of Italy, in Ravenna, with one in Pavia and another in Modena, may serve as examples, being still in a barbarous manner, and rather vast and rich than well constructed or of good architecture. The same may be said of the church of San Stefano, in Rimini ; of that of San Martino, in Ravenna ; and of the temple of St. John the Evangelist, built in the latter city by Galla Placidia, about the year of our Lord 438. San Vitale erected, in 547 ; the abbey of Classis ; and, in brief, many other monasteries and churches, built after the domination of the Lombards, are instances of the same kind, all being vast and rich, as has been said before, but of extremely rude architecture. Many of the abbeys erected to St. Benedict, in France, are in this manner ; as is the church and monastery of Monte Casino, with the church of St. John the Baptist at Monza, built by that Theodelinda, queen of the Goths, to whom St. Gregory wrote his Dialogues. In this church the queen above named caused passages from the history of the Lombards to be painted, and from these paintings we learn that this people shaved the back part of the head, but retained long tufts of hair in front, and dyed themselves to the chin. Their vestments were ample folds of linen, as was usual with the Angles and Saxons ; they wore mantles of divers colours, with shoes open along the whole length of the foot, and bound across the instep with sandals. The church of San Giovanni, in Pavia, built by Gondiberta, daughter of Theodelinda, resembled those named above, as did that of San Salvadore in the same city, erected by Aribert, brother of the said queen, who succeeded Rodoald, husband of Gondiberta, in the kingdom, with the church of St. Ambrose, at Pavia, built by Grimoald, king of the Lombards, who drove Bertrid, son of Aribert, from his throne.[1] Bertrid, also, when restored to his kingdom after the death of Grimoald, erected a convent for nuns, called the new convent, in Pavia, to the honour of Our Lady and of St. Agatha, the queen likewise building one without the walls, which she dedicated to the “Virgin Mary in Pertica.” Cuni
- ↑ Vasari, like D’Agincourt, in our own time, sought the monuments of Lombard dominion in the country still called Lombardy; although the churches erected by the Lombard kings, more especially those of Pavia, were entirely rebuilt in the twelfth and following centuries. For more extended information on this point, see Rumohr, ut supra.
