The nave of the Cathedral of Parma belongs to this transitional style. Here the original double-bayed arrangement of the vaults was abandoned; so that each double bay is covered with two equal oblong groined vaults. The Cathedral at Piacenza also, commenced in 1122, was chiefly executed in the thirteenth century, and finished in 1233. The middle aisle of the nave is covered with hexapartite vaulting, and has thus the character of a Northern church of the transitional period. The Cathedral of Trent, commenced in 1212, is even by its site distinguished as midway between Italian and German architecture. A still greater proportion of Gothic elements appears in the frequently-altered Cathedral of Asti, in the Church of Santa Maria di Costello at Alessandria, and in San Andrea at Vercelli, begun in 1219. San Francesco at Assisi was commenced iu 1228 by Jacob, a German master; it was consecrated in 1253, and must be con sidered as Gothic, yet with the wall-surfaces conspicuously prominent. Here there are two churches, one over the other, the lower round-arched, while the upper has one aisle with wide-springing groining carried on clustered pillars. Notwithstanding its disproportionate lowness, it pro duces an impression of space and freedom. The outer wall is set back a little below the springing of the vaulting; so that the broad wall-ribs of the groining enclose deep niches which are united to one another by apertures in the piers.
San Antonio of Padua almost entirely renounces all Gothic motifs. This church was laid out in the fourth decade of the century, and about 1256 the works were first earnestly prosecuted. The relics of the saint were brought to the church in 1263, and in 1307 the structure was com pleted by Fra Jacopo of Pola. It was restored in the fifteenth century, after it had been seriously damaged by lightning in 1394. The cupola over the choir was erected in 1424. St. Mark's at Venice doubtless fur nished the idea of the plan, since the church has six cupolas arranged so as to form a cross, two of them composing the nave, in which position St. Mark's has but one. Throughout the whole church the round arch pre dominates over the pointed. The entire construction, leaving free devel opment to the side-aisles, as in St. Mark's, is Romanesque, yet of the greatest simplicity; so that the ensemble is nowhere influenced by the detail. The choir with its chevet of nine square chapels shows a later foreign ingredient, but is French only in the arrangement, not in the details. Sta. Trinity at Florence, built about 125o, has five aisles, and may be considered as a Gothic edifice.
Siena Cathedral, begun in the middle of the thirteenth century, has a nave with round arches and semicircular vaulting. The interior architec ture is in a sense Northern, yet the effect, through the employment of alternate courses of light and dark marble, is essentially different. The cupola was completed in 1264. The splendid façade was commenced by Giovanni Pisano in 1284, and has three large and richly-decorated gables separated by pinnacles and placed above three round-arched portals sur mounted by gables. The central gable, above a rose-window opening
into the nave, rises above the side-gables. In 1317 the choir was enlarged toward the east in a manner corresponding to the nave.
Sta. Maria dei Fran at Venice was begun about 125o, but was com pleted in the next century. The construction of Arezzo Cathedral was commenced in 1277, and Giovanni Pisano built the famous Campo Santo at Pisa between 1278 and 12S3; he also directed the enlargement of the cathedral at Prato.
\\Tit]] the rule of Charles of Anjou in Southern Italy, in the seventh dec ade of the thirteenth century, the Northern Gothic style was firmly estab lished by French architects, and thus the Grotto-church of S. Angelo on Mount Gargano, the Cistercian church at Casamara, and Sta. Maria d'Arbona are Gothic. The cathedrals of Acerenza and Aversa have the French chevet, as have also the convents of Sta. Trinita at Vinosa and S. Lorenzo Maggiore at Naples. The cathedral of the latter city is un vaulted.
The Dominican Church of Sta. Maria Novella at Florence was begun in 1278, and Sta. Anastasia at Verona in 129o. The latter has slender round pillars and a transept with five apses, the. central and largest corre sponding to the middle aisle. The Cathedral of Orvieto, the middle aisle of which is unvaulted, was begun in 129o; its facade (pi. 3s, fig. 5) may be considered as the purest expression of Italian Gothic. The magnificent Franciscan Church of Sta. Croce at Florence, commenced in 1294 by Arnolfo di Cambio, is also unvaulted.
Florence di Cambio commenced in 1294 the cathedral at Florence, by the erection of which the republic intended not only to honor God and the Blessed Virgin, but also to leave to posterity a monument of its might and magnificence; the architect was therefore directed to surpass everything that Architecture had hitherto accomplished. The ground-plan (fig. 3) shows the arrangement chosen by him. The magnificent decoration of exterior and interior has made out of the grandly-conceived design a veritable work of ornament. After the death of Arnolfo, in the beginning of the fourteenth century, Giotto undertook the superintendence, and in 1332 began the facade, which was never finished, and the part which be had erected was afterward demolished.
Lucca Cathedral was begun in r3oS—not, indeed, with the great dimensions of that at Florence, but it shows the development from Romanesque to the architectural forms of the first half of the fourteenth century. In 1334, Giotto constructed the campanile near the Duomo of Florence (fig. 4). Between r336 and 134o the grain-market (.1Iercato de' Grant') at Florence, built in r3oS, was converted into the Church Or San Michele, which alteration was completed by the erection of the mag nificent altar, the work of Orcagna, shown in Figure 6. The baptistery at Pistoja (S. Giovanni Battista) was erected by Cellino di Nese in 1339, and in 134o Niccolo di Cecco built the campanile of the cathedral at Prato. To the second half of the fourteenth and to the fifteenth century belongs SS. Giovanni e Paolo at Venice.