least of
its attractions.

The Baptistery will be remembered for its famous bronze doors, the work
of Ghiberti, which have given occasion for so much discussion, favorable
and unfavorable. It is octagonal in plan, and 108 feet in diameter
externally. It was erected originally for the cathedral of the city, but
in the eleventh and twelfth centuries was so thoroughly remodeled that
no recognizable features of the old building remain.

The pavements, in point of design, appear quite independent of the other
ornamental work in the two buildings we are considering.

The motives of ornament are those commonly found in the stuffs,
especially silks, of Sicily and the East, and their use here could
easily be accounted for through connection with Sicily. It is known that
the Hotel de Tiraz at Palermo, the great royal manufactory of stuffs,
artistic metal work, mosaics, etc., established in the sixth century,
and which continued until the sixteenth, supplied not only much of the
finest textile products for all of Europe in that time, but also
furnished workmen who carried with them the designs and methods of
Sicilian textile manufacture to other countries. Such manufactories were
established in several Italian cities, among them Lucca.

The relationship seems clear, as the forms are perfectly similar. The
beasts and birds set in balancing pairs facing each other and repeated
in an all-over pattern, as in a woven fabric, strongly suggest the
Sicilian silks. Eug. Muentz in his work, "La Tapisserie," speaks of this
evident relationship. The internal evidence of the design itself would
be quite sufficient if we had no other means of tracing it.

These two pavements are practically unique, as far as we are able to
learn. They are marble inlay, the pattern having been cut out in a slab
of white marble and pieces of black marble carefully fitted in to form
the figure. This is not true mosaic, and differs essentially in design
from the mosaic work of the same period which was derived from the Roman
mosaics made up of small pieces of marble or other material. Most of the
floor mosaics in Italy have suffered from wear and tear, and have in
many cases been very poorly restored; but these two pavements appear to
be in nearly their original condition.

The design does not have the merit of belonging distinctively to the
material in all cases, and might just as well be applied to wood
parquetry as stone. In fact, it might be even more ef