By the eleventh century feudal society had either lost or assimilated the pre-Christian elements, legacy of the ancient world, which at first had cemented together the various racial tendencies extant in Europe at the close of the Roman Empire, thereby preparing the way for new thoughts and ways of living. The Northern world had fully realised a new social order, developing a new spiritual life and consequently a new art to express it. Although this art contains numerous and important classical and Eastern elements its originality is manifest. We are confronted with a new world with its own idealistic and naturalistic tendencies. The boldness of the architecture, together with the minute rendering of nature in the decoration testify to that union of abstract speculation and close study of reality that will characterise all the subsequent developments of Northern thought. Mâle has clearly shown how the artists have drawn upon all the theology, the philosophy and the literature of the age to express at the same time both the highest spiritual and the plainest practical life. Italian architecture of the same period, following more faithfully the old tradition, stands in great contrast to this originality. St. Ambrogio in Milan is an excellent example of this traditional growth of Italian art in the days that witnessed the full development of communal liberty. Very different from the Constantinian Basilica, even as the Commune was not the exact counterpart of the Roman _Municipium_, its heavy structure, so eloquent in its massiveness, must have appealed to its middle-class builders. In other Lombard churches we meet with the same attempt to create a new style with classical elements. In seeking to harmonise traditional disposition with the new needs, they tried to avoid the extreme novelties of the North, too alien to the Roman well-balanced and unlyrical mentality. The style of such buildings is present to every mind and reveals better than any description the unbroken descent from Imperial Rome. Indeed, from Lombardy to Sicily, from Venice to Genoa, various are the styles flourishing in the Peninsula; yet it is easy to detect everywhere strong traces of such descent. The Baptistery of Florence is a very good instance of this traditionalism and recalls faithfully that of the Lateran of the time of Constantine. In entering San Miniato in Florence, where the fanciful details of the decoration follow and are subordinate to the severely classical architecture, we almost feel on the threshold of the Renaissance, although still in the eleventh century. In the monuments of Pisa, Lucca and Pistoia we find the same classical qualities in the architectural scheme, united to the more poetic fancies displayed in the decoration. There is thus a conscious dependence on antiquity in the main architectural features, together with the utmost readiness to accept foreign accessories. St. Mark’s in Venice displays, even as