History of mediæval art . onsideration in the laying-out of the fortified cities wasto restrict the area as much as possible, the streets and places wereextremely narrow, and suffered all the disadvantages in monu-mental respects which result from a cramped plan. Stone bridgeswere rare. That over the Danube at Ratisbon, a remarkably finework, 321 m. long, built between 1135 and 1146, was without a par-allel at the time of its erection. There now remains but one of thethree towers which originally stood at either end and on the middleof the structure. The bridge over the Rhine at Basle, built i
History of mediæval art . onsideration in the laying-out of the fortified cities wasto restrict the area as much as possible, the streets and places wereextremely narrow, and suffered all the disadvantages in monu-mental respects which result from a cramped plan. Stone bridgeswere rare. That over the Danube at Ratisbon, a remarkably finework, 321 m. long, built between 1135 and 1146, was without a par-allel at the time of its erection. There now remains but one of thethree towers which originally stood at either end and on the middleof the structure. The bridge over the Rhine at Basle, built in 1226,appears not to have been continued in masonry beyond the sixarches now preserved. Works of this kind were remarkable forthe irregularity of their plan and the fortuitous character of thelevels and the main lines of the memberment. The attention ofthe builders was so exclusively devoted to the stability and prac-tical convenience of their constructions that but little heed wasgiven to the higher qualities of Fig. 183.—Interior of S. Ambrogio in Milan. ARCHITECTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH. ITALY. THE political uncertainty and dissolution of the age of the laterCarolingians, felt throughout the Occident, was nowhere ofmore disastrous effect than in Italy.* The efforts made for centu-ries by the Lombards to unite the provinces of Upper and LowerItaly into one realm were of no avail, and even the power of Charle-magne was not able to bring about this end. Venice had becomestill more independent after its fortification in the year 810, whilethe political isolation of Rome was increased. The Lombardic * H. Gaily Knight, The Ecclesiastical Architecture of Italy from the Time of Constan-tine to the Fifteenth Century. London, 1842.—F. Osten, Die Bauwerke der Lombardeivom Jahrhundert. Darmstadt.—A. Ricci, Storia dell Architettura in Italia del secoloIV. al XVIII. Modena, 1857 sq.—Ch. E. Norton, Historical Studies of Church Buildingin the Middle Ages. New York,
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