Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/466

434 this was a judicious innovation; but this at least is certain, that it had as much influence on the development of the Gothic style as the vaulting mania itself. In the tenth and eleventh centuries many attempts were made to construct true roofs of stone, but unsuccessfully; and from various causes, which will be pointed out hereafter,

the idea was abandoned, and the architects were forced to content themselves with a stone ceiling, covered by a wooden roof, though this became one of the radical defects of the style, and one of the principal causes of the decay and destruction of many beautiful buildings.

Ravenna possesses several circular buildings, almost as interesting as those of the capital; the first being the baptistery of St. John, belonging to the original basilica, and consequently one of the oldest Christian buildings of the place. Externally it is a plain octagonal building, 40 ft. in diameter. Internally it still retains its original decorations, which are singularly elegant and pleasing. Its design is somewhat like that of the temple at Spalatro, but with arcades substituted everywhere for horizontal architraves; the century that elapsed between these two epochs having sufficed to complete the transition between the two styles.

Far more interesting than this is the great church of St. Vitale, the most complicated, and at the same time, perhaps, the most beautiful, of the circular churches of that age. In design it is nearly identical with the Minerva Medica at Rome, except in its being an octagon instead of a decagon, and that it is wholly enclosed by an