In most histories of Italian art we are conscious of a vast hiatus of several centuries, between the ancient classic art of Rome - which was in its decadence when the Western Empire ceased in the 5th century after Christ - and that early rise of art in the 12th century which led to the Renaissance. This hiatus is generally supposed to be a time when art was utterly dead & buried, its corpse in Byzantine dress lying embalmed in its tomb at Ravenna. Contents: Romano-Lombard architects; first foreign emigrations of the Comacines; Romanesque architects; Italian - Gothic & Renaissance architects. Illustrated.