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 San Piero in Cieldauro ; one built to San Pietro Clivate, in the diocese of Milan, by Desiderius, who succeeded Astolphus, was in the same manner ; as were the monastery of San Vincenzo, in Milan, and the church of Santa Julia, 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 Church of Sant’Apostolo, 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 Filippo di Ser Brunellesco did not disdain to use it as his model in building the Church of Santo Spirito, and that of San Lorenzo, in the same city. A similar progress may be remarked in the Church of St. Mark, at Venice, (to say nothing of San Giorgio Maggiore, 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 palace of the Doge, 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,
