Fergusson, James: A history of architecture in all countries, from the earliest times to the present day: in five volumes (Band 1) (London, 1893)

584 BYZANTINE-EOMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE. Part II.

In the year 1299 Charles II. of Anjou coramencecl the new
cathedral at right angles with the old, his French prejudices being
apparently shocked at the incorrect orientation of the older church.

It is a spacious building, 300 ft. long,
arranged, as Italian churches usually
were at that age, with a wooden roof
over the nave and intersecting vaults
over the side-aisles. Opposite the en-
trance of the old cathedral is a domical
chapel of Renaissance design, so that the
group contains an illustration of each of
the three ages of Italian art.

The church of San Miniato (Woodcuts
Nos. 461-463), on a hill overlooking
Florence, is one of the earliest (1013), as
well as one of the most perfect, of the
Byzantine-Romanesque style. Internally
it is only 165 ft. in length by 70 in width, divided longitudinally into
aisles, and transversely into three nearly square compartments by
clustered piers supporting two great arches which run up to the roof.

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462. Section of San Miniato, near Florence. (From drawing by R. W. Schultz.)

Scale 60 ft. to 1 in.

The whole of the eastern compartment is occupied by a crypt or
under-church open to the nave, above which are the choir and
apse, approached by flights of steps in the aisles. The entire
arrangement, together with the division of the nave into three