ITALIAN ROMANESQUE. CENTRAL ITALY. " In Middle Rome there was in stone working The Church of Mary painted royally The chapels of it were some two or three In each of them her tabernacle was And a wide window of six feet in glass C'oloured with all her works in red and gold." I. INFLUENCES. 1. Geographical. — The boundaries of Central Italy extended to Florence and Pisa on the north and west, and to Naples on the south. Pisa was by position a maritime power, while Florence lay 011 the great route from south to north, commanding the passage of the Arno. ii. Geological. — Tuscany possessed greater mineral wealth than any other part of Italy, and building stone was abundant. The ordinary building materials of Rome were bricks, local volcanic stone (tufa or peperino), and Travertine stone from Tivoli, a few miles off. Marble was obtained from Carrara, or Paros and the other Greek isles. iii. Climate. — (See Roman architecture, page 112.) iv. Religion. — It was during this period that, although the Popes had only small temporal dominions, they began to make their power felt in civil government, and the disputes with the emperors began. Pippin, king of the Franks, asked by the Pope (Stephen II.), defended the latter from the Lombards and gave him the lands they had seized and also the chief city of the Exarchate (Ravenna), which the Pope accepted in the name of S. Peter. Thus in 755 Central Italy severed its connection with the Empire and became independent, thereby inaugurating the temporal power of the papacy. Charlemagne, invited by Pope Adrian I. (772-779), advanced into Italy in 773, and, after defeating the Lombards, entered Roiue for the first time in 774. He gave the ^ The style is divided into three — central, north, and south. The comparative Inble of the three together is given on page 242.
