Italy: VENICE, down to the 13^th century Venice was virtually an artistic colony of Byzantium.  The treasury of the Church of San Marco, Venice. A striking single collection, including the Pala d´Oro at the high altar of San Marco, http://www.basilicasanmarco.it; Basilica of St Mark (11th – 14th centuries) completed between 1071-1095, the five-domed church of St Mark at Venice follows the general plan of the Holy Apostles Church, Constantinople. The marble decoration (13^th – 15^th centuries) and the mosaics (4 000 square metres, from 12^th-17^th centuries) make the church so glorious an ensemble that it was given the name “Chiesa d´Oro”. The three cupolas with representations of the Ascension, Pentecost and Christ Emmanuel, date from the 12^th century. Like the mosaics in the apse and in the niche of the centre portal, as also the scenes from the life of Christ and the Virgin (13^th century), they are a local reflection of the Byzantine painting of the Comnenian period. On the other hand, the mosaics of the narthex (13^th century) seem to be inspired by sixth century miniatures, such as those in the Cotton Bible. The Madonna of the St Zeno chapel (13^th century) and the Crucifixion of the baptistery (14^th century) give the impression of being a last effort by the Byzantine School, but as a whole the remainder of the decoration to St Mark´s represents a more or less provincial synthesis of Byzantine and late Roman Western art. Behind the altar is the gold retable known as the “Pala d´Oro”. In the left transept is displayed the “Nikipeia Virgin” (Our Lady of Victories) , a Byzantine Icon brought from Constantinople in 1204. The treasure contains a very important collection of Byzantine works of art (300 pieces of goldsmiths‘ work, 110 reliquaries) and a few icons, including the admirable icon in enamel of the archangel Michael and cloisonné enamel icons;
VENICE, Marciana Library, rich collection of manuscripts and enamels , including Codex Cumanicus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Cumanicus); Oppian Ms Grec 479, poet of the 3rd century A.D., author of a book on hunting. The Marciana library possesses a fine 10th century manuscript of this work.
Venice, Correr Museum, Gallery of the Academia: icons, Reliquary of the Cross belonging to Bessarion; Church of San Giorgio dei Greci: Cretan and Creto-Italian icons.
Italy, Venice, The Hellenic Institute for Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Studies in Venice, collection of icons, http://www.istitutoellenico.org/english
VICINITY OF VENICE: Torcello: 11th and 12th century mosaics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral_of_Santa_Maria_Assunta;
Murano: 14th century mosaics, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murano_glass
Italy: MILAN, Ambrosian Library, contains about 1000 Greek manuscripts. Rich collection of manuscripts of all periods.
Italy: BRIXEN (Bressanone), Cathedral Treasure: Textiles with eagles (chasuble) of St Albuin, c. 1000;
CASTELL´ARQUATO, Museum: textile, “Communion of the Apostles”;
CASTELSEPRIO, St Maria Church: paintings 7^th-10^th century Italy. The small church of Santa Maria Fuori Porta, which dates from the seventh-eighth centuries, contains fine frescoes of uncertain date,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castelseprio.
RAVENNA. The Town is a complete Byzantine museum of the 5^th and 6^th centuries. Capital of the emperors of the West from the time of Honorius (384-423) and Galla Placidia to that of Romulus Augustulus (476); capital of the Ostrogothic kingdom of Theodoric the Great (455-526), capital of a Byzantine exarchate from the reconquest of Italy in 540 by Belisarius, general of Justinian I, until 754. Ravenna thus presents a unique example of a Byzantine city of the fifth to seventh centuries. Principal Byzantine monuments:  Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, mosaics (450); Baptistery of the Orthodox: mosaics (485); Baptistery of the Arians. Octagonal structure, built in the time of Theodoric (c. 500). The dome is adorned with a mosaic representing the baptism of Christ, surrounding by twelve apostles. The decoration takes its inspiration from the Baptistery of the Orthodox. Archbishop´s  Chapel: otherwise the chapel of St Andrew. A small cruciform oratory, preceded by a small vestibule. In the mosaic of the cupola, the medallion bearing the monogram of Christ is borne by four angels surrounded by the symbols of the Evangelists. The arches show Christ and male and female saints. The mosaics are from c. 500; Saint Apollinaire Nuovo: mosaics (6^th century). Built between 493 and 526 by the Ostrogothic king Theodoric, and originally destined for Arian worship. After the reconquest of Ravenna by the Byzantines, archbishop Agnellus converted the basilica to Orthodox worship, between 556 and 565. The interior is divided into three naves by two rows of twelve columns in Greek marble, sent either from Greece or from Constantinople. The mosaic decoration can be divided into three horizontal zones. The topmost zone comprises a sequence of decorative panels alternating with twenty-six compositions illustrating on the left wall Christ´s miracles and on the right the Passion; this is the most ancient Gospel cycle to have come down to us. We find here again the iconographical duality, Hellenistic and Oriental, of early Christian art. The second zone of mosaics develops in the intervals between the windows and presents 36 figures of prophets, apostles and saints, seen full face. These parts of the decoration to the church belong definitely to the time of Theodoric. But the mosaic of the bottom zone (trains of martyrs and virgins preceded by the three Magi) were executed after the Byzantine reconquest. A fragment of mosaic representing a person crowned with a diadem and wearing a nimbus was long thought to be a portrait of Justinian. Today it is thought more likely to be a portrait of King Theodoric.  San Vitale: marvellous 6^th century mosaics. The church was begun by bishop Ecclesius, some time after his return from a journey to Byzantium in 525, in company with Pope John. It was finished in about 547-548. The choir is adorned with marvellous mosaics executed between 525 and 547. Two distinct hands of painters collaborated in them. One group, nourished on Hellenistic-Roman naturalism, has executed on the lateral walls of the choir Scenes from the Life of Moses, the Visitation of Abraham, the Sacrifice of Abel and of Melchizedek, and the Evangelists. These are accompanied by a complicated decoration of arabesques, acanthus and horns of plenty, in the midst of which can be seen a whole host of birds and beasts, reminiscent of the ornamental style of the fifth century. Another band of artists, however, has decorated the apse and apsidal vault of the church in the hieratic style of the sixth century. In the conch the young and beardless Christ is seated on the orb of the world, surrounded by angels and saints. On either side, two celebrated compositions show on the left Justinian and on right Theodora, followed by their court, and bearing presents for the church. The mosaics of San Vitale are without doubt the masterpiece of Byzantine painting from the century of Justinian.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_of_San_Vitale
Saint´s Apollinaire in Classe, mosaics (6^th century). The decoration of the conch of the apse belongs to the same period, and is probably a symbolic representation of the Transfiguration. On the other hand, the two panels at the sides of the apse were composed a century later (668-685?). These mosaics have been more or less destroyed and as they appear today have been almost wholly remade.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_of_Sant%27Apollinare_in_Classe
Archiepiscopal Museum. Rich collection of Italo-Cretan icons (16^th – 17^th centuries).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archiepiscopal_museum_ravenna
Italy, ROME. Towards the middle of the 7^th century, Rome was a semi-Byzantine city. Since the restoration of imperial authority in the time of Justinian, the East had invaded it as never before. In the period from 606 – 741, the Roman Church was governed successively by 13 Greek or Syrian Popes. It was at this time that the European mission of Byzantium first became manifest. In 668 a Byzantine, Theodore of Tarsus, was consecrated archbishop of Canterbury and it was on the foundations he laid that the church in England was to be built up. Theodore was also at the source of the first “renaissance” of classical studies in Europe. It was one of the schools he founded that Alcuin, the moving spirit in the Carolingian renaissance, received his education. Byzantine influence did not fail to make itself felt in the Roman art of this period. The mosaic of the church of SS Cosmas and Damian (c. 526-530, http://www.sacred-destinations.com/italy/rome-santi-cosma-e-damiano) was the last composition to manifest the Roman classical tradition. The mosaics of St Agnes in fuori le Mura, (http://www.sacred-destinations.com/italy/rome-sant-agnese ), a seventh century Byzantine mosaics in the apse, St Venantius – chapel, baptistery of St John Lateran, http://romanchurches.wikia.com/wiki/San_Giovanni_in_Laterano.  The mosaic in the apse (c. 640) represents the Virgin, Christ and Saints, some of whom wear costumes of Byzantine dignitaries. The oratory of the Greek Pope John VII (705-707), together with the frescoes in Santa Maria Antiqua (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Maria_Antiqua ) bear witness to the Byzantine character imprinted on Roman art between the sixth and eighth centuries. Next there was the influx to Rome of a large number of artists fleeing the iconoclast persecution; Rome, together with the monastery of Studios, formed the chief centre of resistance to iconoclasm, as a fresh sequence of monuments bears witness; the frescoes of SS Nereus and Achiles (795-816, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santi_Nereo_e_Achilleo), the mosaics of St Prassede and Santa Maria-in-Domenica (817-824) and of St Cecilia and St Mark (827-844). A certain unease can be sensed in these paintings, whose value is uneven: they show a tendency towards schematisation for which there is scarcely any equivalent in the Byzantine world, except provinces. It is perhaps permissible to regard this as an early indication of northern stylisation, a first quickening of the nascent Romanesque spirit. St Sabina (442-432); Santa Maria Magiore or Santa Maria delle Neve (5^th century), the basilica was built by Pope Liberius (352-366); it was remodelled and ornamented with mosaics through the efforts of Pope Sixtus III (432-440), immediately after the council of Ephesus had affirmed the dogma of Mary´s divine maternity. The mosaics of the central nave , barely visible in the place they occupy, belong stylistically to the tradition of Graeco-Roman painting. The mosaic of the triumphal arch are less fine than those of the nave, but give a more precise indication of the path later taken by this art. In the Pauline chapel, a noteworthy Byzantine icon of the Virgin (9^th century) is displayed on a costly altar decorated with lapis lazuli and agates. SS Cosmas and Damian (526-530); St Theodore (550); St Lawrence – outside the walls; St Agnes (625-640); St Stephen Rotondo (642-649); St Peter- in- Vincoli (7^th century); St Prassede (817-824); St Mark (827-844); St Maria in Domenica (817-824); St Cecilia (840); Byzantine or Byzantinising frescoes: Catacombs of Domitilla; Generosa; St Callixtus; Church of Santa Maria Antiqua (6^th – 9^th centuries). The church was restored and decorated with frescoes through the efforts of the Greek Pope John VII (705-707) and embellished by Popes Zacharias (741-752) and Paul I (757-767). It now possesses a very remarkable sequence of several layers of superimposed frescoes from the sixth to tenth centuries. The antiquising frescoes of the presbytery date from the time of John VII; the frescoes in the chapel of SS Julitta and Quiricus, executed in the time of Pope Zacharias, belong to the Byzantinising art of the region. St Nereus and Achilles (late 8^th century); St Chrysogonus (9^th century).
Santa Constanza, a circular edifice, erected at the beginning of the 4^th century. In the vaults of the ambulatory are fourth century mosaics. In the small apses, mosaics of the fifth to seventh centuries. Santa Maria in Cosmedin or in Scholia Graeca. The sacristy of the church has a fragment of mosaic representing the adoration of the Magi (705-707) formerly in the oratory of John VII at St Peter´s,  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Maria_in_Cosmedin
Italy, COSENZA, Cathedral treasure: cross with cloisonné enamels, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosenza#The_Cathedral
Italy, FLORENCE, Gallery of the Academia: icons; Opera del Duomo: mosaic icon; Uffizi Gallery: icons; Laurentian Library: rich collection of manuscripts, including “Rabulensis Codex” (6^th century). Syriac Gospel preserved in the Laurentian Library illustrated in 586 by the monk Rabula at the monastery of Zagba in Mesopotamia. The first twelve leaves contain calendar. The text is richly decorated. Miniatures are shown in the margins. The Evangelists are pictured beneath arcades; and there are large full-page compositions, framed in the fashion of mosaics with geometrical or inscribed motifs beneath arcades, which represent the Crucifixion, the Ressurection, the Ascension, the Pentecost, the Virgin and Child and the Enthroned Pantocrator. The library has also the “Cosmas Indikopleustes ms.” (11^th century), etc. Ricardiana Library in Florence: manuscripts.
GALATINA, Municipio Museum: mosaic icons;
GROTTA FERRATA, Abbey of Basilian monks near Rome, founded in 1004 by St Nilus of Calabria. There is an eleventh century Deesis in mosaic on the tympanum of the door. The mosaics of the triumphal arch (Pentecost) and the Byzantine frescoes are from the thirteenth century. The abbey possesses a rich library and a small gallery of Byzantine paintings.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grottaferrata;
Italy, CEFALU (Sicily). The cathedral, built by Roger II of Sicily between 1101 and 1154, has preserved a noteworthy ensemble of Byzantine mosaics; they date back to 1148 and are among the finest works of the twelfth century;
MONREALE (Sicily) Cathedral: The cathedral was founded in 1174 by the Norman king, William II, shown in a mosaic offering the church to the Virgin. The interior is ornamented with Byzantine or Byzantinising mosaics dating from the 12^th and 13^th centuries and representing cycles of the Old and New Testaments. It is one of the largest mosaic ensemble extant, covering 6340 square metres. For the 12^th century mosaics see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monreale;
PALERMO (Sicily) Martorana: mosaics (12^th century) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martorana;
PALERMO, National Library: manuscripts.
PALERMO, Palatina Chapel: mosaics (12^th century). Begun in 1132 by the Norman king Roger II, the Palatine Chapel of the Norman kings was consecrated in 1140. The lower portion of the walls is coated with marble, the upper portion with magnificent Byzantine mosaics of the twelfth century. In the sanctuary there are scenes from the New Testament and lives of the saints, dated 1143. The mosaics of the central nave were executed between 1154 and 1166. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cappella_Palatina
PALERMO, Ziza Palace, a magnificent construction in the Arabo-Norman style, begun in 1154 by the Norman king William I, and ornamented with Byzantine mosaics of oriental inspiration. Mosaics from 12^th century,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zisa
Italy, PARMA, Palatine Library: manuscripts. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibliotheca_Palatina
Italy, PISA: in the 13^th century, Pisa was an important centre of Byzantine influence in Italy, and the Museum there possesses three pieces of Byzantine origin or inspiration: a large painted crucifix (293×233 cm) from the Cathedral of Lucca, a small icon of the archangel Michael, in which the elongated and the real shapes prefigure the mystical quality of 14^th century icons, and a noteworthy Crucifix, perhaps to be attributed to the Greek master Apollonios, mentioned by Vasari. The Greeks who, according to Vasari presided over the beginning of Italian painting in the 13^th century, passed on the Byzantine art of the icon to Giunta Pisano (Assisi, S. Maria of the Angels, Bologna, S. Domenico, etc.), the master of S. Francesco (Pisa S. Francesco), Enrico and Ugolino (Pisa S. Martino and S. Pierino) the painters of the history of St Francis (Perugia, Vanucci Gallery, Assisi, S. Chiaro). The maestro del Bigallo (Florence, Bigallo) Coppo di Marcovaldo (San Gimignano, Duomo), Salerno di  Copo (Pistoia, Duomo) and even Vigoroso da Sienna (Perugia, Vanucci Gallery) express in varying degrees the penetration of Byzantine art into Italy, which is also evident in the paintings of the Baptistery of Parma (1260). Pisa, National Museum: Byzantine icons, Byzantinizing Pisan paintings.
Italy, ROSSANO: Archiepiscopal Museum, “Codex Purpureusus” (5^th – 6^th century) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rossano_Gospels;
Italy, SASSOFERRATO, Museo Civico, mosaic icon http://www.sassoferratocultura.it/musei_civica_raccolta_arte.htm;
Italy, FORMIS, San Angelo Church, near Capua, contains Romano-Byzantine frescoes of the 11^th to 12^th centuries.
http://touritaly.org/tours/capua/formis01.htm; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sant%27Angelo_in_Formis
Italy, WEB SOURCES, Portale di Archeologia Medievale, Portal for medieval archaeology in Italian, http://archeologiamedievale.unisi.it/
Italy, – BiASA, Links to digitised versions of archaeology and history of art journals,
http://periodici.librari.beniculturali.it/RicercaAvanzata.aspx?Start=0&ShowResults=tutti&MaxResults=0