Abstract

From the 19th Century, scholars have considered the architecture of Piedmont as the product of the so-called “Monferrato School”, from the historic name of a part of the region. My book reconsiders the development of the area in and around Monferrato in the 11th and 12th centuries and suggests a new interpretative model of historical geography, one which considers the institutional rule of dioceses. Through analysis of twenty churches, most of them never before published, this book offers new insights into dynamics of patronage and craftsmanship, civic self-representation at the time of the Crusades and the Commune.