L'edificio battesimale nella metropoli milanese e nelle diocesi suffraganee lombarde

In Lombardy there are around twenty early Christian and high medieval baptisteries and several later buildings of Romanesque age. This study offers an up to date list of the proved typologies and shows the influence that the baptistery of S. Giovanni alle Fonti of Milan, wished by Saint Ambrose, had on the spreading of octagonal buildings and fonts. It also proves how the changes of religious sensibility and liturgical needs can cause later changes of the shape and measure of the font, and can also cause a different way of planning the water drainage system: in fact in early Christian systems the pipes usually drain outside the building, while indoor drain wells and cisterns are documented after the tenth century.