This book represents the first detailed study of Byzantine churches on the island of Sardinia. The buildings are described and analyzed in detail both individually and as a group. Many of these churches are cruciform in plan and possess a dome. The book includes an analysis of this plan type as used in Early Christian and Byzantine ecclesiastical architecture from the fourth to the sixth centuries, concluding that the Sardinian churches are datable to the early Byzantine period. Numerous architectural drawings and color photographs illustrate the churches.

This book examines the octagonal churches of Late Antiquity from the origins of the type in the fourth century to its sixth-century culmination in its most famous example, the church of San Vitale in Ravenna. The buildings, limited in number and many overlooked in modern scholarship, served several functions including funerary oratory, martyrium, and cathedral, though most were martyr or memorial shrines. Beyond addressing questions of function, architectural design, structural solutions, chronology, literary sources, and architectural symbolism are also studied.