Provence shows some beautiful specimens of Italian cloisters, at Aix, at Arles, and at Fontifroide. The latter has a row of arches supported by double columns of elegant slightness, and with foliaged capitals of varied form and great freedom of design. Fergusson says that the freedom and boldness are unrivalled. The cloister at Elne is still more varied and unique; the capitals mix up Egyptian, classic, and mediæval art in a manner truly unique. As for towers, those left in Provence show a distinctly Lombard style. The tower at Puissalicon near Beziers is perfect in every particular, with its pillared Lombard windows increasing in width and lightness as they ascend. From Provence, the land of the Popes, the Comacines penetrated further into France. The church of S. Croix at Bordeaux, attributed to William the Good, Duke of Aquitaine, who died in 877, has its round-arched porch, decorated with a profusion of Comacine _intrecci_ of intertwined vines; and spiral pilasters grouped at the angles. Hope quotes the façade of the cathedral of San Pietro at Angoulême, as the finest Lombard one existing. There are numerous files of round arches, on elegant little columns, statues in niches, rich bas-reliefs, friezes, and arabesques. The nave is divided into three portions, each with a cupola. In this we see another step forward towards the vaulted roof. At Tournus the arches are simply thrown across the three divisions of the nave; here they are arched into the shape of a dome. The tower is entirely Lombard in form. There are Lombard churches at Poictiers, Puy, Auxerre, Caen, Poissy, Compiègne, etc., in all of which the style is perfectly distinct from the Norman, as it was then developed; and also from the later Gothic. FOOTNOTES: [89] "Coeperunt ex sua patria, hoc est Italia, multi ad eum convenire. Aliqui lyteris bene eruditi: aliqui diversorum operum magisterio edocti: alii scientia præditi; quorum ars et ingenium huic loco profuit plurimum."--Chron. S. Benigni Divion, quoted by D'Archery in _Spicilegio_, vol. ii. p. 384. [90] Thomas Hope, _Storia dell' Architettura_, ch. xxxviii. p. 263. [91] The Saracens invaded Sicily in 832; the author must mean the ninth century. [92] _I Maestri Comacini_, Vol. I. chap. iii. p. 121. [93] _Storia dei Mussulmani di Sicilia_, Vol. III. chap. i. p. 222, _et seq._ [94] See _Archivio Storico Siciliano_, Nuova serie. Anno ix. 1884. [95] Fergusson, _Handbook of Architecture_, p. 652. CHAPTER II THE GERMAN LINK