendered by him to archaeology and the study of ancient art. With wide learning and an extraordinary power of accurate observation he combined imagination and feeling, and through him the modern world obtained for the first time something like a true conception not only of particular works of Greek art but of the general intellectual movement from which they sprang. If many of his ideas have now been abandoned, that is to a large extent due to the fact that scholars and thinkers were put upon the right track by his researches. His character as a man corresponded to his greatness as a writer. No difficulty was formidable enough to deter him from working out his vast schemes; and in relation to his friends and in general social intercourse he was distinguished by a noble generosity of spirit and thorough honesty of purpose.

An edition of his works was begun by Fernow in 1808 and completed by Meyer and Schulze (1808-20). There is an admirable study of his character and work in Goethe’s Winckelmann und sein Jahrhundert (1805), to which contributions were made by Meyer and Wolf. The best biography of Winckelmann is the one by Justi, 2 vols., Leipsic, 1866-72.