ross with griffins crouching on
each side fills the space between. Round the arch and along the frieze
runs an inscription. All along are the simple crockets called by the
Italians "caulicoli." The slabs at the bottom are surrounded by a
running pattern bordered by zigzags. A number of remains of this period
have been found in Dalmatia, of which a few may here be noted. The most
ancient inscription of the national dynasty is on the fragments of the
screen already referred to at Rizinice, between Clissa and Salona, where
the ban Trpimir founded a convent of Benedictines in 860, and where the
foundations of church and castle were excavated in 1895-1899.

[Illustration: STALL-BACKS IN CHOIR, CATHEDRAL, SPALATO

_To face page 300_]

The church of S. Maria de Salona, or de Otok, lies on an island in the
Jader joined by a bridge to the Clissa road. It was founded by Queen
Helena, whose sarcophagus was discovered among the foundations in 1898,
and bears the date 976 and the name of Helena, wife of King Mihael and
mother of King Stefanus. The church was a small basilica with nave and
aisles, and an apse in the thickness of the eastern wall, with three
piers and corresponding pilasters in the side walls. It was about 36 ft.
long, with a width of ii ft. 6 in. the nave, and 7 ft. 4 in. the aisles.
There was one west door, a narthex of two bays, and an atrium. Amongst
fragments of ninth and tenth-century carving a pattern closely
resembling Syrian ornament was found. At Knin, when the railway was
being made, stones with ninth-century patterns were also found. This
city was a royal residence and seat of the courts of justice, and in the
middle of the eleventh century the bishop of Knin was made primate of
Croatia and a councillor of the king. All these carvings were probably
executed by Comacines, documentary evidence of whose presence in the
country, brought from Cividale by the Croatian ban, has been found by
Mgr. Bulic. Two sculptors only are known by inscriptions earlier than
the Benedictines, who took a leading part in the development of mediaeval
Dalmatian sculpture in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. These are
Mag. Andrea, builder of the little church of S. Lucia, near Besca, in
Veglia, which is earlier than the twelfth century, and Mag. Otto of the
eleventh century. After them the names of Guvina and Raduanus occur, at
Spalato and Trau. There are, however, indications that Mag. Otto may
have himself been a Benedictine