Charlemagne did not even alter the Longobardic laws, and he certainly did not interfere with the freedom and privileges of the Comacines or Liberi Muratori. In fact he ratified the Lombard code (the laws of Rotharis and Luitprand), only adding a few others which are known as Capitolari.
They do not, however, refer specially to our Magistri, but to jurisprudence in general. The older laws still held good for the Comacines, and they went on building their Basilican churches, which were at the same time classic in form, solid in style, and fanciful in decoration—a curious and characteristic mixture. But Charlemagne certainly patronized the Comacines, and not only employed them himself, but sent them to restore Roman churches for Pope Adrian, and to fortify Florence.
The early Carlovingian churches in Italy have so much analogy with the Longobardic ones, that it is very difficult to distinguish precisely to which era certain churches belong.
Rumhor instances the Florentine Basilica of S. Scheraggio, which was much used as a meeting-place for civil councils in the early days of the Republic. This is usually said to have been a Carlovingian church; but either it was pure Lombard, as the barbarous name Scheraggio implies, or else Charlemagne employed the Lombard architects.[71] Padre Richa, who saw the ruins of it, gives a design of the church, which was the usual Lombard form, three naves, the central one wide, and an apse to each. The columns and capitals were from some Roman building.
The architecture was entirely similar to that of S. Paolo in ripa d'Arno, close to Pisa, which has also been styled Carlovingian. The chronicle of the monk Marco, written in 1287, preserved in the archives of Vallombrosa, shows that although the guide-books date S. Scheraggio as twelfth-century architecture because a papal bull of that time refers to the name, it belonged to the Vallombrosian monks long before, having been given to them by Countess Beatrice in 1073,[72] and was probably founded in the ninth century.
We must not omit to mention the most interesting of Comacine churches, that of San Donato in Polenta, where Dante worshipped, and near which Paolo and Francesca lived. It was built in the eighth century, and is mentioned in a document of 976. It is of the usual triple-apsed form. The columns have diverse capitals, some square, some diminished, ornamented with foliage and interlaced work; some have grotesque figures, and animals in low relief, with a rude technique. Here are men like monkeys, hippogriffs, sea monsters, etc. It has been graphically described in Sapphic verse by Carducci, as follows—
To that gaunt Byzantine there crucified,
Whose hollow eyes gaze from his livid face,
The faithful pray for blessings on their Lord,[73]