Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 1.djvu/40

26 bert, son of Bertrid, in like manner, erected a monastery and church to St. George, called di Coronate, on the spot where he had gained a great victory over Alahi. Nor was the church in anywise dissimilar, that Luitprand, king of the Lombards, and contemporary of Pepin, father of Charlemagne, constructed in Pavia, and which is called ; one built to, in the diocese of Milan, by Desiderius, who succeeded Astolphus, was in the same manner ; as were the , in Milan, and the , in Brescia ; all buildings erected at enormous cost, but in a rude and irregular manner.

In Florence, meanwhile, the practice of architecture began to display some little improvement, and the, built by Charlemagne, was in a very beautiful manner, although small : the shafts of the columns, though formed of separate pieces, are extremely graceful and wellproportioned ; the capitals, likewise, with the arches and vaulting of the two small naves, furnish proof that some good artist had still remained in Tuscany, or had once again arisen in the land. In fine, the architecture of this church, is such, that did not disdain to use it as his model in building the, and that , in the same city. A similar progress may be remarked in the, at Venice, (to say nothing of , built by Giovanni Morosini, in the year 978,) which was commenced under the Doge Giustiniano and Giovanni Particiaco, next to San Teodosio, when the body of the Evangelist was sent from Alexandria to Venice. But both the, and the church itself, having received great injury from numerous fires, the latter was ultimately rebuilt in the the year 973, on the old foundations, in the Greek style, and after the manner that we now see ; this work was one of great cost, and was carried forward under the advice and direction of many architects, in the time of the Doge Domenico Selvo, who collected the marble columns for the building from whatever place he could lay hands on them, and wheresoever they were to be found. The edifice constantly proceeded, after the designs, as it is said, of several masters, who were all Greeks, till the year 1140, when Messer Piero Polani was Doge. The seven abbeys which Count Ugo,