[Illustration: IX. The Principal Doorway to the Cathedral at Trani, Italy.]




THE BROCHURE SERIES

OF ARCHITECTURAL ILLUSTRATION.

VOL. I. FEBRUARY, 1895. No. 2.

* * * * *

BYZANTINE-ROMANESQUE DOORWAYS IN SOUTHERN ITALY.


The illustrations chosen for this issue are all from the Byzantine
Romanesque work in the province of Apulia, that portion of Southern
Italy familiar in school-boy memory as the heel of the boot. Writers
upon architecture have found it difficult to strictly classify the
buildings of this neighborhood, as in fact is the case with most of the
medieval architecture of Italy, although the influences which have
brought about the conditions here seen are in the main plainly evident.
The traditions and surroundings, of Roman origin, were modified by trade
and association with the Levant through the commerce of Venice and Pisa,
resulting in a style embodying many of the characteristics of both the
Romans and the builders of Byzantium. Oftentimes these characteristics
are so blended and modified by one another as to be entirely
indistinguishable, while at other times features unquestionably
belonging to the Romanesque or the Byzantine will be found side by side.