Note 7 — ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE

Writing of the importance of certain of the works of this far-back age of Lombardic art, Paulus Diaconus dwells on the “Basilica of the Mother of God,” outside the walls of Pavia, erected by Queen Rodelinda, circa A.D. 686, and describes it in the following words: “Opere mirabili condidit, ornamentisque miraficis decoravit” (Hist. Langobardorum). Paulus Diaconus was a monk, and most probably wrote his history in the great Monastery of the Benedictines at Monte Cassino. He was born circa A.D. 723 and died about A.D. 800.