[74] I Maestri Comacini, Vol. I. ch. ii. p. 77.
[75] This is probably the church of S. Pietro Somaldi, to which a Lombard, or rather Italian Gothic, front was added in 1203. It was founded by a Longobard named Somualdo in the eighth century, and restored in 1199.
[76] A place between Lecco and Brescia.
[77] Cattaneo, Architettura Italiana, p. 175.
[78] There is a similar stairway in the church of S. Agnese fuori le mura, at Rome, which though originally said to have been founded by Constantine, is not of Greek form, but preserves a perfect Basilican plan. It was enlarged by Pope Symmachus in the fifth century, and he, it is known, employed Italian artists. The spiral stairway (cochlea) is also mentioned at Hexham in England.
[79] L' Architettura in Italia, ch. iii. p. 143.
[80] Anastasii, Bibliothecarii Vitæ Romanorum Pontificum—in Muratori, Sculptores Rerum Italicum, tom. iii.
[81] S. Prassede in Rome, which was standing in the time of Pope Symmachus, when in 477 he held a synod there, has the same peculiarity. The elongated piers are here placed between every two columns, and are transverse, i.e. the greater width across the church. Before this time the roofs were always formed of gable-shaped frames of wood, erected on beams resting on the side walls, but Ricci sees in this the first advance towards the arched roof. We may see the next step in the old Lombard church at Tournus in France, where a succession of arches are thrown across the nave from the piers.
[82] The tower, which is in a later Lombard style, was rebuilt two centuries later.
[83] Maestri Comacini, Vol. I. cap. ii. p. 79.